Ted Talk 167: I’ve Heard Women Over 50 Have Trouble Losing Fat Because Of Hormones. Is That True? – Ask Ted

Podcast Transcription: Ask Ted: I've Heard Women Over 50 Have Trouble Losing Fat Because Of Hormones. Is That True?

Ted Ryce: Welcome to another episode of Ask Ted. And boy, do I have a question for you today. This is going to get a little bit triggering for some people, so buckle up because I am going to answer the question, “Do hormones matter for women over 50? Do hormones stop you from losing weight? If you're a woman over 50, and you're experiencing menopause, does that matter?” 

 So, that's the question. I'm going to enter today. And again, this answer might be a little triggering for some people, as it has been on social media when I've gotten into these discussions, because this is where this question comes from.  

So, what is up, my friend? Welcome back to the legendary life podcast. I'm your host, Ted Ryce, health coach to entrepreneurs and other busy professionals. And in case you don't know my story, I've been in this business for 23 years now. And the reason I bring this up today is because I've gone through a lot of changes in what I thought I knew about health, and specifically about fat loss, and even more specifically about fat loss and hormones, and women.  

And I want to tell you: back when I started in 1999, I was under the belief of that weight loss—even for men too, it was all about hormones, specifically, insulin, specifically, cortisol, the stress hormone. And for men, testosterone had a lot to do with it. And for women, estrogen had a lot to do with it: estrogen and progesterone.  

I operated under that belief for a long time. And when my clients didn't get results, which was probably maybe 40 to 50% of the time, I talked to them about hormones, I talked to them, “Hey, maybe you need to see a doctor.” In fact, one of the things I entertained doing was to get my clients, my personal training clients full hormonal profiles.  

And with some of my clients, I actually did have them get hormonal profiles. So that was me in my 20s. And when I hit my mid-30s, I had my own weight loss struggle. And I was sure I was doing everything right. I was eating mostly low carbs, I was pushing myself hard with my workouts. And I was doing these high intensity interval training routines, and they were only 20 minutes.  

And my weightlifting workouts were also quite fast, maybe around 20 minutes. And I thought to myself, “Man, I must be burning so many calories with these hard 20-minute workouts.” And I thought, “You know, I'm eating all the right things, I'm going to get ripped fast,” but it didn't happen. And I got really frustrated. Because again, I was under the impression I was doing everything right.  

And I want to put this into context for you. Because getting in shape, being in shape and teaching others to be in shape, learn how to lose fat, how to build muscle, that was my job. And I have been doing it over 10 years at this point. So imagine yourself in your career, how good you were, how knowledgeable you were.  

Now, maybe you're more knowledgeable now, but you probably consider yourself fairly knowledgeable. And that's where I was thinking that I had it all down. So when I was doing “everything” right, but I wasn't getting results, I naturally started looking for explanations. And what were the explanations? Well, this must be my metabolism.  

And I've told this story before, so forgive me if you're hearing it again. But I thought that maybe I had damaged my metabolism. I've been honest with you about some of my drug use and partying in my 20s. And I thought, you know, maybe… I didn't have any solid evidence for this idea like so many people with their explanations for why they struggle to lose weight.  

But I thought, you know, maybe I damaged my metabolism by staying up too many nights and taking drugs. And I thought, you know, this must be a hormonal thing. And I even got my testosterone levels checked, and they came back at normal levels—weren't that high, but they weren't low, either. They were more or less normal.  

And my estrogen levels were a bit elevated. And at the time I was 24% body fat. So that's about 1% shy of being obese for a man. Now for a woman, we shifted up to 20 to 25% body fat for women is really good. Let's say normal where you should be. That's a person who's doing quite well. But for men, you want to be under 20% body fat. For women, you want to be under 25% body fat.  

So I was 24% body fat. I was like, you know, this is weird. My testosterone levels are normal. So it must be that estrogen thing that's going on. Now fast forward to my dramatic transformation in 2019 and I got even in better shape when I got locked in an Airbnb room in Colombia. Like, I don't think about hormones at all anymore, not really. 

Indirectly, I do when it comes to managing stress. But here's what I've learned now. Number one, calories, in calories out is the mechanism for weight loss. And I'm going to address some other concerns here. And I'm going to give you some evidence and talk about a few studies that I think you should look into to help you shift your perspective, to shift the story here for you.  

If you're interested in this, of course, and I want to say this, I'm not here to convince you of anything, I want to say that. Look, I've figured this out for myself, all my clients get results. I've got a 66-year-old—shout out to you, Cindy, if you're listening, she's 66.  

And I actually in an exchange on Twitter, because that's where Cindy and I connected. She got my back and shared how she's almost at her goal weight. She's killing it. And she's 66. But she's not the only one. I've had 67-year-olds, I've worked with 70-year-olds, I've worked with 52-year-olds, Deanne was 54, when she worked with me. 

I've got a lot of women who I've worked with who were over 50 and they all got results. So what I'm telling you here is I'm not confused about what works and what doesn't. And I'm not here to convince you, okay, I don't believe we can convince people.  

But if you're struggling with this idea, because you read some article on Goop that told you, “Oh, just, people don't understand women and their hormones,” which is an article someone in shared with me on Facebook, I'm here to offer some alternative explanations to what I feel is—no, it's not what I feel. It's what I know to be total nonsense.  

Now I'm going to speak from a position of authority because this is my job. This is what I've been doing 23 years, and I get results with people. So, it's not just theoretical knowledge here. Go to www.legendarylifepodcast.com. Click on Success Stories, you'll see result after result after result after result after result.  

So, I'm here, I'm the lighthouse shining the light, so that you can safely get to the dock. I'm not the tugboat where I'm trying to drag you in and really force you to change your opinion. I'm not interested in that. But I want to tell you this, though: it's your responsibility to figure out who's right, who's wrong. And if you get led down these roads that maybe you lose a few pounds, or maybe you lose a lot of weight, but because you didn't understand why it happened, you end up gaining it back, that's on you.  

If you keep listening to these people and having sub optimal results, or mediocre results, or even great results, but you can't sustain them, that's on you. I'm just here sharing my expertise and the results that I get with my clients. Just want to say that. 

So, this all started when someone on Twitter asked me, “For women over 50, what is the best way to grow muscle, lose body fat?” And what I answered was this: the same answer for women under 50, calorie deficit, resistance training, sleep quality, stress management, sustainable behavior change. That is it, folks. But people hate that freaking answer. Because it's like, that's way too simple.  

And the reality is, it's not simple. It's very hard to put those into a complicated life. It's very hard. It's very hard to figure out who is the person that you should listen to. Now, “Oh, but Ted, there is a doctor who said something different.” I don't care. Doctors hire me to get in shape. I don't hire doctors to get in shape.  

I hire doctors to help me with medical issues, though. Because that's their expertise, pathology, diagnosing, what do you call it? diseases, and then helping you with them? Listen, if I get an infection on my arm, I'm going to a doctor. But doctors become my clients because they struggle with fat loss. And I've been working with doctors ever since I've been in this business.  

In fact, I have a doctor client right now. He's lost around 20 pounds with me. No, hormone talker. You know, I never talked with hormones about my clients—very rarely. And it's not the hormones that you think. So anyway, I answered the same answer for women under 50: calorie deficit, resistance training, sleep quality, stress management, sustainable behavior change.  

And then someone answered, “Women over 50 are dealing with menopause. It's a totally different animal trying to lose weight “then” pre-menopause,” which, you know, “than” pre-menopause, there is a little bit of a grammatical error, which is always interesting to point out when someone's making a powerful point and they screw up something like that, or trying to make powerful point.  

In fact, they said, “Hormones are powerful. So women over 50 are dealing with menopause. It’s a totally different animal trying to lose weight than pre-menopause. Hormones are very powerful.” Hormones are, and here's what I put, “Hormones are powerful, but you're 100% wrong about losing weight.  

I've worked with dozens of women over 50. Maybe my client, Cindy, can offer some advice about her recent weight loss in my program. The real issue is psychological. It's lack of knowledge and resistance to changing habits, not hormones. And then, that was a quick answer.  

I would also say misinformation, in other words, the BS story that we hold on to, and you know what Cindy said? She said, “Very true. I'm 66 and losing fat, gaining some muscle and feeling great. Thanks to your guidance.” I said, “Thanks for sharing, Cindy. Let's help break some of these limiting beliefs about what's possible.” 

And so, I thought, “You know what, it did pretty well on Twitter, let me put it up on Facebook.” And boy, that did not—that well was interesting. So, I put up a post, “Stop blaming your hormones for your weight loss struggles, start blaming your mediocre strategies and self-sabotage.”  

And if I would have to do it again, I think “mediocre strategies,” you know, I'm still working on my communication with—and always, but certainly working on it with writing. Writing is less natural to me. So, I would have said unsustainable strategies and self-sabotage, because those are two things that I see people do.  

And then, you know, one of my former clients who lost weight with me, she's like, “Honey, hormones are truly a bitch. It's not a joke.” And I said, “They may be a bitch, but they don't stop you from losing fat or slow your metabolism.” And what I said is, “our metabolism stay stable into about 60.” And there's the best study done on this. That's what it found.  

And then, people start asking me these questions. Guys start asking...I know, we're talking about women today, but even men are confused about this. Because don't T… So Brendan asked me, “But don't T levels affect our ability to burn fat, not to mention motivation and mental drive to burn fat and get in shape? Just curious. And I said, “Regarding the ability to burn fat, testosterone doesn't act on your metabolic rate.”  

And this is what you have to ask, folks, when you're saying no to “hormones matter.” And I want to ask you, well, what's the mechanism? How do they affect that? How do they affect it? Because most people can't see—most people don't understand physiology well enough to give an answer.  

You know, it's like giving someone a calculus equation and they're trying to use addition and subtraction. It's like, no, you need to know trigonometry. And you need to know advanced algebra to do calculus, folks, because that's kind of like what we're talking about. And most people don't have the chops, that knowledge to even understand this. 

And another one said, “Well, what about….? This as a woman, Crystal, and Crystal, I want to tell you, I'm going to share her what she said. And then my response is, because I said… So what she said was, “What about high cortisol levels or estrogen dominance, when it indirectly it seems out of balance, wreak havoc on the system, including the systems that regulate, affect weight loss or gaining this pre-menopausal, or menopause called cause weight changes, and women aside from making them feel bad and therefore, less motivated. 

 And I was like, “You know, with the estrogen thing…” Look, I want to tackle the cortisol thing, because what is cortisol, folks? Do you know? It's a stress hormone. So let me ask you this. How does cortisol affect weight gain? And there is some truth to this, but it's nuanced. Because what we know from studies is that, and what you'll read, is that cortisol can cause you to store fat around your midsection, but the thing about that is you have to be eating enough calories to store fat. 

 And I said to her, “You know, what else causes starvation? I'm sorry, I kind of gave it away there. You know what else raises cortisol? Starvation, food insecurity,” and I shared a picture of a starving person.  

And what I want you to do, when you say something like I'm in starvation mode, or I'm eating too little to lose weight, Google starvation, then click on images, there is a huge disconnect.  

And it's not entirely your fault if you believe this. I used to believe this. But it's time to evolve from these silly discussions that just have no--the foundation for this discussion is in marketing, from the diet industry and health influencers. This not a scientific discussion at all. This is talking about someone you saw on YouTube or someone who wrote an article in Goop magazine. 

“Oh, but they were a doctor.” Yeah. And a lot of doctors don't know about weight loss, right? So anyway said, I showed a picture. Starvation raises cortisol, as you might starve. Is starving to death stressful? You better believe it is? And there are studies showing that starvation does raise cortisol levels.  

And there's actually the Minnesota starvation study, something to read about. Read about the physiological changes that happened to those people whwho underwent that starvation study. It raises cortisol, but how come starving people don't get fat? Like real starving people; people not in the United States, but in South Asia, which has the highest level of starving people? How come they don't get fat? Because it's cortisol? Because they're not eating?  

The answer is right in front of you, folks. And again, I don't want to come across as angry at you. I'm really angry at this, the diet bullshit industry that has said these things over and over.  

And now we have all these health influencers, some of them are medical doctors, and they're talking about hormone resets and hormone fixes, and metabolism resets.  

It's just, it's nonsense. It's not based in anything, it's like pulling something out of thin air is making it up. There are no studies to support this stuff. And just, you know, studies aren't everything. We don't need studies all the time. But if we're going to argue something so strongly, we need evidence for it. Unless we're talking about religion, if you want to believe in God and Heaven and Hell, or whatever, you know, Buddha and all the… 

Look, that's fine, but it's religion that we're talking about. And that's my point here, some of this starts to shift in: nutrition isn't religion, weight loss isn't religion, it's science. And then Crystal also said, “I know this is annoying, but this article is from Goop. And it was an easy read, and the doctor is always on about hormones.” I said, “This is awesome. This level bullshit is going to make my business hit a million dollars a year,” because I really do believe that with misinformation, although I seem annoyed about it, it helps me make money.  

Because misinformation, gives you results that you can't sustain, or it doesn't give you results at all, because you start doing these silly things. And some of them work. Some of them don't, and you're not even sure why it works. And then what I have is a repeatable system where I help people get results repeatably it's a system that I have, and it works for everybody. Because while men and women are different, certain principles of biology are the same. 

 If you don't eat, you're going to starve to death, whether you're a man or woman. If you lift weights, you're going to build muscle, as long as you're doing it in the right way, you're going to build muscle, it doesn't matter if you're a man or woman. If you do cardiovascular exercise, you're going to improve your heart health, and your cardiovascular system, it doesn't matter if you're a man or woman. 

Women starve to death just like men, okay? Women starve to death, just like men. There are a lot of differences between men and women. Men and women need about 7 to 9 hours of sleep, but they're adults. So it's true that men and women are different physiologically. Okay. And I know we're in a weird time where there's a lot of people even arguing that. I'm not that person. But there are certain principles that work with everyone.  

And so here's what I told her, besides, you know, it was a little snarky answer on my part. What am I going to do, folks? I'm human. I'm going to say some stuff, especially with this person. I said, “By the way, I'm not here to convince you of anything, I get results with my clients and I know what the research says. And if you choose to believe in the nonsense that calories in, calories out has been disproven, then that's on you.” 

But here's the thing, this person, they've been asking me the same questions for years, and I said, “Crystal, you've been asking me the same things for years. The real reason you struggle is 100% psychological, nothing to do with hormones or metabolism.” I know that's tough, folks. But listen, when someone's having the same conversation with you for years, and she almost joined my coaching program.  

Now, she's a vegan, she almost join my coaching program. And you know, it's probably better that she doesn't because with you know, with vegans I just think that there's a little bit too much of an ideology there for me to work with and I think it might disrupt my group. But I almost wished she did because I kind of gave her an out.  

I was like, “Well, listen, you should probably have a protein powder, a vegan protein powder if you want to do this the best way,” and she was out after that. She wanted out, she was looking for a reason to turn off emotionally, because she's a vegan and vegan. So, let's be honest, vegan is an identity. Vegans don't have to ask themselves, “Hey, am I going to eat meat or not?” 

They strongly believe in it, even if they desire, a juicy steak, and I respect that. But when it comes to this stuff, it's mostly psychological. I'd even argue that the vast majority of vegans that I've met—again, no studies involved, but they're, especially when they're doing it for ethical reasons, they're people who are very stressed about the society that we live in.  

And there's a lot to be stressed about there. But again, I believe that stress is one of the big reasons that leads to these trying to cling to these ideas that are just without scientific merit. And also, I do think stress stops you from losing weight. But here's how it works. People think, “Oh, I'm stressed, I just got fat. I just got fat because I'm stressed.” I mean, that's what happens, your cortisol goes up and your fat goes up.  

Here's how it really happens. I used to believe that. But here's how I learned it happens. Stress makes you work out less. And if you do get to the gym and work out your workout feels really hard. Are you with me? I used to live a very stressed life, especially after my sister committed suicide. And I was working out I felt like I could barely… that's when I got fat. I don't talk about a lot, but that was one of the reasons why I got fat, it’s because of that.  

It's not because hormones magically make you fat. I was working out but I was exhausted. I was really frustrated with my personal training business. I was frustrated with my clients, even though it wasn't their fault, but I was frustrated in my life. And they were paying my bills and allowed me to get here today. So I'm very grateful for those experiences. And I'm very grateful that they put up with me when I was having those moments, but the reality is, I was eating more food.  

Why? Because cortisol makes you hungry. I was eating more junk food. Why? Because cortisol makes you hungry for what? kale salads? No, junk food. Or if it's not junk food, it makes you hungry for high calorie, very rewarding food. And when I mean rewarding, I mean rewarding to your brain. 

Like imagine eating an Oreo cookie, isn't that delicious? Or eating some potato chips or french fries, if you're more of a savory person? Now imagine eating a boiled potato or a piece of wheat bread compared to that cookie, or a boil potato compared to the french fries? Are you going to over eat wheat bread? Now some of you might say yes.  

But in general, you won't eat as much—as many I should say, of the pieces of bread that you would Oreo cookies. And you certainly won't have to eat as many calories because Oreo cookies have way more calories in them. And with french fries, same thing. Are you going to overeat boiled potatoes? Hm, not really, but  french fries, or potato chips—well, potato chips in particular, that you can't just eat one.  

That's what's really going on here, folks. And on top of that, when people…So, I had a client recently, it's like, “Oh, man, I think it's hormonal. I don't think I'm eating that much.” I'm like, “Okay, cool. So what did you eat for three nights ago for dinner?” “I don't know.” “Exactly. So you're telling me you're not eating that much. But at the same time, you have no idea how much you're eating.” 

All right, you see where I'm going with? And I want to ask you right now, if you're one of those people who say, “Oh, I don't eat that much.” Well, what did you eat five days ago for lunch? How many calories were in that? How many calories were in the entire day? “Oh, well… Oh, I don't know. But isn't tracking extreme. People go around…This is how I look at it. Imagine this. 

Imagine going around just buying stuff. You're like, “Oh man, that's cool. I'll just buy that. I'll just buy that pair of shoes. I'll just buy those jeans. I'll buy that dress, I'll buy that purse, I'll buy that car. I'll buy that house,” but you have no idea how much it costs.  

That's what people are doing when it comes to food. They have no idea. Are you eating a four-ounce chicken breast or an eight ounce?  Hm, I don't know exactly. How many calories are in a four-ounce or eight-ounce chicken breast? Um, well, Hm …How many calories is in an average slice of pizza. You don't know the cost of your choices. And this is the biggest issue.  

And so what do people do instead of tracking their calories and tracking their gym workouts and getting a DEXA scan to see the shift in body fat and muscle mass loom is just hormones. And that's a guy speaking. I don't know the right way to pretend to be a woman to say that, “It's hormones,” I guess.  

And let me tell you this, if you really believe this, let's do an experiment, do the potato hack diet for a week, don't change anything else, or do the Masters Cleanse for a week, find some strict diet to do for a week, don't change anything else, and two things will happen.  

Number one, you'll lower your calories unknowingly, because you're just following the magic diet, but what's really happening is you're lowering your calories, and you'll lose weight. That's one, but you'll gain it back because you won't understand how to turn the potato diet into a lifestyle. Or you want to understand how to turn the Masters Cleanse into a lifestyle. 

Or the second thing will happen is this— let me know if this sounds a little bit more familiar, what will happen is you're trying to do the potato hack diet, and you're like, “Oh, my God, I can't eat another freaking potato, I'm going to go out and I'm going to eat some real food,” and you can't stick with it. That's what's going on, folks, you either have an unsustainable strategy that you can get results with, it's super strict, but you can't keep it up, or you can't follow it to begin with.  

That's why I teach my clients track your calories. Because it's putting yourself on a budget, just like you put yourself on a budget with your business or put your business, whether you have a business or you work in a business, your business has a budget, because they're not like, “Well, hey, let's buy some advertising. Let’s buy everybody new office desks,” they're like, “Okay, let's see what…” they don't say that. What do they say? Let's see what we have the budget for. And what do you do? Do you go around in your personal budget, just spending money? Well, actually most Americans do. That's why they're in debt. And hey, I've been in debt. And I actually still have a little bit of debt, student loan debt that I'm paying off.  

So yeah, it's like, you just don't know what you're spending. You're not on a budget. And when you put yourself on a budget, when I have you track your food, like my clients do, all of them get results, even though if they're tracking  imperfectly, even if they're not doing everything quite right, but they get results.  

So I want to ask you this, what is the big takeaway here? And I want to share one more thing, because I almost forgot to share it. I just want to share it really quick. You may ask yourself, but what is your evidence, Ted? Well, people will bring up…And someone started getting into an argument with me on Facebook, and she really tried to lay into me, and I don't think it'll be interesting to see your response.  

But she was like, “Oh, women are different.” And there's a lot of studies and I'm like, “Listen, there's only one study that matters.” There was a study done on metabolic rate, in other words, the measure of how much energy burned a day. And this study was done on 6,400 people aged 8 days to 95 years. So we're talking about your 8 day old babies to 95 year old people, from 29 countries.  

And you know what, they used a method called Doubly Labeled Water. If you don't know what that is, this is the most accurate and expensive method we have. What did they find? No difference in metabolism from 20 to 60 years old. No difference in metabolism. And you're probably saying no, that can't be right. No difference in metabolism when… 

And there's an addendum here, a proviso here, it's when they equated the activity levels, when they equated the amount of muscle mass, there was no difference. So there is a difference between people who are 20 to 60 years old, but it has to do with controllable things, it has to do with how much muscle mass they have.  

And here's a quote from the lead on the study, the study author, this is from Herman Ponsor. He said, “metabolic rate is really stable all through adult life,”: 20 to 60 years old.” He's also said, “There's no effect of menopause that we can see,” for example, and you know, people will say, “Well, I hit 30 years old and my metabolism fell apart.” 

We don't see any evidence for that, actually. And again, folks, I'm not here trying to change your mind, I'm shining the light for you to come safely into the harbor. I'm trying to show you what I believe is the most reasonable approach to getting rid of these ideas that they don't work for everybody. And I'm trying to show you what does work for everybody.  

Now, again, I don't think everybody should track their calories, especially if you have a history of eating disorder, or if you're morbidly obese. I mean, but it there's certain people who aren't right for coaching and aren't right for some of the strategies that I have my clients do. I want to be clear about that. Some people, I think, should try medication, should try bariatric surgery, should try cognitive behavioral therapy for weight loss.  

I'm not right for everyone. But what is right for everyone are these mechanisms, okay, calories in, calories out is the foundation for weight loss, weight gain, weight maintenance, it's the foundation, increasing your muscle mass, that works for everybody. Even if you're morbidly obese. They don't use that term anymore.  

I think they use—I forget what it's called. But like for, it's not “stage four obesity, “but it's something like that, “level four obesity,” I forget what it's called. But these things work for everybody. It's up to you to find the right person to help you or the right methods to help you.  

But it's these principles that are at work kind of like in business, people will tell you all sorts of things, “Hey, start an Instagram account, and post reels all the time to grow your business. post on Facebook eight times a day, start a Twitter account and write threads every day.” 

But the reality is in business, you need a product or service that you sell, you need a lead generation mechanism, like I get most of my clients from this podcast, as an example, then you need a way of making sales. And then you need to deliver the product or service in a way that delights your customers and causes them to refer other people to you. Because their experience was so great.  

That's business in a nutshell. There's a lot of other complications and nuances and different businesses are different. But all businesses need those same things. Now, some businesses might need investors, but even if they have ambassadors, they still need customers, okay, period, and you’ve got to generate leads, and have a sales, some type of sales process, and you have to have some way to deliver the product or service.  

That's an example of business principles that are relevant to every single business that I can think of, versus all the nuances that you know, “Well, Ted, you know, there's all these different things that might work for a big business with 600 employees versus a small business like yours, which is three people working in it.” 

Yes, that's true, but the principles are the same, okay, those three principles: lead generation, sales, and delivery, right? It's all those things are, you know? I'm not the most business savvy person, but those things…Are you seeing the principles? Are you seeing how those principles matter most in whatever you're doing?  

You're probably aware of some principles that need to happen or work for everybody. But then there's different strategies that you need to use based on a person's individual situation, but the principles are always the same.  

I hope that helps, folks. I know it's a bit of a conversation, but I would ask you, what is the big takeaway that you can act on today? What can you do differently? Or what was the big shift from today's episode? That's what I want to leave you with. Hope you have an amazing weekend. Love you lots. Speak to you soon.