Quick and Easy Fat Burning Workouts Interview with Jade Teta Hosted by Neely Quinn Paleohacks, LLC http://paleohacks.com Have a health question? Join our community at: http://paleo.co/joinpaleohackscommunity To hear more from Neely, find her at her website: paleo.co/neelyquinn All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without the express written permission of Paleohacks, LLC. " 1
Hi, I'm your host, Neely Quinn. Welcome to this session all about women's weight loss. Today I'm talking with Dr. Jade Teta of metaboliceffect.com and he is going to tell us exactly what to do to work out to lose fat instead of working out just to make yourself hungry. So enjoy this interview with Jade Teta. I did. Welcome, Jade Teta. Hi, how are you? I'm doing great. How are you? I'm doing fantastic. Thank you so much for having me. Oh, thanks for being here with me. So, for anybody who doesn't know who Jade Teta is, can you please do a little introduction of yourself? Yeah, absolutely. And so the name is Jade. Even though I'm a big bold linebacker looking dude with a girl's name. And that's because my mother was a little bit of a hippie. So, yeah, Jade is the first name. A lot of people where I'm from call me Jay or Jake but it's Jade. I'm a consulting physician. It's the best way to think about me. I'm a naturopathic physician, is my background. So any of you who are into integrative medicine, natural health, complementary and alternative medicine, that's sort of my training. But at the same time, I started personal training in the fitness world at the age of 15. And so even when I was in high school, I was writing programs for my guys on my football team and their family and I kind of did personal training and fitness all the way through undergrad where I studied biochemistry. And then before I went to medical school, I was looking around at all the curriculum and I had already been training for quite a while and using diet and exercise to help people lose weight. But when I looked at the curriculums in the medical schools, I was sort of shocked to see that there was no nutrition training and there was no exercise training and that sent me off to go a different route to sort of get into complementary and alternative medicine. So the best way to sort of think about me is as a hybrid sort of health and fitness professional. I spend my time over the desk working with people as a natural health consultant but also spend time in the gym training with people as well. Okay. It's quite a valuable sort of tools to have. Yeah, it's helped me out a lot in terms of what I do. My specialty, by the way, now is really hormonal approaches to weight loss rather than just sort of your standard calorie counting phenomenon. I mean, obviously, 2
when we're in our 20s and teens, it's pretty easy just eat less, exercise more and you tend to get results. But once we start getting into the 30s and 40s and 50s and beyond, there's a little bit more that goes into it. So that's more of my specialty now. Metabolism. Metabolism is my game, yeah. All right. We're going to talk about a lot of things here. But first, tell me where we can find you online? Best place to get me, obviously on Twitter @jadeteta. If you have questions, please just send me a tweet out. I always answer those questions. My company is a company called Metabolic Effect. It goes by the acronym ME, so metaboliceffect.com. And Metabolic Effect on Twitter and Facebook. Okay. So tell us about that. Because this is, obviously, a website sort of indicative of who you are. So, what do you do on that site? Yeah, the best way to think about my company Metabolic Effect, I mean, the acronym is ME, which means all about me or you. And so you can kind of think of us as the Sherlock Holmes of the health, fitness and weight loss world. We basically help people find what works for them. So anyone listening to this, you guys probably know there's all these teams out there, right, in the nutrition and health world? There's the Paleo team and the vegan team and the vegetarian team and the primal team and the macrobiotic team and everybody has their way of doing things that they are saying this is the way it should be done, it's the only way it should be done. We got people free baste bacon in butter and other people who say just eat raw vegetables. So basically, what I do is I help people find the perfect diet-exercise program lifestyle that fits their metabolism, their psychology and their personal preferences. We're all uniquely different. We're as different on the inside chemically as we are on the outside physically. And so this idea that once size fits all in diet and exercise and lifestyle is to my mind ridiculous. My clinical experience has told me that is not true. Some people thrive off Paleo and bacon and butter. Some people thrive off vegetables. Some people need low fat. Some people need higher carb. It's about understanding your metabolism and then adjusting based on your individual uniqueness to that lifestyle that suits you. 3
Okay. So how do you do that on your website? Do you see people individually? We have online programs that basically teach you how to be a master in metabolism, your own metabolism. So, for instance, we have natural health programs that teach you how to deal with thyroid issues and adrenal issues if you deal with those issues. We have programs that teach women all about female specific weight loss both a menopause program and a program that teaches younger women how to understand what goes on with the female physiology. For instance, how does menses impact my weight loss efforts and my hunger and my cravings and how to adjust things to do that? We have programs for men. We have all kinds of different programs including things like how to build bone effectively with exercise and those kinds of things. So everything is delivered now online. It's really interesting because when I first did it, it was a jump because I was in the clinic individual and I said how am I going to teach this to large groups of people? But because I can be with them on video and through email and with all this education, it's amazing they actually get better results because they get to learn and they get to hang out with me essentially virtually every day for eight weeks versus me seeing them one time in the clinic and not see them again until two weeks later. So it's been a really interesting sort of break from the traditional practice. And I'd really been enjoying it. Yeah. That's a super cool program. I'm sure you're helping a lot of people. Yeah, it's been fun, for sure. Okay. So, let's first talk about fitness stuff because I know -- So, where does the fitness part come into all of this on the programs and otherwise? Well, obviously, Metabolic Effect, when I first started this company, I said to myself as a fitness fanatic and a personal trainer, I really want to start with workouts. And back then in the '90s, things like CrossFit and metabolic conditioning were barely even a blip on the map. But I was very early in this whole metabolic conditioning movement and the whole idea of doing more with your workouts in a shorter amount of time. So the short intensity, short duration, high intensity workouts, things that were taking 15 to 20 minutes that you could use to be taking an 4
hour to do. I was doing this very early on. So Metabolic Effect, my company, has become known for metabolic conditioning type of workouts similar to some of the things that everyone now knows about high intensity integral training. Many people do anyways. So take high intensity integral training, sprinkle in some dumbbells, have yourself doing all kinds of different movements in circuit fashion and you have an idea of what, uh, my company does with workouts. The difference between what we do with exercise and what other people do with exercise is that most people think the metabolism works like a calculator. They just think, "Oh, I should just exercise either longer or harder to burn more calories." Truth of the matter is, the metabolism works more like a seesaw or a pendulum. In other words, the harder you push against the metabolism, it will fight back against you. So workouts should be put together in a way that not just burn calories during the workout also burn more fat after the workout. But most important, do not change hunger, energy and cravings in negative directions that cause you to freebase a cheesecake or pizza later on that day. And that's what most people are doing. They are going after these long runs not realizing that that's the reason they are killing that pint of Ben & Jerry's at the end of the day. So exercise has to be something that is going to help you in the moment, help you have a little bit of an after burn, but also not derail you from your diet which we know is most important for weight loss. So that's where the fitness piece sort of comes in to what I do. It's smart exercise rather than just more, longer or more frequent exercise, which is very, very different. But in order to understand that, you have to understand the way the metabolism actually works. It does not work like a calculator and it doesn't work like a chemistry set either like many people say. They say, "Oh, well, yeah, I know it doesn't work like a calculator but doesn't it work just insulin, just eat less carbs and lower insulin and burn more fat that way?" It doesn't work like that either. There is no magic calorie number that you're going to be able to achieve that's going to give you lasting weight loss nor is there some magic hormonal mixture that is going to give you sustained weight loss. The only thing that's going to give you that is coming up with exercise programs that burn calories during the workout, burn calories after the workout, but most importantly balance that metabolic seesaw in a way that make you less likely to be eating crap food. That's the major difference. 5
Okay. So when you say metabolic workout, I know you just probably explained all that, but can you sum it up in a few sentences? Sure. Very easy. Very easy. Have you ever chopped wood or played tug of war or push a heavy wheelbarrow up a hill? Every day. For those of you listening -- Every day, right? Or you're into rock climbing. Rock climbing is another great example. Climbing is another example. You're using your whole body. There's going to be periods of time where you have breathlessness, burning in your muscles, straining in your muscles and you'll get hot and sweaty. So I call that the Bs and the Hs, breathless, burning, heavy and heat. Two Bs and two Hs. Metabolic workouts deliver all four of those. They get you breathless. They get you burning. They make your muscle strain. They get you hot and sweaty. Just like chopping wood. Just like pushing a wheelbarrow up a hill. Just like rock climbing. Just like any of these full body activities that taps the entire system. That's what it means metabolic conditioning, metabolic workouts and other types of exercise. You might say, "Well, what's the benefit of that?" Yes, they burn calories but they also balance hormones in a particular way to make you burn fat and calories after the workout and stabilize hunger, energy and cravings later on. Okay. So we talked about running a little bit. Now, I'm not a runner. I just started running because I'm injured as a climber. But when I run, I feel those Bs and Hs. Yes. What does that mean? Yes. So here's the interesting thing. Running has gotten a bad rep. I don't know if how much you pay attention in the exercise world but there's people out there saying, "Oh, if you run too much, it's going to kill you. It's going to raise your cortisol level. It's the worst thing ever. It's going to rip off muscles." Running gives you breathlessness and if you're new to running like you and me both, it will give you that burning effect. It won't really give you the heavy straining effect like doing push-ups will but it will get you hot and sweaty. So it gets you breathless. It gets you burning. And it will get you hot and sweaty. So it gives you three out of the four. The problem with running is that the more you do and the longer you go, for many people, not all, maybe not you and me because 6
we're a little more fit, but for many people, the negative changes, the hormones, make them more likely to overeat later. In other words, here's the takeaway that I want people to understand. A workout, right, that burns 500 calories because you go out and do it for an hour, but then causes you to have a situation where you end up overeating 400 calories more than what you used to be able to eat or that you used to eat. It's not as good as a workout. It only burns 200 calories. But then causes you to eat 400 calories less, see what I mean? So in other words, the way you work out, we tend to think of working out and diet as separate. The truth is, the research shows, and most people know this, that they're not. What you do for exercise, how hard you exercise, how long you exercise, how frequently you exercise, is directly going to determine what happens with your diet. And so running, what we know now about running based on the research and my clinical experiences, that many people, most people who are beginners who try to lose weight and get firm and tone up with running alone actually end up doing themselves a disservice because they're causing somebody's compensatory hormonal reactions that are making them hungrier. And it's funny about what three years ago, on the cover of Time Magazine, they did a big whole issue on the idea of why running is not always the best way to lose weight. It's very healthy. It's good for your heart. We have tons of research showing that. It may not be the best exercise for weight loss. And that's a really important distinction for everyone here listening. Is that there's all types of exercise. And we need to kind of put them in the right buckets. There's fat loss exercise. There's healthy exercise. There's just fun exercise, things like Zumba and things like that. It's just fun. But if you go and look and see which one is going to help me change my body, now taking everyone as a whole, certainly you're going to find some people who do well on Zumba and some who -- But the vast majority are going to need a different way of doing it. And that type of exercise is going to be what delivers the Bs and Hs. In short, it's intense. It doesn't disrupt your lifestyle. The number one reason people don't exercise is time so you need it to be short. And it also doesn't disrupt your hunger and your cravings and your energy in a way that make you less likely to be able to stay on a healthy diet in the first place. So that being said, what we need to understand is make these distinctions. And we don't. That's the problem. Some of you are probably saying, "I've never really heard it described like that. I just thought any old exercise was good exercise if I'm burning calories." 7
Not if you understand the way the metabolism works. If you understand the way the metabolism works, you start to understand that running might be good for your heart and for a very few individuals, it might be good for weight loss. But for most people, they're going to need something short, intense, that delivers that Bs and Hs, that doesn't disrupt hunger, energy and cravings. Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes sense. I mean, it's a little bit confusing because I'm conjuring these images. I live in Boulder, Colorado and we're surrounded by incredibly beautiful people. Very fit people in that city. Very fit, yeah. And there are plenty of them who are runners, right? And they have this like long gazelle muscular legs and people with long arms that are also muscular. So that's why a lot of women run, right, so that they can look like that. Why do those women look like that? I love that you ask that question because this is one of the key misunderstandings about exercise. Let's take up, well, it's kind of controversial right now to talk about Lance Armstrong. Because he's kind of fallen from grace. But I always used to use him as an example. Many people think Lance Armstrong looks the way he looks because he rides a bike. The truth of the matter is he rides a bike because he looks the way he looks. That's more times the truth. So these people that we see who are these very lean runners, typically they gravitate towards running because they are very lean and that's a sport that they gravitate towards. Very rarely, and I challenge you to ask these people, to say, "Hey, were you ever 300 pounds?" And they're probably going to say, "No." You ask these people, ask them over and over, 98% will be like, "No, I've always been pretty lean and I started running pretty early and it's just a sport I gravitated to." 2% maybe you're going to find be like, "Hey, were you ever 100 pounds or 50 pounds overweight and lost the weight from running?" And you'll find maybe 2% say that. So that's the difference. We think that people are lean because they run. The truth of the matter is they run because they are lean. Just like me. I'm a big bulky linebacker looking football dude. And so I gravitated naturally -- I'd always been that way. I mean, my first sport I ever played soccer and I told my daddy and say, "Hey, how do you like it son?" I was like, "I hated it." He goes, "Why?" I said, "Because I had to do all this running." 8
So all I wanted to do is do push-ups and all that kind of stuff. And so we have to make allowance for that and realize that most of these people -- By the way, in Boulder, you're kind of spoiled. Because in Boulder, it's just like everyone is super fit there. But where I am in North Carolina, I'll tell you what I see. I see people who they must have woke up that morning and looked in the mirror and said, "I got to go get in shape." And then you see this big people limping down the sidewalk and running, looking like they're going to like die gasping for air. And guess what, you don't see them the next day or the next day. Because it's too hard for their body. It causes compensatory cravings. And it doesn't deliver big results. And so I really love that you asked that question because us people who are fit, that's what we think, right? We tend to think, "Oh, well, I do--" What's the whole thing with Pilates? You do Pilates, you're going to get this long, lean muscles. Well, if you're not going to change the length of your joints, the joint length stays the same, it's physiologically impossible to do that. So the people who do Pilates who have long lean muscles, they have long lean muscles and then they went and did Pilates. Typically, not the other way around. And I think that's another key distinction to make. So now we have these two distinctions now that we have. One distinction is not all exercise is fat loss exercise or weight loss exercise. Some is just fun. Some is very healthy. Some is better for weight loss. Not to say that running is not going to get somebody lean, if they have the right metabolism and it's something they love and it's just psychologically pleasing. But the way, one of the things with running that's really cool, research shows it is the best for mood enhancement. So many people do it to enhance their mood, especially depression. It's great for depression. But so we have to understand that different exercises do different things. If you want weight loss primarily and you've been struggling using running, you probably want to start gravitating more to this metabolic conditioning stuff. And then the other piece is the idea that you can look at someone like Neely and see how good you look and be like, "Oh, well, now, I should just go rock climbing and I'm going to look just like Neely." You know that's not true. Am I going to look like you if I start rock climbing? Probably not. And are you going to look like me? Of course, there's a difference here because you're female and I'm male. But take another woman, another woman and have them do exactly what you do. Are they going to look like you? Probably not. Are they going to look like me if they lift exactly like I lift? Probably not. 9
Now, there'll be some crossover if they keep it up. But that idea is essentially wrong that people are going to look the way someone else looks if they do what someone else does. It's not necessarily the case. So assuming that a lot of women want to have lean bodies with some muscle tone, does it mean that every one of us, because we all have different body types, need to do a different type of exercise? Yeah. Another great question. Not necessarily. So the goal set is what you want. So here's what I will suggest. So you say, "You know what, Jade, most of us--" We would all admit, this is most guys as well. Most guys don't want to look like me. They want leaner bodies and not as much muscle but enough muscle. Same with women. They want tight toned smaller leaner bodies. And so what that entails is the ability to lose fat and maintain muscle or maybe gain muscle for both men and women. And we know what is best for that. So here's an example. Let's take me and you as an example. You're relatively lean, leaner than me. So you might say, "Well, Jade, I want to gain a little bit of muscle and get a little tighter. That's what I would like." And I might tell you, "Well, Neely, I want to lose a little bit of fat." And so, what we would do is for our baseline, because we know that burning fat and building muscles probably best done with metabolic conditioning, so we both start with metabolic condition, maybe three times per week. Because we know that that's the best based on research, based on clinical experience for most people. But then we might find along the way that, "You know what, Jade, you probably need to do one or two runs a week as well because it's mass reducing for you and that's going to help you a little bit extra with your fat loss. And by doing it, Jade, you're not getting hunger and cravings and all that kind of stuff." And we might find for you, Neely, that really you don't want to do any of that because when you do, you're not able to put on any muscle. So there's an individual variation in this. And so the idea is you start with a base of what is most beneficial for your goal set, metabolic conditioning to burn fat and build muscle. And then these other pieces, these other forms of exercise can play a role. So it's not saying one is always better than the other. It's saying let's make the priority what we know works for most people and then let people be individualized within that. I call it structured flexibility. So we give you a structure. You and I both start with metabolic conditioning 10
three times per week. But then we're flexible. Maybe I end up with metabolic conditioning three times per week, two long runs and I'm getting great results. And you are doing metabolic conditioning, let's say three times per week. It's working great. And maybe you had a four or just rock climbing and next thing you know, your body is responding beautifully. What I don't want people to misunderstand. Is that I'm saying there's only one way. What I'm saying is that research shows, my clinical experience shows that there are certain exercises that are better for losing fat and building muscle than others. Metabolic conditioning happens to be one of the best for fat loss. Running, Zumba, biking, those kinds of things, can play a role and for some people they might be the very thing. There might be someone out there who's throwing the pounds just takes off running every day and loses all the weight and ends up being the next great marathon runner. But they will be in the minority. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. And that was a great answer. So let's talk a little bit about what those exercise are that you're talking about. So the three times a week metabolic exercise, what would those days look like? Yeah. So really simply let me just give you guys, if you guys have, anyone have a pen and a paper, I'll let you write this down. This is very simple to do. It's actually what we're doing is we're doing weight training workouts. A good friend of mine, Jen Sinclair says this beautifully. She says: Essentially what you're doing is lifting weights faster. So what you're doing is let's take a push-up, a squat, a shoulder press and maybe a pull-up or bent-over row. Just those four exercise. So push-up, bent-over row, squat and shoulder press. And what you're going to do is do 12 push-ups then without resting, go into 12 squats. Then without resting, go into 12 bent-over rows, and without resting go into 12 shoulder presses. And then you repeat. So you do 12, 12, 12, 12, repeat, 12, 12, 12, 12, repeat. What's going to happen? Because you're going so fast through that circuit without rest, you're going to start getting breathless. Because you're not getting rest, your muscles are going to start burning. Because you're not really getting rest, those muscles, that weight is going to start getting heavy and your body is going to start straining. And you'll immediately start picking up the heat. Now, depending on your fitness level, how far can you go? Most people aren't going to be able to 11
work at that intensely for longer than a minute or two before they have to rest. And so the best thing to do is rest whenever you need to and then pick up right where you left off. So I call it rest-based training, push until you can't, rest until you can. So if you and I were working out together, Neely, you might go three rounds before you have to rest because you're in better cardio shape than me. I might get a half around before I have to put those weights down, breathe, breathe, breathe, and get back into the workout when I'm ready. And what will happen is we'll both be doing the same workout but you'll be maybe resting less and pushing harder and I'll be resting more and pushing just as hard. And this is to an individualized way of training and an individualized way of doing this. So you don't have to feel like, "Oh my god, I'm working out with Neely today." Or, "I'm working out with Jade today, and I have to keep up." No. You go at your fitness level. So four exercises, done back to back to back in a circuit, 12 reps each. Set your timer for 20 minutes. Push until you can't. Rest until you can. You will get breathless, burning, heavy and heat. You will get this effect and it's super simple and it's short. So that's the simplest way I can do it. For those of you who have that, say it more one time. Push-ups, bentover row, squat, shoulder press. 12 reps each, go one round, do another round, keep going until you have to rest. Rest completely. Get back into the workout as soon as you're ready and just repeat that work, rest, work, rest, work, rest for 20 minutes. That's exactly the style of training that I'm talking about. Now there's many different ways that you can do that. But what that's going to feel like is you kind of got thrown into a vortex with a pair of dumbbells. It's just going to feel like you're just going, going, going, going. You rest, you go, go, go. You rest, you go, go, go. And then 20 minutes, you're going to get the effect that I'm talking about. So what's the time limit on this? Yeah. So typically, you want to keep it pretty short. So what the research hints at -- Now, research is tricky when you read research because you read enough of it, you start seeing one says one thing, one says something else. The research hints that once you start going above 40 minutes, your body is going to start to compensate especially with intense exercise. And what I have found clinically is that the shorter workout allows you to push harder. And that's what we actually want. 12
In other words, 15 to 20 minutes, 30 minutes max in my world is going to be most people's best bet. And what that will do is the harder you push in a minimum amount of time creates a very dense workout. Meaning, you get a large volume of work done in a minimum amount of time. And what that has been shown to do is create an after effect or an aftershock. Kind of like dropping a pebble in a pond and you see all those ripples. The water is disturbed long after the pebble hits the bottom of that lake, right? That's what we're trying to do to the metabolism, a short directed focused intense session but then creates a metabolic disturbance that lasts for hours and days after the workout. So you might say, "How does that work, Jade?" You just don't burn calories during the workout. If you do it this way, you'll burn calories after the workout because you have to burn calories during the recovery phase. Then you'll go into a repair phase where the body starts to repair all the damage you'd done. And then you go into an adaptation phase that the body starts laying down extra muscles and things like that. And all that uses a tremendous amount of energy long after the workout is over. So if we go for a job, we'll burn calories. But when we stop the jog, the burn stops. When we do things this way, after we finish the workout, the burn continues long into the next couple of days. And for women, with intense workouts like this, research hints it lasts about 16 hours, this after burn effect. And for men, probably about 48 hours. And it depends on the intensity, the burn, the heaviness. So can you imagine? You do a workout like this and you get to burn fat and calories for 16 hours after the workout as a result of that workout? That's beautiful. That's sort of the metabolic equivalent of having your cake and eating it too. Everybody would want that. So that's the difference here. Short directed intense, burn calories after the workout. That's golden. Okay. Well, just for the record, I'd rather have the 48 hours like men do. But I'll take the 16. Part of the reason, by the way, you might wonder why men, why we think men do, it's just the extra muscle mass that men have compared to women. That's probably what's going on there. And they also get a little bit more of a testosterone kick. But women have an advantage. They burn more fat at all exercise intensities compared to men, believe it or not. So if you and I go for a jog both for 20 minutes, you're going to burn a higher percentage of fat on average than I will. 13
The other advantage that women have is never, ever -- If you're a guy, listen to this. Never challenge your girlfriend or your wife to an endurance event because in the end they will beat you in the endurance event. Women tend to have more endurance. And that's why we start seeing these ultra marathon running runners. In most sports, men typically are little bit stronger than women so they tend to be faster in all these other sports. Well, when we get to ultra marathons, women start to catch men in that regard because they have such better endurance. And this has to do a lot with estrogen and progesterone and some of the changes. By the way, just some tricks and tips here. But if you're a woman who competes, really interesting research shows that right around the menses is probably right when women do not want to be competing in anything. But that might be when they're actually at their strongest because their metabolism is most like a male's metabolism where estrogen and progesterone come down. So there's some research that hints especially in sprinting events and strength events, that right around menses is the time where women might be the strongest. Isn't that interesting? That's really interesting because there'd been two, at least two times where I was trying this route of rock climb and I did it on like the first or second day of my period, because I took ibuprofen, I take away the pain. And I was like that was a big surprise. So, yeah. Yeah. It's kind of cool when you start understanding the female physiology versus the male physiology. Some of the stuff I do is understanding how estrogen and progesterone impact fat loss. And you can even time your training with the menstrual cycle if you are a young woman. Basically, the first part of the menstrual cycle, since we've gotten into this now, it's so interesting to me. Hopefully, you guys are interested in it. The first part of the menstrual cycle is an interesting time for women because it's a period where estrogen is a little higher than progesterone. So women are more insulin sensitive during that time, which means they can tolerate a little bit more stressful exercise and they can tolerate a little bit more carbs. So that might be when they want to do a little bit longer runs maybe and a little bit more carbohydrate intake. But the two weeks after ovulation and before menses, leading up to menses, that's when they might want to go a little bit lower carbohydrate and do more of the intense stuff. 14
Which is funny because no woman wants to go lower carbohydrate right before their period. Because of cravings, you know what I mean? Okay. I have a question for you. Going back to what you were saying before and that is -- Actually, there are two. One of them is you said that after 40 minutes of exercise your body starts compensating. Do you remember saying that? Yeah, I do. What did you mean by that? Yeah, that's a great question. So, compensation. This idea of metabolic compensation. Essentially what that means is that your body has almost like a stress thermostat, so to speak. And we don't typically think of exercise as being stressful. But the fact of the matter is, is that when you push exercise too long too hard or too frequently, it can easily become stressed out, so to speak. So when I speak of metabolic compensation, what I'm saying is your stress thermostat is starting to register that. Now, you might say, "Well, Jade, how do I know that that's happening?" You won't necessarily know during the workout but you'll know by what I call HEC, hunger, energy and cravings or HEC. If your HEC is in check after a workout up for the next eight hours, 24 hours, then you know that workout probably didn't stress you out too much. But if your HEC is out of check quickly after workout, in other words, you're craving chocolate and you're really hungry and you're kind of moody and your energy is low, then you might suspect that that workout was a little bit too much for you. Athletes who over train, the first thing we start to see before we actually can see it show up on cortisol and things like that, is we start seeing mood changes, hunger changes and craving changes. Now, most of us think, "Well, how can we really be over training, right?" Most people are not going to get into these athlete zones but the way we'll see it, the average exerciser will see it in changes, in hunger, energy and cravings. And what we typically think is, "Oh, exercise can do that for me because any exercise is good and more exercise is better." At least that's the way we think. But more is not better. Better is better. Smarter is better. So what you want to do is you want to be exercising in a way that controls HEC. If HEC goes out of check, then you know that you might have pushed your system too far. Whether that's 40 minutes, 30 minutes or 60 minutes, because we're all going to be a little different. We're all going to be a little bit better shape. 15
Keep in mind that exercise is impacting these things which is really, you could think about it, hunger, energy and cravings or HEC is really a willpower barometer. Because we tend to think you either have willpower or you don't. But willpower is more like a battery. We now know that it's an exhaustible resource. And so what we're doing when we're over exercising and under eating is, in a sense, we're draining our willpower battery too. So not only are we having metabolic compensation, but we're going to end up having psychological compensation later as well. And that's really important for people to understand. These things are not separate. What you eat and how you exercise in the morning is going to impact what you choose to eat, how much you eat and how you feel in the evening. And for some reason, we never want to think about things that way. But that's the way it really works. Okay. HEC is hunger, energy and cravings. That's right. That's a reminder. Thank you for that clarification. That helps a lot. My second question was about the weight. So you described a metabolic workout, basically, and you said that we should be using dumbbells. How do we know how heavy they should be? Yeah. A really good way to do this, very simple. Just pick up a weight and the heaviest weight you can do a bicep curl with three times and then cut that weight in half. And that will be a good starting weight for most people. So, for instance, I can bicep curl, I don't know, let's say, 50 pounds, three times, so I cut that weight in half, 25-pound dumbbells, that's what I'm going to use. That's one way to do it. Second way to do it is you can get a separate weight for each exercise, what we call a ten repetition max. Which means, it's a weight you can do ten times but it's too heavy to do 11 times. So if I'm doing shoulder press, for instance, my ten rep max on shoulder press might be 100 pounds. I can do it fresh ten times but the 11 th time is almost impossible to do. That's another good way to do it. But you might say, "Jade, you told me to do 12 reps. If I can only get ten, then what am I going to do?" That's the point. What I want you to do is when you get to nine or ten, I want you to drop the weights. You rest. And then take them back up and get 11 and 12. And then go to the next exercise. You know what I mean? Most people think they're supposed to finish all 12. 16
But if you're doing this right, you literally should be resting. So maybe for you, Neely, you do four reps, then you have to drop the weights. You have to rest. You pick them back up. You do another four reps. You drop the weights. You pick them back up. You do another four reps, and now you're on to the next exercise. See how that works? And so you want that weight to be very heavy and very challenging. Well, heavy enough, yes. Heavy enough, exactly. Okay. And about the rest, I think that when you say you got to rest until you can go again, that is going to be taken very differently by different people. So can you give us some guidelines for how much is enough rest? Yes. So the wording to remember is push until you can't, rest until you can. So that's going to be different for everyone. When you first start this, think about it on a scale from one to four, four being you have to rest, you're forced to rest, you cannot do anything else. And one being you're completely at rest. So your goal is -- So that's a little bit subjective. So it's better for you as an individual. Your goal is to get to four, rest and then come back down to number two and go from two to four, two to four, two to four. So what will happen is you don't want to rest 100% completely to where you're not breathing hard at all anymore. But you want to rest to the point where you can psychologically and physically exert the same intensity again. So you can imagine. If you go to four and then three and then four and then three, you're going to be essentially pacing yourself. So you're not going to be really doing a good intense workout. What you want is four and two, four and two, four and two. That way, you're going to get the most out of this. So those are two ways to do it. But really, once you get into this, intuitively you'll know. Push until you can't, rest until you can. Psychologically can and physiologically can. Okay. And can you wrap up one more time what the structure of the workout is? Sure. So, just real quick to give you guys sort of the breakdown on this. Basically, what we're saying, metabolic conditioning is, is it's really lifting weights faster. And so the easiest way to get into this, to achieve what we know is going to give you the most beneficial burn during the workout and after burn actually is the Bs and the Hs, breathless, burning, heavy and heat. To do that, here's what I suggest you do. 17
Four exercises. The four that I suggest you use are a push-up, a squat, a bent-over row, that's bent over at the waist and rolling the weights at your back, and a shoulder press. Use a weight that allows you to get eight to 12 repetitions fresh. So you're going to do 12 push-ups. Then you're going to go right to 12 squats. Then you're going to go right to 12 bent-over rows. Then you're going to go right to 12 shoulder press. And you're going to repeat that over and over and over again without resting unless you need it. Once you need to rest, you stop right there. You get yourself back down to a two, a place where you feel somewhat recovered and able to exert yourself again. Then you start right where you left off. Use your mobile device with a timer, 20 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes. Push until you can't, rest until you can. When your 20 minutes is up, you're done. That's how I suggest you start doing this. Now, it's not to say you can't do any of the other stuff you love. Neely, you could still go rock climbing. Those of you who love running can still go running. What I'm saying is that if you want weight loss, body change, make this your base three to four times per week and put that other stuff in as sort of play, as sort of your extra. And what you'll see is you'll start seeing some really good results from that. That was such a good wrap up. Thank you. That was perfect. Okay. All right. Any last words for women who want to lose weight? I think that the most important thing to understand is just that your metabolism as a female and as a male, if any man are listening to this as well, is different. It's not the same. So stop listening to advice built for 20 some year old male body builders. Understand that the female physiology is different. Then take it one step further. Not only is your female physiology different, but you are unique from many other women or men. And, therefore, you have to honor that. How do you start understanding how your metabolism is different? You start paying attention to hunger, energy, cravings and how diet and exercise and lifestyle impact that? And you start building a smart lifestyle and exercise program that balances those things instead of throws them out of whack. So instead of basically this idea that you're sucking it up. Because all or nothing, this idea of, "I got to diet. I got to have willpower." All or nothing, always leads to nothing. So what you want to do is be smarter. More is not better. Better is better. So, hopefully, that helps you guys understand. 18
Yes, it does. And while we didn't get to talk about diet much, I think there's plenty of other information in this whole thing that relates to diet. So this was really good compact interview about workouts. And I really appreciate this information. Thank you so much, Neely. I appreciate it. Yeah. And one more time, where can we find you online? So @jadeteta on Twitter, at Metabolic Effect on Facebook and metaboliceffect.com is the website. All right, Dr. Jade Teta. Thank you very much. Thanks, Neely. Appreciate it. 19
Thanks for Participating in the For Women Only: The Weight Loss Solution event" Paleohacks, LLC" http://paleohacks.com" Have a health question? Join our community at:" http://paleo.co/joinpaleohackscommunity To hear more from Neely, find her at her website: " http://paleo.co/neelyquinn" 20