Lose Weight with The Whole Body Reset | Over 50 and Beyond

Hey everyone, April and Aiko here of Yes2Next. We're very excited to share with you an interview that we did with AARP Executive Editor Stephen Perrine, who is also co-author of the new book, The Whole Body Reset, and the book focuses on a weight loss plan for folks at midlife and beyond. So we thought this would be a very interesting topic for all of us. Mom, what do you think? It was very interesting. The information applies to your age group and certainly my age group, and it's something that's very helpful as we go on. It's good. Well worth the time. Awesome. So without further ado, here's our chat with Stephen Perrine. So welcome, Stephen. Oh, thank you very much. I really appreciate the opportunity to talk with you two. Great. Well, before we get started, we'd love to know a little bit more about you and how you came about writing the book. Well, I have been working in the field of nutrition and wellness for longer than I'd like to admit. I started, spent almost 20 years at Men's Health Magazine, and we practically invented the word abs. And during that time, I was instrumental in launching things like Eat This, Not That, and dozens of other New York Times bestsellers in the health and wellness field. So when I joined AARP a few years ago, our Director of Editorial, Myrna Blythe, asked me, would you be interested in doing some research and perhaps creating a program for people 50 and older? And I said, sure, should be simple enough. I know all about this stuff. When I started to do some research and really dig into the information on what people older than 50 need to eat, I was shocked by what I didn't know. I was shocked by how much our bodies change and by how much the way that we eat needs to change as we get older. And so that information has been collected in the Whole Body Reset. We created a full eating plan and give you all sort of the background on what's going on with your body, how it's changing, and how changing the way you eat can both stop age-related weight gain and age-related muscle loss, which is the other part of this. Really interesting. So can you go deeper into like what is going on with our bodies after age 50? I loved your chapter where you talked about your journey with belly fat. Yeah, well, you know, it's interesting. We have always been told, everyone has been told, that the reason we gain weight as we age is because our metabolism slows. And that was just accepted wisdom basically because we didn't have any other ideas on why that happened. But some pretty authoritative research came out this summer that found that metabolism actually stays the same between our early 20s and age 60. And then after age 60, metabolism slows by less than 0.07% a year. So very, very slightly. So that weight gain at midlife is not metabolism and that's good news because it means it's not inevitable. A few things are happening. One of them is, you know, sleep schedules get disrupted. We live more stressful lives as we get older. That certainly plays a role. Hormones change. That plays a role as well. In fact, about 50% of the fat that you gather in your belly during midlife is fat that used to live elsewhere in your body but has just gravitated to your midsection due to hormone changes. But a lot of the weight gain that we see is due to age-related muscle loss. And the reason we lose muscle, in fact, if you're sitting at home and you make a muscle, make a bicep, that represents about 5% of the muscle in your body. That's approximately how much we lose every decade after age 30. And over time, as we lose muscle, what happens is we burn fewer calories because muscle burns more calories than fat. Our inflammation goes up because muscle helps to fight inflammation, which is why people who have the most muscle have the lowest risk of heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and dozens of other age-related health issues. And the third thing is that muscle helps to sequester blood sugar. So when we eat a donut, we get a rush of blood sugar. A lot of that is stored in the muscles in the form of glycogen. Less muscle means less blood sugar can be stored there, which means your body has to do the only thing it can do, which is turn it into fat. So if we can hold on to that muscle as we age, we can reverse this age-related weight gain. But the reason we lose muscle as we age is because we develop something called anabolic resistance. Basically, it means our bodies have difficulty turning the protein in our diets into muscle tissue. So that's what the whole body reset does, is it helps you to overcome anabolic resistance, turning the protein that you eat into muscle and thereby helping to reduce age-related muscle loss and fat gain. Got it. How's that for an elevator pitch? That's a mouthful. That is interesting though. Yeah, it's very, very educational. So tell us, okay, so what should we do? Okay, we're, you know, we're losing muscle. How do we maintain and build muscle? How should we be eating? So, sure. So what happens is, so my 14-year-old daughter, she can have a glass of milk and with its, you know, eight grams of protein, her body will immediately start turning that protein in the muscle. I have a glass of milk and my body goes, I'm not impressed. What do you want me to do with this? Yeah. It's because as we get older, we need bigger doses of protein in order to turn on that muscle-making switch. Basically, it's like a frayed cord on an old lawn mower. You got to pull it harder, get the engine to turn over. So we need about 25 grams of protein at a time. If you're female, about 30. If you're a guy, a little bit less. If you're a ballerina, a little bit more. If you're a linebacker, that's the general range of how much an older body needs in order to turn that switch and start making muscle. And this is so important because our bodies are constantly breaking down and building up muscle. It's an ongoing process 24 hours a day. If you break down more than you build up, eventually you get age-related muscle loss and all the health issues that we've been discussing, including obesity. Now, the average American eats enough protein during the day. The average American eats about 90 grams of protein between 90 and 100. The problem is we eat about 60% of it at dinner time, whether it's a big cheeseburger or steak or salmon. Even if you eat a really healthy diet, you're probably eating most of your protein at night. And you're probably not eating enough protein in the morning. And unfortunately for older people, if you don't have that protein in the morning, your body is going to be in muscle loss mode all day long. So it doesn't matter what you do after lunch. If you've missed the window to start the process of protein synthesis, you'll basically have a muscle loss day. So every morning when you wake up, you got to decide, is this going to be a muscle loss day, or is it going to be a muscle maintenance day, and even a muscle gain day? Yeah. Interesting. Right. And so, yeah, I mean, typically a lot of people are eating like, well, let me have a bagel for breakfast or cereal. When they're not hungry. Right. Yeah. So they skip breakfast. Yeah. Or even people who make an effort to eat a healthy breakfast, who have a bowl of oatmeal with some berries and some nuts, and say, I'm having a healthy meal. Well, it's not. Not for someone your age. That's a healthy breakfast for somebody who's 25, but it's not a healthy breakfast for somebody who's 50. Right. Yeah. That's really, really interesting. And so, yeah. Yeah. Well, Steve, my daughter's in her 50s. I'm in my 80s. So is there, should there be a different amount of protein that she would eat at breakfast versus what I would need in my 80s? Well, you know, it's really interesting. I would say that in general, nutrition is sort of, nutrition science is today where brain surgery was 100 years ago. We're still very much in the dark ages. One of the challenges is that we haven't studied nutrition and aging nearly enough to come up with definitive answers. For example, if you look at the USDA's guidelines on healthy eating, you'll see that there's guidelines for people between the ages of one and three, between the ages of three and I think it's nine, and then it's like, goes to nine to 19, and then it's 19 to 30, and then 31 to 50. So we break it down by certain age categories until we get to age 50. And at age 50, the USDA just has one set of guidelines. So there's no doubt, no, there's no difference between what a person should eat at 51 and what a person should eat at 81 or even 101. And that's because we just haven't invested the science, we haven't invested the research money to really get definitive answers. So what I do think is that going with that 25 grams per meal for women, 30 for men, is probably the best way to go. And to make sure you're coupling that with exercise, particularly resistance exercise, whether that's weight training, or Pilates, or yoga, or calisthenics, or anything that taxes your muscles head to toe and helps you maintain strength. Right, and build muscle. Yeah. So going back to the idea of protein timing, you know, so you're saying 25 grams at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Is there a reason why that is? Can our body only metabolize a certain amount of protein, like if you had that big protein dinner? Yeah, your body can only metabolize maybe around 40 grams at the most at one time. And that's probably the maximum, even if you just went to the gym and lifted weights, anything over 40 is probably wasted, which means you're just eating extra calories that aren't doing anything for you. So better to eat 90 grams of protein, like we do today, but shift that protein toward morning. So it's 30, 30, 30, instead of 10, 30, 60, which is really much more common. Right, that is a revolutionary idea, I have to say. I see even 25 grams at breakfast, you have to really kind of think about it. Yeah, well, I know that that number 25 is in my brain now, and I'm looking at my meal, and wondering how much is protein in each one of these. And I found out that spinach is like, six grams or 10 grams of protein. I was very impressed. There you go. Now, can you talk about the role of fiber in this whole conversation, too? Oh, go ahead. Yeah, I just want to say that, you know, when we talk about muscles, right, if you go to your doctor, and you get a checkup, and your doctor says, what are you doing for exercise? And you say, well, I walk a lot, I swim, I take the occasional aerobics class, or I bike, or I go hiking every weekend, he's probably going to be pretty satisfied with that. The problem is doctors don't ask you, what are you doing to take care of your muscles? So we're not being taught how important this is. It's, and when I went to, when I started doing this research, and I started accumulating all this information, I sought out Heidi Skolnick, who is an exercise scientist, nutritionist, she was the nutritionist for the Mets, the Jets, for the Juilliard School of Ballet. So she really entered into the women's sports clinic at the hospital for special surgery. So she really is in tune with the science. And I said to her, Heidi, I'm finding all of this information, is it right? And she said, yes, all researchers know this. People who research this, accept this as the way it is. It's basically been established science for about 15 years. But it goes to the point of how little information is geared toward people, you know, at midlife and beyond. That this well, this well-established science is not reaching people our age. So that's what's so exciting to me about the whole body reset is the ability to take this very established and really important information and get it out to the general public. Yeah, you're so right. And it's also, you know, our channel, we focus on, you know, fitness, you know, for folks over 50, or at any age. And, you know, to your point, you know, we're focusing on strength training, but obviously balance, flexibility, in addition to cardio work, right? It's kind of all working together, right? Right. And we have in the whole body reset, we have both a resistance program that you can do without any kind of equipment. You just do with a couple of, you know, cans of soup if you want to. Beginner, intermediate, and advanced, plus a cardio program. Plus, we also have something called the whole body reset balance and balance and stretch. Because, you know, working as you get older, working on balance and flexibility is so important. Because, you know, it gets harder to stay balanced as we get older. And we want to make sure that we're protecting ourselves against falls. That is done in two ways. Number one, by staying stronger, especially in the core. So we really are, you know, are able to handle ourselves on icy or difficult terrain. And also by making sure that we're working on our balance. And we always know where we are in, you know, in the world, which is something that our bodies lose a little bit of the ability to do as we get older. Right. Right. Very good. Yeah. And just a note for our viewers, we created a couple of exercise videos for AARP with exercises from your book. So it was super fun to do that. And we invite you to check those out. All right. So I want to go back to that idea of fiber, if we could, you know, if there's protein, but then also I was reading in the book that fiber is very, very important as it relates to inflammation in the body. Right. So if you think of inflammation as sort of the king of all diseases, right, it's related to everything from diabetes, to heart disease, to arthritis, to Alzheimer's, obesity, you name it. So one way that you fight inflammation is to keep your muscles healthy. Another way you fight inflammation is by eating plenty of fiber rich, nutritious plant foods, which are also filled with phytochemicals that help to reduce inflammation. Imagine there's a war in your body all the time between muscle and fat. Inflammation is fat's friend. Inflammation is muscle's enemy. Okay. So as you eat more fiber, as you eat more plants, you begin to reduce inflammation, you help quell fat, you help build muscle. In fact, a really interesting study found that people who eat the most fruits and vegetables as they age, retain the most muscle. That muscle equation again, interesting. I'm always going to go back to that. Yes. And now the book also includes over 60 recipes as well, healthy recipes. And was wondering, are there any recipes that are your favorites in that whole mix? Well, first of all, you know, the thing that I rely on a lot are the breakfast recipes, because it is sometimes a challenge to get 30 grams of protein, 25 to 30 grams of protein in the morning, because we are used to eating the bowl oatmeal or the cronut or, you know, whatever it is that they have at the takeout. And even, you know, even an egg sandwich might not be enough. So we have a number of recipes there. Some are recipes you cook. Some are recipes you can throw together without cooking. Some are smoothies. And that's probably where I lean the most in the morning are smoothie recipes. We have, I think, a dozen smoothie recipes that are essentially protein delivery systems that come in chocolate. I mean, they're absolutely delicious. And then we also have, when we first started the Whole Body Reset, the first thing we did after developing the program was to test it with a group of 100 AARP employees between the ages of 50 and 75. And we found that not only did they lose weight, but they actually lost as much as 22 pounds in just the initial 12 weeks. But more important, they've kept the weight off and continue to lose weight afterwards. And we also encouraged them to submit their own recipes that would fit in with the guidelines. And one of our guys submitted a crab soup that is amazing. May not be to everybody's taste, but it's definitely my favorite recipe. Okay, we're gonna look for that. And of course, the chili recipes are great. Yeah, it's so easy and simple. Put it in the stove, forget about it for a few hours. And there it is. Very, very cool. You know, so a lot of people are, you know, looking at different diets, or maybe they're restricting calories, you know, can you talk to us about that? You know, people that say, Oh, I'm just going to eat less today. You know, why is that not good? And how does the Whole Body Reset align with other diet plans that are out there? The number one risk factor for future weight gain is being on a diet. Here's why. Because especially as we get older, when you restrict calories, you're not feeding your muscles, your muscles wither. So you can lose weight. But basically, if you decide you're not going to eat today, the first thing your body is going to do is it's going to jettison water. So you're going to lose some water weight. The next thing it's going to do is it's going to jettison muscle, because muscle is more metabolically actively fat. And the last thing it's going to do is to give up body fat. So if you want to lose muscle, and hold on to fat, then cutting calories is a great way to do that. And in the long run, you know, in the short term, you will lose weight, you'll go on a scale and you go, Oh, look, I weigh five pounds less today than I did five days ago. And the reason is because you've lost water weight and you've lost muscle. Come back to that scale, two months later, and you'll see that you're actually higher than you were before you started the diet. Because guess what, once you go off the diet, your metabolism, the number of calories you burn per day has been reduced by the fact that you've given up that muscle mass. I think that is and this applies to this applies to things like intermittent fasting, which I don't hate intermittent fasting for younger people. Right. But by the time you reach your 30s, and especially 40s and beyond, it's very destructive. So if you want to eat three meals a day, and only eat in an eight hour window, okay, fine. Have your breakfast at 10 and your last meal at six and you're eating three meals a day. That's fine. Or if you just want to just say, I'm going to stop eating at 8pm. That's great. But the idea of skipping days or only eating 500 calories a day, or only eating in the afternoon, unbelievably bad for the older body. The same thing goes for things like keto. Keto is a huge trend. Guess what you do in keto, you don't eat protein. And you don't eat carbs. So then what happens, you lose a lot of weight. Why? Because you're losing a lot of water weight and you're losing a lot of muscle. But after you're done with your avocado and olive oil diet, and you go back to eating normally, you'll find that you gain weight rapidly. The idea of the whole body reset is to give you a way of eating that's sustainable for the rest of your life. That will take off the weight slowly, but permanently. And I think that's the thing that we need to, the first thing we have to do if we're worried about our weight is stop age related weight gain. That's job one. This is the program that does that. The second job is begin to lose weight. And we can do that slowly using the whole body reset. But the most important thing is you're not going to gain any more weight going forward. Wow, it is. I think that's going to be just like eye opening to so many people. Really? Okay, this is so so educational. Um, what do you say to people? We're just going to close it out here. You say to people like, I have no idea where to start. I mean, you know, I've been I've done all these diets. I don't even know where to begin. How do I, I don't even start whole body reset. All right, your reset starts at breakfast tomorrow. Okay. Reset starts at breakfast tomorrow. Think about what you want to have for breakfast tomorrow. You want to have us get like some protein powder, make a protein smoothie. Great. You want to do like an egg and cheese omelet with some vegetables. You want to do you know, an oatmeal, but mix in like cooking in milk instead of water and mix in like some nuts and some black, some hemp seeds, which are like a great cheap tablespoon of hemp seeds has five grams of protein. Think about that. Think about how you're going to get to 25 grams of protein in one. And then just do that. Just do that. Okay. And everything else will come naturally. Yeah, just take a baby step really will begin to eat a healthy lunch and then you'll eat a smaller dinner because you won't be as hungry and you won't have food cravings because you're your feet you're you're fueling your body throughout the day. One of the things that we really heard and continue to hear from anybody who's trying to whole body reset is their energy levels are up and their hunger is down. And I believe me, I used to be one of those guys who like if I don't have a two o'clock or three o'clock nap, I'm a mess. That goes away that goes away when you begin to put protein in the first part of your day. Okay, sounds good. That sounds really good. Okay, I'm gonna sneak in one more question because it just made me think of something. But snacking and does this mean I have to, you know, omit certain things from my diet? Like, you know, maybe I want that cookie or candy in the afternoon. What do you say about like snackers? Hey, listen, you know, if you want to cut stuff out of your diet, that's up to you. Okay, but life happens. birthdays happen. pizzas arrive unexpectedly. You walk into the office and somebody brought donuts. So what are you gonna do? Like, that's the way it is, right? Right. Somebody wants to like, you know, go out for beers like that's the way it is. Right. Make sure you're getting your 25 grams of protein three times a day. Make sure you're getting the fiber that you need throughout the day. When you have a snack, try to have some protein and some fiber. So you want a cookie, have a couple cookies. But you know, maybe you have a glass of milk and an apple to go with that. Great, sounds great. So the pizza arrives. Great. Eat the pizza. I always eat the pizza. All right. But maybe you can ask like them to put some vegetables on the pizza, side salad, or maybe after you have the pizza, maybe you go and have like, you know, a small maybe a small yogurt with some berries on it for dessert, or some ricotta cheese. Yummy for dessert. Make sure you got that protein and fiber. That's all you're doing. Just hit those numbers. Let everything else take care of itself. Don't deprive yourself of anything. Don't put anything as as a no go zone. You know, and I say the same thing about alcohol. People say, you know, well, can I drink in the diet? I'm like, you're 50 plus. What am I going to tell you that you don't already know? Right. Okay, I just thought of one more thing. How about lactose intolerant people? That the plan does include dairy. Sure. So one thing to note is that there are a lot of dairy options that are very low in lactose, yogurt, and other fermented dairy products are very low in lactose. A lot of people will find that they can't drink milk or eat cheese, but they can have those. With whey proteins, there are two typical types of whey protein, whey protein concentrate, very high in lactose. Whey protein isolate has had the lactose removed. So always look for isolate. And then there are plenty of alternatives to dairy. Pea protein and soy protein, in particular, have relatively high protein numbers. Like a pea milk is close to what whole milk is. Be careful though, because something like almond milk, almost no protein. Oat milk, almost no protein. They sound good. They're not. So read the labels and make sure you're getting the protein that you need. I'm going to check out my almond milk now. That's right. It's a really, really good point. Wonderful. Well, listen, thank you so much for spending time with us. This has been so informative. And I know that our viewers will really get a lot out of it. So thank you so much. There's information about the whole body recycle in the description. Yes. So check that out. Yeah. So anyway, Stephen, thank you so much. We wish you all the best with the book and really appreciate you taking time with us. Nice meeting you. Thank you. Have a good one. Bye-bye.