Podcast: The Female Fitness Formula: Why Traditional Research Has Failed Women

Introduction

Have you ever wondered why that early morning workout and fasting routine leaves you feeling absolutely exhausted, even though it's supposed to be "optimal"? Here's the thing - most of the fitness and nutrition advice we follow was never actually tested on women. (Yes, really!)

I've been diving deep into Dr. Stacy Sims' revolutionary research, and what I've discovered will probably surprise you. Those popular fitness "rules" we've all been following? They're based almost entirely on studies done on men. And our bodies work very differently.

In today's special episode, I'm breaking down:

• Why that morning fasting routine might be sabotaging your energy levels and hormones
• The truth about protein timing specifically for women (it's not what you think!)
• How to build and maintain strength during menopause (without burning yourself out)
• The real reason you might feel wiped out after early morning workouts (hint: it's about cortisol)
• A complete game-changer approach to weight training that works WITH your female physiology

If you're tired of following one-size-fits-all advice that doesn't seem to work for you, this episode is going to be eye-opening. It's time to start working with your biology, not against it.

Transcription of Podcast

Dr Orlena (00:02.542)
Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to Fit and Fabulous with me, Dr. Orlena I hope that you are feeling amazing today. I can't believe it's nearly the end of February and it feels to me that spring is in the air. Okay, let me caveat that. It's not so much that spring is in the air, but it feels like we're moving towards the second half of winter. Do know what I mean? Like the days are getting a little bit lighter and I can hear birds singing and I'm not gonna say my garden is

full of flowers, because that would be a total lie, but it's a little bit green and there's lemons on the lemon tree, so that's amazing. Okay, you know what I'm talking about. Right, today I want to talk to you a little bit about Dr. Stacey Sims and some of the lessons that I have learnt by following her and some of the changes that I have implemented to my own personal routine. Thank you to her and listening to her. So, first of all, let's...

think about who is Dr. Stacey Sim. She is a physiologist. And I think it's really important to have a look at who somebody is and what their background is when you decide whether you are going to trust what they have to say. And I say this not from a place of, my goodness, they have to be super, super qualified. But one of the things that I think we really have to look out for is

Experts who really back themselves into a corner. And what I mean by that is if you're an expert, world expert in something and you, for example, say, you have to eat vegan or you have to eat loads of meat, then what happens is it becomes very difficult for you to then change your mind. A bit like I did. I've just said, hey, I've changed how I did things, but it's very difficult for people to do that once they have created this.

big persona of what they are and what their message is. And this is really interesting because it is basically humans like to be consistent and that is a double-edged sword. It's a great thing to use when you decide that you want to reach a goal. What you can do is announce it to the world and although the world is not looking at you all the time, your own consistency is going to help you do that. So for example,

Dr Orlena (02:21.505)
Some of my clients in my group will say, I am somebody who exercises. And because I have announced this, I am now going to do three workouts a week. And we aren't obviously watching them. Yes, they're gonna come back and have a little bit of accountability, but really that isn't what's going on here. It's really that they have said to the world, I am somebody who exercises. And in order to make that true, they then have to go and exercise.

this is similar to what happens to people who have a very strong message which is do it this way, do it that way, that they become very fixated on that message and what can happen is they might see a new bit of information

but their brain doesn't really take it in. either discard it, they're not likely to say, do you know what, there's this new bit of information and actually, do you know what, the carnivore diet is not great because it doesn't have enough vegetables in. Most people don't do that. And the problem is we have these experts who are really very one-sided and who really, they're almost like lawyers who are giving their defense of a situation as opposed to being the judge.

and looking at this side and that side. And that's what we want. We want to be the judge who is looking at one side of the story and another side of the story and trying to weigh up, you know, like, what is the best thing for me and what is going on rather than you have to do it this way. So going back to Dr. Stacey Sims, this is why when I decide whether I am going to follow somebody or not follow somebody, I want to know a little bit about their background and what they're advocating. So she is a physiologist.

and she started looking at why is it that women do not get represented in a lot of the research. So the story that she says, and I'll tell you where you can find her in a minute, but the story that she really tells is that when she was an undergraduate and looking at exercise physiology and saying, do you know what, my results are different than this, and being told, yeah, well, that's because you're a female. And we don't really do research on females because females have these, you know, menstrual cycles and things like this.

Dr Orlena (04:32.928)
that she realized that a lot of medical research, particularly when it comes to exercise and nutrition is done on men, and specifically college-aged men who were of 18 to 25, because they're a really good cohort of people to do experiments on, because they're keen and they've got time and they're happy to do these experiments.

Now, the problem with all of this is women are not the same as men. In the same way that children's physiology is not the same as adult physiology, women physiology is different from male physiology. And we have lots of different reasons for that, not least because we have our menstrual cycles and then we have menopause and we have a very different hormone profile. And so she has spent her entire career really looking at women and what is the best way for women to exercise.

And when we want to think about maintain muscle mass and potentially lose fat, how do we do this in the best way possible? And she has written two books. So she has written one book called Raw, which is specifically aimed at women who are menopausal, sorry, not menopausal, menstruating. So younger women. Now I have to confess, I haven't read that book because it doesn't really apply to me. And then her other one, which I have read or nearly finished reading,

is called Next Level and it's really looking at menopausal women and what menopausal women can do to maintain their health, their longevity. So I think she's really an interesting person to pay attention to and she's also done a couple of podcasts which I have listened to and if you have time I recommend you go and listen to them too. Now I will tell you they are both a couple of hours long so she is super interesting and the two that I have listened to are one on a podcast called Diary of a CEO

and another on the Matthew Huberman podcast. And he has lots of interesting podcasts, but again, they're super long. They're a couple of hours long each time. And he will get in experts to come and tell their, you know, whatever it is that they're talking about. But if you just go into your podcast app and type in her name, Stacey Sim, you'll see that she's done other podcasts as well. I wonder if we can get her on this podcast. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could? I will invite her and we will see.

Dr Orlena (06:49.385)
But some of the things I want to tell you about how we agree and how she has changed my mind. So if we go back to the four pillars and we think about pillar number one is nutrition. So she advocates a plant-based diet, hooray, hooray, hooray, because it is good for your biome. And she also talks about having 30 different plants in a week, plant sources, that's perfect and...

That for me sort of ticks a big box, because I see loads of people talking about protein and the problem with protein and the keto diet in my opinion is that they are not getting enough fiber and you're not really looking after your bio in a way. So I'm very glad that we agree on that. Now, one of the things she says about protein is essentially as women get older, well men as well, but we're specifically talking about women, as we get older, our ability to be able to use the protein that we eat,

diminishes, therefore we need to eat more protein in order to be able to maintain our muscle bulk. So I'm sure that you know that after about 40, our muscle bulk decreases year by year by year, unless you are doing something to counterbalance that. And the two things that you can really do are eat enough protein. So we're looking at 30 grams, we'll say two milligrams per kilogram per day. So if you're 60 kilograms,

that's milligrams in total a day, which basically works out at about 30 grams per meal of protein. Now you can get that protein in the form of meat if you want to. I personally would recommend having some plant sources in there as well. And she says, and I agree with her, that it is better to be eating plant food rather, or sort of whole food, rather than protein powder, or relying on protein powder, I think. And I think if you are,

using plant protein, you may need to supplement a little bit with some protein powder. Now that doesn't mean you need to be eating protein powder three times a meal. So personally, what I do is I have been adding in a vegan protein powder. Now you could use vegan or you could use whey. I think next time I'm going to try whey, which is higher in lysine, which is really good for building muscles. Whey is basically a dairy product, essentially.

Dr Orlena (09:05.738)
So I have been adding in more of a protein powder than I used to. I used to be using hemp protein, which is less protein basically than if you're getting a decent protein powder, which is basically all protein. So that's one of the changes I have made is thinking more about my protein as well as my fiber. So if I break down nutrition and say, if you could take nothing from or anything from this podcast, and it's just gonna be one thing, here's what I want you to take.

Healthy nutrition in a nutshell. 30 grams of fiber a day, 30 different plant sources, which can include things like oats and beans, doesn't have to be fruit and vegetables, in a week, and 30 grams of protein, or more or less 30 grams of protein per meal. Now, you might not go for 30 grams. For me, I'm under 60 kilograms, so 30 grams is a little bit on the high side for me, and I suspect I don't reach 30 grams.

every single meal time. And I also suspect that I eat far more protein in the morning after my workout, which is a good thing, rather than later on in the afternoon. So the other bits that she has been saying is, well, let's go to eating around exercising. If you look at the male literature, it basically says, if you exercise, you've got about a day in which to eat that protein. And she's saying that's not true for females. If you are working out and you want to

make the most of your working out, what you actually need to do is eat within half an hour of stopping. So really make sure that your body has got the protein it needs. Now, the other thing that I find really, really interesting is she says that fasting for women is not great. A lot of those exercises, a lot of those studies, again, were done on men and...

really fasting for women puts a stress on their body in a not great way. So there's different ways that you can stress your body and some of that stress is good and helps you build muscle and some of that stress is not good and helps you use up muscle in a way that you don't want to. sort of like making your muscle less and that fasting puts a stress on our body that is not great. And she says that all females should exercise in a non...

Dr Orlena (11:23.154)
fasted state. Now that doesn't mean you have to go and have a giant breakfast before you exercise. What she's talking about is a little bit of protein if you're doing resistance training or a little bit of carbohydrates if you're something else. So for me, what that equates to is having a piece of fruit like a banana and a coffee with some protein powder in it, some soy milk and a bit of protein powder. So I have that now before I exercise.

And previously I was exercising fasted and it was fine. But you never know until you change something what the difference is gonna be. And actually I've been doing it for a few weeks now and I think I prefer it this way. Now, regardless of whether I feel like I prefer it this way, what she's basically saying is, number one, you don't want to be exercising fasted because your body basically stresses out. The other thing is, that females have a high cortisol level first thing in the

and that really we should be eating something, it can be something small, it doesn't have to be something big, but we should be eating something within half an hour of waking up so that that cortisol level can go down. Now cortisol is your stress hormone and stress, you know, if we've got our stress hormone high all the time, what it's gonna be doing is helping you store fat, which is not something that we want, and helping you use, deplete your muscle as opposed to what we really want. It's basically the opposite of what we want. What we want is to be burning our fat and to be building our muscle.

So a few changes that I have made to the way I eat. Now, actually, I have always liked eating in the morning. So I eat in the morning, normally after I exercise, and I like to eat sort of morning forwards, towards the beginning of the day. So breakfast, lunch at about one, and then if I could, I would have dinner at around five and then stop eating. As opposed to...

fasting until midday and then eating later on into the evening. The first way is better for females. Now I know that everybody is different and some of you will say, but I love fasting until midday. This is how I've always done it. But I put it to you that we'll go and listen to her stuff and see what she has to say first of all. So come from a place of, yeah, actually I've listened to all of the information and I'm gonna try it a different way. And if you're gonna try things differently,

Dr Orlena (13:37.531)
What I would suggest is try it for a few months, not just a week or two weeks. You really, if you're making changes like this, you have to make them for a bigger period of time. Okay, so that's nutrition. Moving on to exercise. What she says about exercise is looking at women over 50, thinking about women who really want to change their body composition. So lose fat and gain muscle and who are...

time poor, so busy people who really want to maximize the amount of benefit that they get from their exercise. So benefit in terms of building up your muscle, benefit in terms of your cardiovascular health. The best things that you can do are HIIT exercise or SIT exercise, which is kind of the same. So that's high intensity interval training. So doing something high intensity to 20 to 40 seconds, resting, and then doing it again.

going to the gym and

going to the gym and lifting heavy weights. So you're looking at five reps of something really heavy. So five times that as opposed to eight to 10 reps. Now, obviously you don't just go into the gym and start doing that. You have to build up. So if you've never been to the gym, you go to the gym and you start with the lighter weights and you do those for a bit, say.

8 to 15 reps depending on what you're doing and then gradually you increase the rates and decrease the amount that you're doing. If you're already going to the gym, what you can do is increase your weights and do them for less period. And what this is doing is essentially it all comes down to estrogen. When we're menopausal or perimenopausal, our estrogen levels, or let's take a step back, before we are menopausal, our estrogen is one of the main signals to us to build muscle.

Dr Orlena (15:28.762)
And what happens during menopause is, well, during that perimenopausal phase, our estuarine levels are very erratic. They go up and down and up and down, depending on what's going on at any one given time, until they basically decline and go right down. And the problem with them declining and going down is we no longer have that drive, that estuarine saying, build muscle, build muscle. And so we have to give our body a different way to understand that it needs to build muscle. And in her opinion, that is doing these

heavy weights, that stress is a good stress and it says to your body, hey, do you know what? You need to have a little bit more muscle. If we're gonna be doing this, you need to be a bit stronger. So what I have been doing is decreasing the amount of reps that I do, doing as high as I can. And I've also added a HIIT exercise to my gym. So I go to the gym on Tuesday and Thursday and in between that I'm doing swimming Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And at the weekend, it's kind of a rest, kind of.

cycling and swimming. Perhaps I should do a few more rest days. But it's really interesting to think about how we can maximise our workouts. And that's not to say that you shouldn't do things like going for a walk and cycle rides.

But I mean, they're great for other things. They have great other benefits like being out in nature and relaxation and things like that. But what she's basically saying is if you've got a limited period of time, you get far more benefit for exercising like that. Now, the other thing really to think about as well is your bones as we get older and really doing a little bit of jumping and making sure that we're impacting. And I'm hoping I have invited somebody to come and talk on our podcast about bone health.

and how jumping can help. So fingers crossed that they will come and you can listen to that soon. So in a nutshell, those are some big changes that I've made. The one other thing I have done is I have started adding in creatine to my routine. Now creatine is something that bodybuilders use in order to build up their muscles, get big muscles. And they have to do this thing called a loading.

Dr Orlena (17:39.404)
is shown, I know that the evidence says if you use creatine, you get bigger muscles. The evidence also says if you stop taking creatine, basically you lose all of that. And so I kind of thought, well, I don't really understand the point of doing this. But what she's saying is you shouldn't be taking creatine in order to build your muscles. You should be taking creatine because...

it's integral to a lot of cells. Your cells need creatine and it's particularly beneficial for your biome and your brain. So it's a much smaller dose. It's just five milligrams of creatine, but that in perimenopause and beyond, that is something that really is worth taking every single day. So I have added that into my routine along with my different protein powder. So just a few things to think about.

I really recommend going and checking out those podcasts and actually I recommend reading her book depending on where you are. As I say, I read the second one, which is called Next Level and she explains things in a really easy to understand way. And I think it is actually the best book that I've read on hormonal changes that happen in menopause and that perimenopausal phase. And also the best in terms of giving clear instructions

to what we should do to help maintain our body and to be vibrant and live long and healthy life. Okay, my friends, have a fabulous week and I will chat to you again next week.