Real Talk on Women’s Health

Is Your Weight Weighing You Down? How To Manage It

Stacey Karkkainen, Certified Nurse Practitioner with Essentia Health, joins the Real Talk on Women’s Health podcast to talk about general weight management for women. We talk about how to build healthy habits for weight loss, why maintaining a healthy weight is so important and more, including: - how hormonal changes play a role in weight management for women - common misconceptions about dieting and weight loss - when a woman should consider seeing a professional regarding weight management - and more.

Duration:: 14m
Broadcast on:: 23 Jan 2025
Audio Format:: other

Welcome back to another episode of the Real Talk on Women's Health podcast with Asencha Health. I am joined today by Stacey Carkinin, a certified nurse practitioner with Asencha Health. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. I feel like this topic that we're about to talk about is something that every single, probably person on the planet can relate to, but especially women. So let's dive right into weight management. Why is weight management such an important aspect of overall health, especially for women? Like I said, this is something I think every single woman out there can relate to. Yeah, it is really an important topic and something that's really topping our health care right now because excess weight gain is really something that so many people are facing these days with a change in our food sources. So maintaining normal weight helps our body function at an optimal level. And when our body functions at an optimal level, then it decreases our chance of developing chronic diseases later in life. And when we develop chronic diseases, then we just don't feel well. We're facing heart attacks, strokes, and type 2 diabetes, which can lead to vascular disease and so many different things. One thing that I feel like women have against them is hormonal changes. And that always plays a big role in everything. But how do hormonal changes affect weight management in women? Yeah, absolutely. You know, our bodies are a hormone-based functioning machine. And women experience hormone changes as early as puberty when we're talking about a menstrual cycle. And once that menstrual cycle starts monthly, we're experiencing hormonal changes with bloating and fluid retention. Common hormonal changes that happen as the women ages is that we start to slow down with our estrogens and androgens. And especially once we hit the perimenopausal years and physiologically, our hormones start to change and we experience a decrease in muscle mass. And then we start getting an increase in what we call central adiposity, which is a belly fat. So that can be a big issue with women with that central body fat, especially when we hit menopause in those late 40s and 50s. A huge topic when it comes to weight management is obviously dieting. So what are some common misconceptions about dieting and weight loss? Yeah, this is kind of a favorite question for me here. Misconceptions is that fat diets work. There are tons of fat diets out there and it's a trillion, multi trillion dollar industry is to set up a diet, a fat diet. So the problem with fat diets is that once a person stops this fat diet, you have a very high chance of weight regain because you return to your old habits, right? Fat diets are really set up by somebody. They have great information in them. Most of them, some of them are a little wonky, but most of them have great information, but it's for somebody else's culture. For somebody else's ideas and not your own and it's hard to follow. So once you're done with it, you start going back to what's comfortable for you and then the weight starts coming on. Another one is people believe that diet doesn't matter as long as you exercise more. The truth is in studies show that you can't out exercise nutrition. Nutrition is so important and that is really the foundation of weight loss. Another one is people feel that if they're eating healthy, they can eat as much food as they want and they're going to lose weight. And that's just simply not true. Portion sizes really count. If you're eating more calories than what your body takes in, you simply just aren't going to lose weight. And you have to think about healthy foods and what really is a healthy food when you're talking about it. Proteins, high in proteins, high in certain vegetables and decrease in simple, refined carbohydrates are going to be the better foods to focus on. I'm actually shocked to hear that because I thought when it comes to healthy food, you can just eat whatever you want, however much you want. So that's that is really good to know. That must be a big misconception. Yeah. And another misconception for some people is that obesity is not genetic. So there is a genetic component to obesity, although lifestyle plays a very large role in obesity. There are studies that show that obesity has been linked to genetics. So when you have an individual that has a genetic link to obesity, and it's hard to figure that out unless you do genetic testing, which is really expensive, we just don't do it in our clinic. But you can kind of tell when there's a large family history of obesity that there potentially could be a genetic disposition. People do have a chance of still losing weight when we're looking at lifestyle modifications. But we still have to look at the fact that this has been a family thing for generations. And so we can get them to an optimal level of weight loss that may not be within what is considered a standard. We don't want to ignore the fact that genetics play a role. But we also don't want to use that as a crutch and say that you're never going to be able to lose weight. I feel like a big part of weight management and I'm in my 30s. And this is what I've found so far. It really just comes down to healthy habits in your everyday life. So what are some general habits of proper nutrition that you recommend for maintaining a healthy weight? And how can we incorporate these into their daily routines? Yeah, you're absolutely right. General daily habits is where to go. And the biggest thing that you can start with is decrease your ultra processed foods, your fast foods. They're just not healthy for you. So think about it this way. If it comes in a box or a bag with a barcode, stay away. So that's one thing. Incorporate real whole foods. And that's how you heal your body. Whole foods heals your body. Food is medicine. Decreasing those ultra processed foods like I had said earlier, those ultra processed foods are the ones that can harm your body. And when we're talking about the whole foods that I had mentioned, increasing your protein and incorporate protein into every meal, especially women, women need to increase that protein, have it at every meal, because as you age, your muscle mass decreases. And that's just something you're not going to get away from physiologically. That's how our bodies work. Something that I really like to do is meal plan and prep for the week ahead on Sunday, because that helps me just stay on track and take the thinking out of it. Can you kind of elaborate on how meal planning and preparation help women stay on track with their nutrition goals? Meal planning takes the thinking and the effort out of a busy day. So when you have time to meal plan and you have those foods in your refrigerator and you have come home from a day that you're really busy, kids are in activities, or you're just really tired because work was exhausting. Now you have that meal that you just have to warm up, or you have food that's ready in the morning that you can use as a grab and go environment instead of having to stop at a gas station or a fast food store. So it can really create an environment for eating good, healthy foods. And you mentioned a few specific foods and nutrients that women should focus on to support their weight management efforts, but what are some other ones? So women are at risk for bone loss. So adding foods high in calcium is really important. So the best would be green leafy vegetables. They have a really high calcium source and they're really well absorbed. They're actually a little better absorbed than milk and a lot of women don't drink milk. So looking towards those green leafy vegetables can benefit women extremely well. So something I really struggle with is making healthier choices when I'm dining out or I'm traveling because obviously that makes things way harder than if you're just at home. So do you have any advice for women for when they're doing those things? Yes. When you are dining out when you're traveling, plan ahead. If you are nowhere, you're going to eat on what options you have to eat, make a plan and see what they are. Really try to avoid the pasta options. Instead, choose something that has a protein in it. Instead of asking for that carb that might be on the side, ask for a second helping of vegetables as a substitute. Enjoy a burger without the bun. Get into the habit of eating your vegetable, then your protein, and then if there's a carb on the plate, your stomach may only have a little bit of room left for that carb. So you're eating only that small serving. That's an amazing tip because I always start with the carbs. The french fries. So that that is a really good tip. And then if you're enjoying an alcoholic beverage, consider low carb options. Drink dry wines instead of the fruiting ones and lean on distilled alcohols like your whiskey, your vodka, and have that mixed drink with water, maybe just a little bit of a sweetener or with some diet soda. When should someone consider seeking professional help regarding weight management care? When you feel like you are ready to commit to lifestyle changes, then it's a good idea and a good time to seek professional help for weight management care. Or if you feel like you're stuck, you've done everything that you can and you don't see the weight going off. Then that's another good time to seek some professional help for weight management. So for those that don't know, can you explain what GLP1 medications are and how they work in the context of weight management? Sure. GLP1s are a hormone based medication developed to mimic what is called the GLP1 hormone in the body. So we actually have this hormone in our body. So this works by enhancing insulin secretion in the pancreas and it suppresses inappropriately elevated glucagon and it also slows gastric emptying. So when gastric emptying, gastric meaning stomach emptying. So when the stomach emptying is slowed down, the stomach stays stretched and then that stretching of the stomach has stretch receptors that gives a signal to the brain and tells the brain that you're still full and thus it decreases the amount of food that you're eating. The interesting thing is that with this GLP1 because this is a natural hormone that's already in our body, we actually can increase the amount of that hormone with the foods that we're eating. So if you're not able to get the medication because of various factors such as insurance or you're trying to achieve pregnancy or you just don't want to be on a medication, you can add things to food choices like one of them is turmeric. Bitter foods, surprisingly, can increase the GLP1 hormone. In other foods like non-starchy vegetables, proteins and healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids, those are all been shown in studies to increase that GLP1 naturally. Are there any risks or side effects that women should be aware of if they're considering using a GLP1 medication? All medications come with side effects. So first of all, if you are diabetic, the GLP1 medications came out to help with diabetes. They were first a diabetic medication only. So if you are diabetic and you start using this medication, you always want to monitor your blood sugars and make sure you're not getting blood sugar loads. So have a good working relationship with your provider so that you can monitor your blood sugars. These medications are started and then they're what we call a tapering dose where you increase the dosage as you stay on the medication and having that good working relationship with your provider that will help you to know when to do those increases in the setting of diabetes. When you're using this medication for weight loss, you don't necessarily need to worry so much about your blood sugars, but for both diabetes and weight loss, some of the common side effects are nausea, which could lead to vomiting. You could also experience acid reflux and that's thought to be because it slows down the stomach emptying. You have a slowdown of your intestinal movement so you could experience some constipation. You could also experience fatigue. Other side effects experienced are sometimes people get diarrhea instead of constipation. They may experience abdominal pain, headache, and dizziness. There are some very rare but serious side effects that have been reported and these are pancreatitis and bowel obstruction. And as with all other medications, you could have an allergy to this medication. So let's say a woman is listening to this right now, considering using a GLP1 medication, what advice do you have to make sure that they achieve the best results or maybe what advice do you have for them going into it? Yeah, this is a really good question because the GLP1 medications have been FDA approved for primary care as a first nine defense in obesity management right now. What a lot of people don't understand and providers themselves is that GLP1 medications in the setting of obesity achieve their optimal results with lifestyle modifications. And that means changing your food choices and adding exercise. So studies also showed that GLP1 medications have a shelf life per se. So you are going to get your most effective weight loss in the first 12 months of use. After that, you're not going to really see weight loss any longer with this medication, but they will still continue to decrease your appetite and cravings. So what you want to do when you're using to get the most effectiveness with this medication is you want to change your food choices. You need to add protein protein protein protein. These medications, if you don't add protein, and then also add exercise, which I'll get to, these can lead to muscle loss. You have a chance with GLP1 medications to lose weight fairly fast. If you're not eating enough protein and doing exercise, which includes resistance exercise, your body loses weight in ways where it will eat at your muscles versus your fat. And this sets a person up for a high fat mass versus muscle mass. And in the end, it causes a really inefficient body and subjects you for weight regain. And that's just not a healthy situation for anybody to be in. So if women have questions about weight management, they don't know where to start. They can obviously contact essential health. Where can they get more information on what we've talked about in all things weight management? Sure. You can reach out to our weight management department by finding us online or you can schedule an appointment through your my chart app or by calling 218-786-7830 or 844-232-9262. Stacy Karkin and Certified Nurse Practitioner, thank you for joining me on the Real Talk on Women's Health Podcast with Ascension Health to talk about general weight management and everything that comes with it. Thank you for having me.