The "Metabolic Secret": Why Your Workouts Should Be Different (Based on Your Sex)- Ep. 250

Speaker 1: 1:25

Welcome to the show, everybody. This is the next level human podcast. I am your host, dr Jade Tita. Happy 2024.

Speaker 1: 1:35

Well, new Year's resolutions right, it's part of what we're gonna talk about today, but we're gonna focus specifically on exercise and workouts and we're going to do something here that I hope will be useful for you, and we're gonna talk about the idea of living what I might call a metabolism first lifestyle. I've just launched two new programs for the New Year. One is called the metabolic female and it is four levels of workouts, each lasting 12 weeks each, so a full 52 weeks or one year worth of workouts the metabolic female and also the metabolic male, also four 12 week programs, 52 weeks. So I have launched here in the New Year the metabolic male and metabolic female workouts. Now they're called the metabolic female and metabolic male, and the first thing I want to discuss in this regard is what does it mean to be metabolic in the first place or to live metabolic? So this is a term that I oftentimes use and I want to explain it because it will also get us into this discussion about, perhaps, the differences between male workouts and female workouts, and even if there is any difference and if there's something that we can glean or gain from looking at male and female physiology separately. So we're gonna cover this idea of the metabolic female and the metabolic male programs. I'm gonna tell you how you can get them to if you're interested in these workouts.

Speaker 1: 3:24

But first we're gonna talk about the first component of this, which is metabolic. What literally does it mean to be metabolic? Well, actually it can't be literally, because this is a phrase that I use, not many other people use, but it can be confusing, because metabolism really has a defined definition, and it is essentially defined in the world of science anyway, as the way in which our body metabolizes or breaks down fuel in the form of fat, protein, carbohydrates, and turns it into energy, atp. This is what our metabolism does. In a sense, it's all about how we procure, how we digest, assimilate, process energy as humans.

Speaker 1: 4:14

More broadly, when we talk about metabolism, it is really, from my perspective, the entire apparatus that helps us survive. It is the apparatus that essentially, through our senses, looks out into the outside environment and looks at things like what's going on with light, what season is it? How much food is available, what kind of danger is there? Am I safe and secure? Do I need to be under hypervigilance and am I under threat? All of this kind of stuff, what is going out in the on in the outside environment and then also what is happening in terms of needs in the inside environment. So there's the outside environment and then there's our inside cells that need to receive information from the outside world and in a sense, our cells don't have, you know, eyes and ears. They can't tell what is going on in the outside world. So our brain has to process that through our senses and then send that information to the physiology or to the cells and tissues and organs of the body.

Speaker 1: 5:25

And from my perspective, this is what we mean by metabolism. It is the process of measuring and responding to stress in its simplest form, in the way I look at things. And so to live metabolic means to have, in my way of looking at it, a stress resilient system, to build a stress resilient system, to live in such a way and practice in such a way and train in such a way and eat in such a way and rest and recover in such a way that optimizes our ability to sense and respond to the outside environment and meet the demands of our inside physiology. This is what it means to be metabolic, and so the idea then would be not about having a faster or slower metabolism, but a more resilient and responsive metabolism. Some may call this metabolic flexibility. So to be metabolic, from my perspective, is to be resilient and responsive and adaptive and reactive in a healthy way to the outside world. This is what it means to live metabolic, and, from my perspective, if we're going to talk about living metabolic and the metabolic female and the metabolic male, then we have to essentially say to ourselves okay, when I'm living metabolic, if I'm going to live metabolic, then I need to understand how my metabolism functions and the language the metabolism speaks. The metabolism does not speak French or Spanish or English or Russian. It speaks metabolism, and that is a language that, if we're going to quote, live metabolic and develop a flexible, responsive, adaptive, reactive metabolism, we need to learn to speak that language. Now, that is a language that is a language of biofeedback.

Speaker 1: 7:33

In other words, we feel hunger. As humans, we have cravings. As humans, we have energy levels that sometimes are up, sometimes are down, sometimes are predictable, sometimes are not. Our exercise performance and our exercise recovery, our ability to focus on tasks, our mood whether we're anxious, depressed, have good mood, bad mood, things like our reproductive capacity, erections, libido, menses, all of these kinds of things, our digestive capacity are we bloated or gassy? Are stools well formed? Are we getting enough fiber? Are we digesting things appropriately? And, of course, signs and symptoms. Are we getting itchy skin? Are we able to not have joint pains and be pain-free and not getting headaches, and all of these things.

Speaker 1: 8:32

This is the language of metabolism, and so I have come up with different terms that I use as euphemisms for this idea of living metabolic or speaking the metabolic language. One is heck H-E-C. It's an acronym, it means Hunger, energy, cravings. Another one is Schmeck sleep, hunger, mood, energy in cravings S-H-M-E-C. And heck and Schmeck are ways to describe the way that we are speaking and or listening to our metabolism.

Speaker 1: 9:04

If our heck, hunger, energy in cravings is out of check, then we are most likely under stress and not creating a metabolically responsive, adaptive, reactive system, and so we want to eat in a way, train in a way, live in a way, rest and recover in a way that allows our metabolism to keep hunger, energy and cravings. Sleep, hunger, mood, energy and cravings. Exercise, performance, exercise recovery, libido, erections, menses, digestion, signs and symptoms like joint pains, headaches, etc. In check. A healthy metabolic function is one that hunger is under control, cravings are under control, energy is predictable and stable, sleep is good, mood is balanced, focus is there right. This is a healthy system. So to live metabolic is to do all the things that keep us healthy in this way. So this is what it means to say a metabolic female in my mind, and a metabolic male or a metabolic human. So a metabolic human in my mind is someone who has a adaptive, responsive, resilient metabolism.

Speaker 1: 10:20

Now this brings us into what are the key components of this, and in my mind, there are several components here that most people will think of immediately. One of them is going to be workouts. Another one is going to be nutrition, exercise and diet. Now, for most people, they stop right there exercise and diet. Now there are other components to this.

Speaker 1: 10:48

Obviously, there is the most important component in my mind, which is mindset and or mindfulness. This is how we perceive the world and how we react mentally and emotionally to the world, what our belief system is, what our old developmental narratives are and how we think about ourselves and the world around us. Mindset is critical here. In other words, if we don't have self-worth if we don't believe we can accomplish something, if we have negative beliefs around people and unhealthy relationships to food and all of this stuff, then it doesn't matter. If I give you the perfect diet and exercise program, it is doubtful you'll be able to implement it. So it's not just diet and exercise, it's also mindset and mindfulness and how we perceive stress and recover from stress, and all that kind of stuff. And then it's also the way we move.

Speaker 1: 11:53

Now you might say, well, exercise is one component of movement, obviously, but it's also about the way we move. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors they walked. We are built to walk, we're built to move. We are a species that evolved with constant activity, balanced with constant rest, and so this idea of rest, work balance, rest and recovery, balance movement versus downtime is also critically important. So from my perspective, there's four aspects of living a metabolic life, and that is this idea of mindset, movement, meals, which would be the diet component, and the metabolic, which is what I would call the exercise component.

Speaker 1: 12:42

Now add on top of that the idea that we are each uniquely different, so your way of living a metabolic, healthy lifestyle is different than everyone else's, and this is where I talk about the 4P component of this. Whereas we're each different, we're all a different metabolic fingerprint and we differ in our physiology. If we each ate a piece of white bread, your reaction blood sugar wise, hunger wise, craving wise would be different than mine. I might have huge glucose excursions, I might get extremely hungry and have cravings. It might not bother you at all in that regard. And so we're different physiologically. We're also different psychologically, in the way we deal with stress and difficulties in our lives. We vary in our personal preferences and we vary in our practical circumstances. This, to me, is what it means to live metabolic. We're each different.

Speaker 1: 13:37

We have to look after these 4 different components and we need to understand the language the metabolism speaks and learn to balance that. Now that brings us to the idea of the metabolic female and the metabolic male and these workout programs. Now, the first thing I'll say here is should women and men train differently? Not necessarily no. Men and women can train and do the exact same programs. I can give a group of women a Workout and give a group of men the exact same workout, and give women the same diet and give men the same diet, and what you'll find is that many people will thrive just fine on that, especially if they can do it Okay, especially if they can do these workouts. However, just because men and women can follow the exact same programs and get decent results does not necessarily mean that there are not Benefits to doing things slightly different. And the reason for this is, first, let's talk about the idea of the metabolic female as a woman, very different than a man.

Speaker 1: 14:45

Women have Hormones that cycle throughout the month. Male hormones stay static throughout the month. Women have several different lifestyle stages they go through hormonally. They go through puberty, where they start menstruating. They may or may not go through pregnancy. They also go through perimenopause and menopause and Post menopause. So there are potentially five different stages of hormonal life that women go through and and that can vary, especially for women who are menstruating. Every single month, in fact, every single month, women go through four different Hormonal stages. They go through early follicular phase during their menstrual period is a time when progesterone is low and Estrogen is rising. They go through the late follicular phase, which is a time where estrogen is high and progesterone is very low. They go through the early luteal phase, where estrogen and progesterone are very high together, and they go through the late luteal phase, where estrogen and progesterone are both Falling and progesterone is dominating a little bit.

Speaker 1: 15:52

So you could see that for women, not only do they go through potentially five different hormonal stages of life, they go through four different hormonal stages every single month, and this matters and is Different than for men. It matters and is different. Why does it matter and why is it different? Well, it matters and is different because estrogen and progesterone have receptors all over the body, including in the brain, not just in the breast tissue and the uterus and the ovaries, but in the fat cells, in the muscle, in the brain as well. They impact things like thyroid. They impact brain chemicals like dopamine and serotonin and GABA, and this stuff can impact things like hunger, energy and cravings. And this is as complicated as I want to get with it, because we don't need to go any further with this.

Speaker 1: 16:41

If you're trying to change your lifestyle through diet and exercise and you're dealing with hormonal fluctuations that influence how Hungry you will be, what you'll crave to eat and whether you can stay on those diets, then obviously that Matters. And here's what you need to know certain hormonal stages, particularly right around Mense's, when estrogen and progesterone are very low and at menopause and peri menopause, when estrogen and progesterone start to get low at menopause and Progesterone is low at peri menopause. These things make females more stress sensitive. So remember, we talked about the idea of being metabolic and how the metabolism responds to stress and it's a Stress-sensing and responding apparatus. And now I'm telling you that at every single month for women who are menstruating, they become more stress sensitive and reactive, and that certain hormonal stages of life, like peri menopause and menopause, make them more stress sensitive and reactive. Then we're going to want a system and a workout that allows women to hit the Goldilocks zone not too much, not too little, but just right, because if they overdo exercise, that's a stress to their system. Now, if they don't exercise at all, that's also a stress to their system.

Speaker 1: 17:57

So now you're seeing that this one-size-fits-all approach for men and women must be different. Not to mention, every woman is different from every other woman and every man is different from every other man. So how do we deal with this? Yes, there are differences in the female physiology biochemically, physiologically. I just discussed those. We now know that if you're a woman trying to change your metabolism or lose weight and get your metabolism working for you and you're not aware of these different stages that make you more or less stress sensitive.

Speaker 1: 18:33

You can literally wipe out the goals and gains that you've made in three weeks during one week of men's season. This happens to women all the time and you women listening to this know this, and it probably been trying to tell the men in your life this forever. You can eat clean and good and train hard and appropriately three weeks out of the month, but then men's hits, brain chemistry changes and the same workouts cause you to overdo it and overeat and you can literally wipe out all the Gains you made over the previous three weeks. Now, is this happening to all women? No, but wouldn't it be nice to have a workout and a system that adjusts to this potential in women, that allows you to get just the right intensity Not too much, not too little, but just right, so that you can heal your metabolism and do better by your metabolism. Wouldn't that be ideal? Well, that's exactly what I have created with the metabolic female.

Speaker 1: 19:34

This is a workout program that adjusts to your individual intensity, not just in general, but how you feel day to day, so it literally will adjust based on what stage of life you're in if you're peri menopause or menopausal and Adjust based on where you are in your menstrual cycle, whether you're pre menstrual, menstrual or pre-ovulation or post-ovulation. How does it do this? Well, it does this by using what I call rest-based training, or implementing rest-based workouts. Essentially, what this means is that you do the workouts, you follow along with the workouts and you rest whenever you need to. You're gonna rest differently than every other woman and you're gonna rest depending on how you feel, based on how much sleep you got, how well-fueled you are, whether you're in men's-ese, perimenopause, menopause, et cetera.

Speaker 1: 20:28

This workout adjusts to the exact intensity for you as an individual, allowing you to get just the right intensity not too little, not too much, but just right and this allows you to train harder when you're able to and to train in a more gentle way when you must, just by looking at the intuitive nature of your body. It's very easy, actually, despite how complicated it sounds, and all you have to remember when you do these workouts is to push until you can't, rest until you can. In other words, when I walk you through these workouts, you'll hear me, watch me, guiding different models who you watch on TV, and one's a beginner, one's an intermediate, one's an advanced model. You watch them, you listen to me, you see them doing the movements. You're essentially copycatting what they're doing. You're watching the workout and you're gonna hear me say over and over again during these workouts I love it when you rest, take your rest as soon as you need it and, when you're ready, get back into the workout when you're ready, and that's how the workout progresses. You come in and out of the workout while the workout continues, whether you're resting or working, and this means that an elite athlete who's a 30 year old female, who is, you know, pre-ovulation, can work right next to a 55 year old woman who's in menopause and everyone in between, and they get the exact right intensity for them. Now, this workout technology allows you to adjust with accuracy pinpoint accuracy where you are relative to your hormonal stage or where you are in your hormonal cycle, so that you don't overdo it, so that you don't get hunger, energy and cravings derailing you. This is what it means, in my mind, to be a metabolic female. This is why this is so important and also why it is so different in the health and fitness space. In fact, this does not exist anywhere else in the health and fitness space. No one else is doing these rest-based workouts, specifically designed for the metabolic female or the female physiology that adjusts based on your hormonal stage and based on where you are in your menstrual cycle, simply by allowing you to push until you can't, rest until you can. Now, these metabolic female workouts are slightly different than the male metabolic workouts. Now, those male metabolic workouts the male is not as complex as the female physiology. We have static testosterone levels throughout the month. We go through two stages puberty and andropause. Some of us, however, we also need to manage our stress, so men also can benefit from this infinitely adjustable, individualized intensity that rest-based training in these metabolic male and metabolic female workouts deliver. The major difference between the metabolic female workouts and the metabolic male workouts are as follows Women the research suggests that perhaps women do better and have more endurance than men.

Speaker 1: 23:52

In fact, if you look at the research on this, as you start getting sports like ultramarathon running that are more endurance oriented, the longer the workouts go, the longer the event goes, the more women start to catch up to men in terms of performance. There's also some indication that women tend to have more endurance than men. In other words, they can recover faster from bouts of exercise. So if a male and a female partner we're a romantic partner, we're working out together, the husband and the wife the wife may need far less recovery between bouts and sets and the male may need more recovery. Not to mention, it looks as if there's some indication that women release more human growth hormone in response to exercise than men do and may benefit from workouts that are more burning oriented versus straining oriented.

Speaker 1: 24:46

Let me explain this From my perspective. We can talking about metabolic and reading the language of metabolism. Well, there is some biofeedback sensations that the metabolism gives you while you're working out breathlessness, burning, heavy and heat. Now, breathlessness is correlated with the catecholamines, adrenaline and noradrenaline, which dilate the lungs. Whenever you have to push yourself, they actually dilate the blood vessels, dilate the lungs, allow you to breathe a little bit heavier. So whenever you start getting breathless, it is correlated with higher output of adrenaline or epinephrine, norpinephrine and noradrame, the catecholamines. When you are burning, human growth hormone is released and this is the mechanism here looks like that.

Speaker 1: 25:35

When you start to feel burning in your muscles, this is when these mitochondrial shuttles, this gets a little. You don't need to know this, but for those of you who are little biochemical geeks, I'm gonna tell you the story here. But as you begin to work out and your body starts to work harder and harder, you tend to move from aerobic to anaerobic Because the mitochondrial shuttles that are driving the protons into the inner mitochondrial membrane to make ATP. These mitochondrial shuttles are known as NAD, fadh2, nadh and FADH2. They act like little cellular buses or taxis that bring protons into the mitochondria to create the battery charge that creates cellular energy. As those get maxed out and glycolysis is running full speed, you have to then move into anaerobic glycolysis because the protons begin to build up as these shuttles get saturated and that causes an acidic pH in the muscles which causes the burn.

Speaker 1: 26:37

Now a lot of people think, well, that burn is caused by lactic acid. It's not. It's caused by proton buildup and an acidic pH in the muscles. Lactic acid, however lactate that molecule is used to buffer against that Lactate becomes lactic acid. Lactic acid then acts as an alternative fuel source that buffers against the acidic pH in the muscle. It also has been shown to trigger human growth hormone.

Speaker 1: 27:03

We can correlate burning in the muscle with human growth hormone. Why is that important for women? It's important for women because there's some indication that human growth hormone women get more human growth hormone output and that estrogen and human growth hormone are a potent fat burning combination. For women that is slightly different than men, and so for women in their workouts these metabolic female workouts are a little bit more breathless and burning oriented. The male workouts are a little bit more heavy and burning oriented. In other words, in the male workouts we're doing a little bit more heavy weight because the straining effect on the muscle is more testosterone driven. As the muscles begin to get tension on them and tension in the muscle and the higher volume that heavier weights elicit, this causes more of a testosterone push. So for men, in the metabolic male workouts, the approach is more heavy and burning, whereas the metabolic female workouts, the approach is more breathless and burning. And these slight differences allow women to take advantage of human growth hormone and estrogen combination and allow men to take advantage of the testosterone human growth hormone combination, and this is the major difference.

Speaker 1: 28:17

Now, in order for us to really know how much of effect this was having, we would need to study this and say, hey, let's take a group of women and put them in the metabolic female and the metabolic male. Let's do the same with the men and see if there's any real difference. Theoretically there is, but this has never been studied Clinically. I have used these kinds of workouts with men and women for over 20 years now with amazing success, and this is aside from the rest based training aspect that individualizes this workout for men and women and that might be more important for women because of the hormonal, menstrual stuff that we talked about. And so this idea here is that these rest based training workouts that individualize the intensity, along with these different hormonal effects where we're doing more breathless and burning, more higher rep, faster pace stuff for women and more heavier, lower, slower kind of stuff for men can make a difference, in addition to each person allowing themselves to individualize the workout based on their fitness and physical ability. This is what the metabolic female and metabolic male programs are, and I now have a year's worth of workouts for women and a year's worth of workouts for men. These workouts are now available. You can go to nextlevelhumancom slash metabolic-female and nextlevelhumancom slash metabolic-male to now sign up for these workouts.

Speaker 1: 32:24

Let me tell you a little bit more about them. They go from metabolic male 1.0 and metabolic female 1.0 all the way up to metabolic female and metabolic male 4.0. Now you might think well, this is about beginner, intermediate, advanced that the 1.0 is for beginners and the 4.0 is for advanced. Not necessarily the case. Actually, the reason there's a 1.0 and a 4.0 is because of the way the workouts are progressed. In the 1.0 workouts we're doing more simple, compound movements. These are movements that use multiple joints and multiple muscles, like push-ups and squats and those deadlifts and those kinds of things. Multiple joints and multiple muscle groups. This helps prime the nervous system and get the body ready for the next phase, 2.0, which uses more hybrid-based movements, which are two or more multiple compound joint movements tied together. For example, a squat and a press, or a lunge and a press, or a push-up and a row, these kinds of things.

Speaker 1: 33:32

As we get to metabolic male and metabolic female. 3.0, we start to amplify the volume of work that is done using things called metabolic chains. Now we're doing something like a push-up followed by a row, followed by a curl, followed by a press, then repeating that and adding on repetitions two push-ups, two rows, two curls, two presses, then three, three and three, four, four and four. You can see in 3.0 now, because we went through 1.0 and 2.0, in 3.0, now we can really start adding on the volume and a lot more volume and repetitions. You can see how the compound movements turned into hybrid movements, turned into metabolic chains. Then in 4.0, we get to the most interesting aspect here, because most people might say, okay, now all of a sudden in 4.0, you're moving to isolation-type movements and full body part training. We focus on one or two body parts inside of the whole workout and that amplifies the volume even more Because these workouts are individualized.

Speaker 1: 34:41

You can have an advanced and an intermediate and a beginner all working out in metabolic 1.0 workouts and getting the workout perfectly suited to their intensity. It's not that 4.0 is more advanced and 1.0 is less advanced. It's that 1.0 progresses you slowly through the compound movements to 2.0, which does the hybrid movements, to 3.0, which does these metabolic chains, to 4.0, which starts to focus more on specific body parts. This is the way that you progress, so that the body gets stronger, so that the metabolism becomes healthier and more resilient, and so you get the results in muscle gain and fat loss as you individualize the workouts for yourself. The idea of the metabolic human, and specifically the metabolic female and metabolic male, I hope now makes sense to you. Living metabolic means honoring your individuality, also understanding how to speak the language of metabolism and realizing that to optimize metabolic function is also not just about diet and exercise, but also mindset and movement.

Speaker 1: 36:01

There are differences between men and women in terms of their hormonal biochemistry, and that that matters especially for women because it influences these hormonal states. It influences hunger, energy cravings, sleep, mood, exercise performance, exercise recovery, libido, etc. In other words, it helps you individualize, get the Goldilocks for each person, and especially for women, who have to go through menses and different hormonal stages compared to men. This is critical because at certain hormonal stages, they're far more sensitive to stress, so they need something that is adaptable, that allows them not to overdo it or underdo it during these different hormonal periods and or stages of their life. And, of course, men too, while they don't go through these hormonal differences, they do need to be able to watch their metabolism and not overstress it, and so this individualized approach is why this works. And, of course, there are slight variations in these workouts that make them uniquely female, the female workouts being more breathless and burning, oriented to take advantage of the human growth hormone, estrogen and high endurance factor that many women have compared to men, versus the male workouts that are more testosterone and human growth hormone oriented and take advantage of some of the heavier strain and slower pace that men can do. And these are the metabolic male and female workouts, and this, to me, is what it means to be metabolic.

Speaker 1: 37:36

Now, the final thing I'll say as I wrap up this podcast is that this, to me, is the key component. If you want to, at the beginning of the year, be thinking about what am I going to do this year to make it the difference, so that I don't end up fatter and less healthy as I do, as most people do, every year. What can I do as something that would keep me consistent? That is, a full year long program that works with my unique physiology and helps me optimize based on my gender and my hormonal situation. Based on that, then, you may want to avail yourself of the metabolic female and metabolic male.

Speaker 1: 38:19

Now, when you purchase the metabolic female and metabolic male programs to for the female program, go to nextlevelhumancom slash metabolic dash female. For the male program, go to nextlevelhumancom slash metabolic dash male. And when you sign up for these programs, you can sign up for one of the workouts 1.0 through 4.0, or you get a deal when you buy the entire 52 week year long workout programs and after you purchase these year long programs, you'll have the opportunity to upgrade into 52 weeks of nutrition and metabolism and mindset coaching. In other words, what I put together for all of you listeners of the next level human podcast is a one stop shop for a year long worth of workouts, a year long worth of nutrition, a year long worth of metabolism education and mindset coaching Everything that you would need to do what you need to do to attain and maintain physical transformation this year.

Speaker 1: 39:28

I hope that's useful for you. I hope this podcast helps you understand what exactly I mean by living metabolic and exactly what is the metabolic female and metabolic male programs from next level human and how they work. I hope that's useful for you. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email support at nextlevelhumancom or find me on any of the social medias, at JTita and DM me there. I'm happy to answer these questions for you.

Speaker 1: 40:00

But if you want to avail yourself and get the new programs, go to nextlevelhumancom slash metabolic dash female for women and nextlevelhumancom slash metabolic dash male for men. Can't wait to see you inside the program. I hope this podcast was educational for you and I'll have more podcast on metabolism as the new year sort of moves on. I'm probably going to do a whole series here over the next two to three weeks to make sure we're covering the things that are going to be helpful for you to make the changes that we're all thinking about in the new year. Thanks so much, everybody, and I will see you at the next show.