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Hey everyone, Mikki here. You're listening to Mini Mikkipedia on a Monday. And I just want to chat a bit about mindset and fat loss, particularly sort of in perimenopause and menopause and beyond actually, and probably more menopause and beyond. And this comes just from sort of looking at comments that I get from members of my plan, from other clients that I have, is how that they're seeing these real physical changes in the mirror. They're noticing these strength gains in the gym.

00:29
And then they jump on the scales and the scales are not reflecting the progress they felt that they've made. Either that weight loss itself is slower or even the scales can go up despite what you see in the mirror. And it's really quite common for the number on the scales to trump anything else and actually...

00:48
And that's the thing that we focus on rather than the other very real progress that we see in the mirror. And isn't it interesting, Because it's not like we have the number on the scales sort of as a, I don't know, as a sign that we wear on our forehead so everyone knows what we weigh, but it is, we've always sort of held it up as the thing that we need to focus on with weight loss. And I do think, you know, having a weight loss goal can be super helpful for a lot of people, particularly if, for example, you've gained

01:16
significant weight or any weight really in the last couple of years, then you have almost a realistic weight to sort of get back to. However, if the number on the scales that you're sort of aiming for is one that you saw maybe 10, 15, 20 years ago, you are in a very different place back then. And probably what you might've been doing at that time to be at that weight might not be things that we would suggest you do now because it doesn't prioritize muscle, which we know is super important. And bone, obviously, I talked about that.

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in last mini-macropedia, that's also so important. you know, even the strategies we use now, I we know that they're very different from the strategies we might have used in our 20s, where we would just walk and maybe skip a meal or two, and then we'd be back to the way that we were after. But for whatever reason, the number on the scales trumps in our head any of these other signs of progress, which are so much more important. And the thing with that number on the scales is it's less predictable than what it used to be. And

02:13
In part, this is because of shifts in fat loss and what happens in fat loss in menopause and beyond. So firstly, obviously, once we go through menopause, estrogen drops and estrogen makes us much more insulin sensitive and it helps with bone mass as well. But this shift in estrogen means that, clinically speaking, it can make fat loss slower.

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and it makes those shifts in the scales slower than you otherwise would have thought. Even though we know metabolism itself on a population level, it appears to stay very similar right up through to our mid-60s. I would say clinically speaking, women do struggle and they have a harder time with weight loss post-menopause. And I do see that, although you're not going to necessarily see that in the literature. There are other shifts too though in other hormones, such as cortisol and vasopressin. And these,

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you'll be familiar with, I'm sure, least cortisol. You know, it is our main stress hormone and it rises with poor sleep, calorie deficit, hard training, life stress, inflammation, and also with hormonal fluctuations. And cortisol changes where your body holds water. it

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increases sodium retention and it can alter kidney function, meaning that you can suddenly hold on to more fluid, sometimes one to three kilos in a week with zero changes in fat mass. But of course that is going to shift what you see on the scales. And this is often why women can feel puffy or inflamed or heavy, or like their rings don't fit, for example, on their hands. And cortisol can slow weight loss by making the body a little bit more conservative. So when cortisol stays elevated,

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the body behaviors of resources are scarce. And that's just in our evolutionary blueprint because this is what the survival of our species relied upon millions of years ago. So it becomes more protective of fat stores and more likely to burn fewer calories at rest. So the scales can either go up or they don't move even if you're doing everything right. Now vasopressin, which is also called the antidiuretic hormone,

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controls how much water your body holds or releases. And so it's the hormone that decides whether your kidneys should open the floodgates or clamp down and keep every single drop of fluid. And after menopause, vasopressin signaling can become more erratic. So your body becomes more sensitive to hydration. So that threshold for, need to hold water shifts. So even small changes in electrolytes, heat, training, or stress can make vasopressin tell your kidneys to retain fluid.

04:42
it does work quite closely with cortisol and they tend to wind each other up. More cortisol, more vasopressin, more water retention, more vasopressin, potentially higher blood pressure. The body interprets this as stress so you have more cortisol. So it's like this little hormonal echo chamber. So

05:00
The result of this is that you can have fluid shifts that look like weight gain. You can be doing everything right, training, eating well, hitting your protein. And vasopressin can create this one to two kilo gain that is pure water.

05:13
and it has nothing to do with fat and everything to do with hormones adjusting to lower estrogen and that subsequent stress environment. And it's interesting, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Iron Culture, and the two Erics, Eric Helms and Eric Frexler, were talking about shifts in stress hormones that mean that, again, they are putting all of the habits and behaviors in place to get as shredded as possible before a stage, but there was this legitimate sort of like...

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holding of water, means that the scales just do not change. And of course, at that physique level, where every 100 grams of body fat can make a difference to how shredded you look, if your body's holding on to water, then that is absolutely going to change that aesthetic that you end up getting as well. So that's like an extreme version of that phenomenon, but it occurs regardless of sort of who you are, if your body is in a deficit that creates a lot of that stress.

06:09
Of course, here I'm talking about these hormones just in relationship to estrogen, but it can actually happen across the board. And remember, this is regardless of what you're doing. So you are putting into place those habits and behaviors and you're not seeing the reward that you would expect that you would see. The other thing I want to address is the fact that, you know, we don't lose weight the way we used to when we were younger and slow fat loss is still fat loss and you are still on track. And in fact, that snail's pace of fat loss is

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expect it and it's absolutely healthy, but it's just that we become impatient. So if we think about it, if you are dropping weighted anywhere from 0.4 to 1 % of your body weight on average each week, this is absolute progress, although our impatient mind would tell us otherwise. But think about faster losses for some people is they are going to increase hunger, fatigue, muscle loss, and the risk of rebound. And that is very real. And of course, it's one of the main reasons that

07:08
people gain weight after losing weight again, whereas slower fat loss can preserve muscle mass, it can help preserve metabolic rate, and it can help with adherence as well because those strategies and behaviors you're putting into place are far more likely to be sustainable. So I would say that the scale is a real legging indicator with regards to your progress and everything else with shifts in how your clothes fit, what you see in the mirror, and your strength gains in the gym. They are the real sort leading indicators here.

07:37
And something else that I do want to address with this, in addition to the fact that you're putting in the work, the grind feels really hard and yet progress is really slow and you're much more likely to go, oh, stuff it, I'm just going to, what's the point? This is where the narrative and psychology piece is really huge. Don't forget that at the start of anything new, when you're beginning to adopt these behaviors, habits are new and they feel heavy. The brain assumes that the current effort

08:05
is going to be the permanent effort. So the idea that you're putting in all this effort and, my God, is this what I'm going to have to do forever? Well, those behaviors don't change, but the level of effort required to implement them, that absolutely changes. Your brain right now, particularly at the start, is judging that this effort is forever through the lens of a body and brain that is still adapting. And the idea that, you know, this is the point where I give up because it all just feels too hard, that's a fear.

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It's not the reality, that is not fact. So you're not forecasting the future when you sort of look ahead and think, oh my God, it's going to be this hard forever. What you're actually doing is you're remembering the past. Because in the past, when things got hard, you backed off and you didn't adhere and you fell off. So habits stop feeling like discipline and they do start feeling like normal life.

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I think about this a lot, when people see some of the things that I do and they're like, oh man, you are so dedicated or you are so disciplined. That is not discipline or dedication. That is habit. It is absolutely default and that's how I've wired my brain. Strength training in and of itself reshapes appetite. It changes your level of confidence when you can see how you're changing in the gym. It helps improve that sort of self-respect and daily rhythms.

09:23
Protein forward eating becomes automatic and not calculated. Sure, right now you might be weighing things down, you might be tracking it on a food app, but you don't have to do that forever. The structure that you've got, it becomes supportive and these guardrails allows you to make really great decisions and they don't feel restrictive. And so if you think about it, it's like when you start any sort of new skill or habit or behavior, like learning how to drive a car. Learning to drive is exhausting at first. oh

09:53
It's exciting, but it's also terrifying. But now when you jump in a car, you literally on familiar roads, you could almost do it with your eyes closed. And sometimes you almost come back and you're like, gosh, I can't even remember driving down that street because it was so default pattern. Your brain knew exactly what to do. And that's what happens with changing your diet and your exercise patterns as well. The start, it feels hard and it feels heavy, but it absolutely becomes a default. So whilst

10:21
Yes, these habits and behaviors you're putting into place are actually critical for long-term weight management success. The effort you're putting in does not because the level of effort changes. So if you're really struggling in this and you're sort of really your head's getting a little bit screwed by daily weigh-ins and things like that, why not zoom out to weekly or even monthly data? Because if you struggle with micromanagement, you're not going to win. So track honest markers like

10:48
strength, like consistency in your food prep, your meal planning, the meals that you're nailing. Track your shape. Use anthropometric measurements such as waist circumference, such as circumference of your arm or your thigh, or get a sum of skin folds. Get something that gives you that sort of data without having to think about what the scales are saying. And also what you see in the mirror is so much more important than what you see when you jump on a scale.

11:16
you do want to have some anchor behaviors. So even when you aren't, you you're having trouble staying on track for whatever reason, and this can happen for a day at a time or even a week at a time, but those time points are not enough to really move the needle in the big scheme of things. If you are consistent and have anchor habits in place.

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And know for me, being active is a really anchor behavior and not overeating is another anchor behavior for me. Whereas other things, if they fall by the wayside, you know, I can't get the protein in that I otherwise would because I'm traveling or I can't get the same amount of vegetables or fruit in. At least I know I've got these two things in place and they're usually enough to sort of help me ride out whatever is going on in the moment. And then also,

12:00
alongside those anchor habits, do plan to have days that don't go according to plan? And what I mean by that is that, yes, you know that you might have brunch out or you're super stressed because of a sick parent and you just are going to be on the go all day. This is when you lean heavily on those anchor behaviors and this is your minimum viable strategy. So you never have a day where you just go, oh, stuff it and you just head first into chocolate donuts or whatever it looks like for you. So.

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When you know that things are not going to go to plan, you have a plan still. And remember that the narrative that you're unwinding, the narrative that says it's far too slow and says just all too hard, that's you remembering the past and you're not forecasting the future. So you need to rehearse the new narrative so you can overlay the old narrative. This won't feel like this forever.

12:52
These are just feelings, these feelings are going to pass. The habits won't change, but you are going to change and the level of effort will. Find something that you can hold onto as a new mantra, because that will absolutely change how you feel moving forward. And regardless of how slowly the scale might move, you are always changing and you are succeeding. So don't forget that either. Eating intentionally, moving your body.

13:18
pushing against biology with patience and consistency, these are all wins and this is what you're doing and you just have to remember that because midlife does require a different rule book, I think.

13:28
And slow progress is still progress. And that body composition change, it's absolutely happening, but it happens sort of below the level of the scale change. And you do have to remember that and celebrate the wins and don't get hijacked by that emotion that can occur when the scale's not shifting in the direction you want. And that real win is continuing to put the work in until it no longer feels like work. And that absolutely.

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will happen and you're not meant to chase the body that you had 10 years ago. You're building the body that will carry you through the next 10, 20 and 30 years. So hopefully that helps anyone that is really struggling to get their head around slow scale progress, get you to understand why that's happening and gets you thinking about the things that really matter because ultimately that's the thing that's going to get you through. Anyway, that's just some thoughts. I'd love to hear yours. You can catch me in the DMs over on Instagram threads.

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and x @mikkiwilliden, facebook @mikkiwillidennutrition or head to my website mikkiwilliden.com. Scroll right down to the bottom, put your email address in to jump on my weekly email. Alright team, you have the best week. See you later.