Talking Nutrition

45 - Metabolism Made Simple with Sam Miller

May 08, 2023 Sam Miller
Talking Nutrition
45 - Metabolism Made Simple with Sam Miller
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Is your metabolism slow, fast, or broken?

This week we're joined by our friend, fellow coach, educator, author, dog-lover, and mentor Sam Miller to talk about how the metabolism really works and how stress and energy affect the metabolism.

We also dive into the great debate of 'calories vs hormones', behavior change, stress management, dog memes, Will Ferrell movies, and more.

If you love this episode, feel free to share it with a friend, and make sure to check out Sam's stuff via any of the following links!

Book: https://metabolismmadesimple.com/
Instagram: @sammillerscience
Website: https://sammillerscience.com/


00:00 Introduction - Sam Miller Science
04:56 What is the metabolism?
12:37 Calories vs Hormones - What matters most?
24:03 The basics that work for everyone & individualization
28:53 How does stress impact the metabolism?
45:05 Learning opportunities along your journey
49:25 Outro - Metabolism Made Simple



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Coaching applications - https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/online-nutrition-coaching

Johan Vesters:

What's up guys? Welcome back to Talking Nutrition episode 45. Today, I feel like today we have a very special guest on who's actually the kind of like the reason we're here, I guess, because this is how we are we as in Kristine and I met during your program. So welcome Sam Miller. What's up?

Sam Miller:

I appreciate it, man. Yeah, it's been super cool. You guys actually linked up and then Kenneth and Laura have a podcast as well. And I think they connected through one of us. It's been super cool to see you guys. You know, do your own thing afterwards. And Johan, obviously, I've known you for so long now that I remember when you used to not do public speaking. You in videos weren't doing audio. And I see you now. And I'm just like, Man, you've come so far. To her. It's really, really cool. So this is this was exciting for me. And I've gotten to see you guys grow, which is awesome. And it's even even better that, you know, we have these coaches supporting each other and creating content together I think is awesome, too. So excited to be here. And it's always fun. Always fun to chat with you guys. Usually Johan and I, it's just like DMS back and forth here there. So we're we're talking about talking about animals and stuff. It'll be good to talk nutrition today, instead of talking about pets

Johan Vesters:

changed. That's true, though, because that's actually you, you guys both. So obviously, we met in FMS center, I think we started together. It was like my second month as a coach, I think I had just started. So it was like way in the beginning. You know,

Sam Miller:

it's definitely way back. I mean, I remember you kind of you know, transitioned, you're in Norway tour guide, like CrossFit, gym, a lot of stuff going on, had started in nutrition, coaching and then moving more online and kind of developing from there. So it's definitely definitely a combination of growth and a lot of different areas. But I think if there was one thing where you've made a complete 360 is definitely the public speaking and showing up on camera and being able to teach, because because you had a lot of good information and ideas, but it was like showcasing that I think, where it's been super exciting to see and especially now that you're working in tandem with Kristine to

Johan Vesters:

I remember, you were like, just fucking just hit record just hard talking, I have my whole my camera roll, you know, it was like, it just didn't,

Sam Miller:

is practice. It's like nobody, you know, it's like, it's like most of us, it's, you know, our first pushup wasn't perfect, squatting. deadlifting, whatever it was, it's like, you know, a lot of things, you know, just require reps. And sometimes you have a knack for things, you pick it up a little bit faster. Other things require a little bit more. And I think for you, once you started doing that, it's I was like, you don't even have to post it. Just start. Just record, talk, practice. Get into it. And you know, now you're on episode 45 of your show. And you actually make rules and do different video content doing public speaking. So

Kristine Andali:

I'm dying because like, we mean, Johan, I was telling him the same stuff. When him and I started talking. I'm like, you just gotta show your face like people love this stuff. And he was so awkward. At the beginning. It was. I was like, I'm like, I'm so proud of you. But this is so awkward. And then you progress so quickly, it started doing so well. It was great to see right from that point to now. Why did

Sam Miller:

the key takeaway for all the listeners is that's probably how you feel about your health, your fitness or your nutrition, just like how Johan felt about non video. And here's someone who knows all about health, fitness, nutrition, and even talking about it, you know, maybe wasn't the most comfortable thing right away. And so a lot of us have that kind of initial starting point in our fitness journey where we're not feeling super comfortable. We're unfamiliar with certain topics, or it seems like, you know, something's gonna go wrong. And sometimes we just gotta like, take that first step. So yeah, always parallels and connections back to the health and health and fitness journey. I feel like,

Johan Vesters:

for sure, and like, the main thing we wanted to talk about today was, you know, capitalism. And even there, I feel like people kind of like to think are doomed, you know, I have a slow metabolism, or it's something that you can change or fix, you know, why actually, let's not say fix, but change. But that being said, Right, let's actually just start there. So what is the metabolism? Because I think, especially like still now these days, there's a lot of confusion. What is metabolism? Explain to us?

Sam Miller:

Sure. So the simple way that I kind of break that down for people is, you know, at all times your body's sort of trying to regulate and account for energy and stress in your environment. And so, as humans we consume our energy in the form of food and that food contains calories and macronutrients a lot of the things that you guys probably talk on and educate on regularly. But the way that kind of fits in from the system perspective is our body is sort of this miser of energy, right? It wants to make sure that there's enough around. And you know, the more active, we are different changes in our lifestyle, it's kind of adjusting and accounting for those things, it's kind of rectifying that it's kind of keeping things in balance. It's also especially perceptive and mindful of stressors, which can come from a number of different things in our body is just sort of hedging against those threats, because that's really it's just a job from a basic survival perspective. And in scientific terms, it's kind of the idea of adaptive physiology, or how we've sort of evolved, just to make sure that, you know, we have this appropriate energy balance, and that's kind of how it plays into the weight loss conversation as well, is when we begin to explore this concept of total daily energy expenditure, you know, expending calories, versus, you know, the calories that we take in from food. And our body is sort of what's determining the end outcome from that. But a key driver of that is really our choices and behaviors. And the daily sort of routines and rituals that we engage in on on a daily basis are basically practices and things that you do all the time. And so we've probably all heard going back to like elementary school, middle school, grade school, or maybe even from your parents, or different family members, like oh, so and so has a fast metabolism, they just can't keep any weight on it or so and so has a slow metabolism, they just, you know, or, you know, various terms related to people's ability to lose weight, gain weight, or maintain their weight. And that sort of creates a fixed mindset around the idea of metabolism. But the actual crux of metabolism really, at its core is it is quite adaptive. And everything that we do and have done over our entire life has influenced metabolism and where we are today, right, whether that's spending time to build muscle in the gym, whether that's, you know, going for a walk today. So everything from, you know, health behaviors and health history and things that date back to years and years ago, all the way to the choices we've made in terms of the sleep that we got last night to what we decided to do this morning, that even sitting now here recording this podcast, that all plays into metabolism. And what's super powerful about that, because it means we have the ability to influence it, we have the ability to control it, we have the ability to make changes. Now, not everybody may experience the same exact change based on a behavior, right, I might go for a walk, or begin resistance training. And different people may have slightly different responses to that, that we need to account for. And that's where coaching can be super powerful is like managing that stimulus managing those variables. But what's super cool about it is it means like I can wake up tomorrow, and begin to make choices that will improve my metabolic health. And so that's what I think is really, really awesome when you start to combine, you know, the behavior aspect of it with the actual science of metabolism, nutrition, and our overall health. So cool thing is, you know, we can change it. But that also means we have to take responsibility for our actions, our choices, and the things that have played into our current health. And that can be kind of the scary part that can be the tough thing to face in the mirror is realizing that like, wow, I really played into where I'm at currently. But once you realize that, it's incredibly powerful, because then you have your whole life in front of you to potentially, you know, make a difference. And if you want to be in a different place, you know, you have the ability to do that. either yourself or through like a coaching relationship, where we're able to account for these different variables and steer things in the direction of whatever our goals are.

Johan Vesters:

Awesome. I think that's great. I think that's a, that's a good message too, because people often think that they're doing like I said, it's kind of like, well, I have a slow metabolism, so I can make the change, you know, because now that's just how it is? Well, no, there's actually a whole lot you can do. But other than, like the uncomfortable thing of like, like owning you know, your actions basically, from the past, we also then need to do the uncomfortable thing of like changing our habits and potentially eating more and actually working on like nourishing the body, you know, because, and this is something I didn't write down, but maybe we can get into this. We did an episode on the seasons of nutrition a little while ago, which I feel like we should touch on, because that is one of those things that can actually help people like, hey, let's, let's say improve, not fix, but improve their metabolism again. So they can lose weight, you know. So tell us a little bit about that sort of season of nutrition and how you would kind of like take someone from continuously just try to diet and diet and diet to a better spot so that you could actually lose weight.

Sam Miller:

So basically, there's the idea of planning different phases of where we want to spend time from a nutritional perspective. And that could be eating at maintenance calories, that could be eating in a slight surplus to support muscle growth, or maybe even pursuing a fat loss phase. And I think the challenge for a lot of coaches and that's kind of how I met you guys, is we oftentimes get clients who come to us who have been dieting for a very long period of time or basically They think that they are or they are attempting to, it doesn't always mean that they are successfully achieving a deficit. But it can still be quite cumbersome, fatiguing, annoying, challenging, you're spinning your wheels, you're not reaching your goals, and you're trying to hit that deficit. And then in the process, you know, we're not building as much muscle, we're not recovering as great, we end up on this hamster wheel, where it's like, we're under fuelling. And we're not maybe making as much progress with our fat loss as we would like, we're experiencing some metabolic downregulation. Because we are under fueling, we're also in consuming less calories, getting less micronutrients in which isn't great for the body either from an overall just health perspective, and bodily function perspective. So we kind of just like continue to follow this path. And then progressive overload in the gym kind of changes, because we're not, you know, showing up like fully fueled for these workouts. And we just kind of follow that cycle, it gets to be kind of a vicious cycle. And so you can use the seasons of nutrition, or just any type of planning or periodization to kind of interrupt or disrupt that cycle of chronic dieting, which can be really helpful for people, especially if they've never spent time in other phases with their nutrition. And so while length of maintenance phases may vary length of time and a surplus. Depending on how much muscle you're trying to build or Kristine, you have a history of like athletic performance and performance goals and doing things like CrossFit, you know, that's going to shift what we need to do in terms of fueling as well. And I see a lot of people trying to kind of either like Chase multiple rabbits, or were, you know, in a deficit, but like, we're still highly active and doing all these other things. So that's going to influence what plays into that as well. But I just view it as a way to shift or kind of disrupt, you know, a history of chronic dieting, and get the body back to a healthier place from like our metabolic status quo and internal health. So then when we move into a fat loss phase, we maybe have a bit more success with it. Or we can do it in a healthier fashion, where it's a little bit more sustainable for the person to maintain their newfound weight loss or newfound body composition.

Kristine Andali:

A question that I want to ask or like touch on is this great debate that has been out there for a long time, or like you hear people saying, oh, it's all about calories? And no, oh, it's all about hormones? And obviously, it's a little bit of both right. But what is your what are your thoughts on that?

Sam Miller:

So I think when people are speaking about that conversation in our industry, the problem is, you know, they're they're kind of the spicy topics, right? It drives the tension in both directions. Most people who are in the social media sphere, it's like we kind of, you know, whether we like it or not part of the survival of our content depends on engagement from the audience, right. And so when you talk about these topics, it drives a wedge between people. It's also sometimes I think, easier to take a black and white stance than to have this nuanced conversation, especially when you're constrained to like 2200 words and a caption on Instagram, or a 60 to 92nd Instagram rule. And so we end up having things that are either fall in the category of like clickbait, or it's something argumentative, that's meant to sort of generate a lot of traffic, because that's how these pages kind of live and thrive. Or we just simply don't realize that we're speaking to different audiences. And so I think this is important for any health professionals who might be listening. But also, if you're someone who's considering hiring a coach or you're just you happen to follow Kristine and Johan, realize that like, sometimes the balanced education is harder to come by. Also, because depending on who you follow, they're speaking to very different people. Like if I'm a coach who solely focuses on individuals who want to lose, who have over 30 pounds to lose. That's a very different consumer than if I speak to the chronic Dieter, who has consistently been trying to be in a deficit for a period of time, or has maybe successfully dieted before but they didn't understand how to get out of that situation. So I guess first and foremost, understanding that health professionals may speak to different audiences, and that's okay. If I have someone who's metabolically unhealthy, they're overweight and obese, excuse me, overweight and obese, we do need an energy deficit to improve their metabolic health because they're insulin resistant, and they've over consumed calories, maybe had a sedentary lifestyle, standard American diet, and there's a large percentage of the Western world that falls into that category. Right. And so then when you have folks on the other side advocating for hormones and internal health and managing our physiology, that's not wrong either. Because even for the person who is metabolically unhealthy and overweight, their hormonal profile as a result of a number of things, having that excess body fat, systemic inflammation, insulin resistance, that changes our hunger or cravings, our blood sugar regulation or sleep, you know, In terms of sleep that can impact sleep apnea impact our daily dietary decisions, the energy levels, you have everything that's going on in terms of your thyroid health testosterone levels, and just round around we go. Now, if we look at the flip side, let's say this is someone who speaks to people who have dieted before, they really probably only have like five or 10 pounds of body fat to lose, or they're just that type of person that's always trying to optimize body composition and performance. That person may need a little bit more education on things like hormones and understanding metabolic adaptation. What happens when we never move out of this dieting phase, or use seasons of nutrition, it's okay to educate on hormones. Because, you know, we've certainly seen a number of people in our sphere and our environment and also clients who experience things like gut health issues, digestive challenges, thyroid, downregulation, sex, hormone imbalances, loss of menstrual cycles, where we need to be sensitive to the conversation around hormones, as well, because it plays into our health, our quality of life, and really how we just show up as a person on a day to day basis. So there's a balance of both because what we're eating, that's kind of these like prepackaged instructions for our metabolism in terms of the calories, you know, whether that's protein, carbohydrate, fat, and then the micronutrients that come with it, all of those things are influencing our metabolic health. And then that's like the energy inside. But when we look at the energy outside, that's influenced by hormones, and even our daily dietary decisions, like my food consumption is impacted by my hormones, if I regulate my blood sugar, well, you know, even we have a hunger hormone ghrelin, right. And that's influenced by a number of different things. So when people are arguing about it, it's oftentimes number one drives attention to their accounts, it's kind of a thing that you know, people are going to engage on, it's kind of like click Beatty, in that sense, it is a little bit harder to have nuance around the conversation with these things. That's why I really like podcasts when it comes to nutrition, because you can have these more in depth educational conversations, and then, you know, understanding Hey, it's okay, if you speak to a different audience, doesn't mean we need to disregard either one of these things, calories or hormones. And then I think, kind of the fourth or fifth thing would just be, if we're really being honest about it, they both impact each other, our hormones will impact what happens in terms of calorie expenditure and calorie intake. And what we're doing with our calories directly impacts our hormones, because the calories that the food we're eating, you know, instructs our metabolism, basically, what's going on, right? Am I eating a hyper caloric diet? And I'm over consuming, Am I under consuming? Am I in that kind of like Goldilocks sweet spot where I'm getting the nutrients that I need and maintaining my body composition, so they're really inseparable. And so when they when they are separated from each other in the conversation, I would say it can be done professionally for someone who focuses either on a very specific audience, or it's being done deliberately as like a marketing move more or less. Because it's just easier to do that way and tends to get people's attention because it's a little bit of a hotter topic.

Kristine Andali:

Yeah, I was on YouTube the other day, and I saw the I don't know if you know, like the diary of CEO like, what's his name? Steven does it and there was a guy on there, like the title was calories don't matter. I'm like, well, that's not true.

Johan Vesters:

catches people's

Kristine Andali:

attention.

Sam Miller:

And, and then I think there's this vicious cycle, right? Because then it gets into like, well, then, you know, so and so health professionals gonna call out this other fitness professional because they said the calories don't matter. Or then then like, the holistic, functional, integrative health, people get upset because they're disregarding hormones and saying, Well, it's only calories in and calories out. And it's like, guys, like, let's, we spent less time arguing with each other and helping people like the world would just be a better place. So I think it's like, we're not going to reach that point of consensus. But the truth is, you know, our food and lifestyle decisions directly impact our internal health and our internal health and how we've made choices in the past and what's going on with our food and our caloric consumption really impacts the current life that we're experiencing the status quo, body composition, overall health markers that we have. But it's, you know, for people who say that, like calories don't matter. Well, if I eat a different amount of calories, and you're saying that you're an advocate for internal health and hormone health, shifting, you know that from a nutritional perspective, those calorie and macronutrient changes will change your labs right, your serum labs will change whether it's your fasting insulin, whether it's your fasting glucose, your lipid profile, your C reactive protein, things will change. You know, if I go up or down and in energy consumption, total calories, I may see changes in thyroid, right that thyroid is kind of an energy regulator. Then for the person who says, well, it's only calories in calories out and like hormones don't matter. Well, it's like okay, cool. Change your your calorie, macro and micronutrient intake and then like, let's go back and look at this report. What's going on? It's like we're gonna see very direction Just in terms of someone's internal health. So unfortunately, we are in a place in the industry where social media kind of gives people this megaphone to like broadcast certain sort of ideas and feelings and opinions. And, you know, that's why I think it's cool that we have folks like you who are kind of having this more in depth conversation and telling people to take a step back and be like, hey, like, you know, maybe there's something we can learn from this side. And maybe there's this other opinion over here that has some merit to it. And maybe we find a moderate answer in the middle, which, you know, the gray area is not always the sexiest thing. But I think the more that we can do that with our own health, and then for professionals who are kind of applying this information, it's always going to be kind of context dependent on the person. And that's where I think just we have to remember, it's like, at the end of that YouTube video at the end of the Instagram reel in the comment section, like there's a human receiving that right, and like that human has a health history, that human eats a certain way, they behave a certain way, right? It's like getting out of some of these, like robotic, you know, social media tendencies that I think we kind of have, as we broadcast things. It's like, okay, cool, calories in, calories out, but like, go apply it to like, go try to do this in the real world. For someone who says hormones don't matter. I'm like, how, how does that person feel? And how does that impact them showing up for their workouts performing recovering progressive overload sleep, like, if that person feels like trash? Yeah, we know like going and getting steps is important. Getting your training in is important, the person would completely tanked values across the board is like probably not getting that optimal TD E for the calories out portion, because they're just like, lethargic. They don't feel good. You know, and, Kristine, I know, you've kind of had a chapter of your health journey where you felt that way. But like, it directly impacts your behavior. So and behaviors like a key driver of the calories in calories out equation. So I think it's like, we can come full circle with that you can argue it a number of different ways. But at the end of the day, they're both important, and they both matter. But it's something people will probably continue to argue about for decades moving forward.

Johan Vesters:

I think that's hard to because, I mean, one, it doesn't help people to just go online and just like have arguments about shit all the time, you know. But then also kind of like, just making those claims like, no, it's just calories, like just calorie deficit. And that's all like, that's the only thing that matters, you know? I mean, yes, you will lose weight. And that needs to happen that, but there's so much more to it. And I don't think that's helpful, you know, what I mean? Like, give me some more context, you know, but it's also the tricky part. Because, as you mentioned, it's so individual is going to be completely different for someone who, as you said, you know, has been chronic dieting, for example, compared to someone who is overweight, and maybe it's just getting started, we're just trying to figure it out. There's so many different like, people there, you know, individuals that it also becomes difficult to kind of, like, educate everyone, you know what I mean? And then the thing is, like, the shit that works, you know, like, go for a walk, get some sleep, eats veggies, like those kinds of things. Like, that's way less exciting, you know, for social media, so that it gets less intention. And then you're kind of stuck with all these kind of like extreme, you know, like pages and profiles and channels to where it's always kind of like making things worse, you know what I mean?

Sam Miller:

Because, yeah, definitely, definitely contribute to the problem for sure. And it's not always, it doesn't seem magical to like, go for a walk or get good sleep. And some of those things require compounding efforts to yield a return. So it's like, I mean, maybe separately, you could probably get a pretty good night's sleep, and you probably feel a lot better the next day. So that's one of those things that that does show up a little bit more immediately. I would like to think, you know, going for a walk outside or being in nature, those, those do have some pretty tangible metrics behind them to show their efficacy, like if we look at it, actually, in terms of research, but I think that's why it's important. As a health professional, like you can share both types of content, but also, as far as the people that we're, we're working with, I think when we're clear on that, and we understand and also when we advocate for consumers to be educated and to learn and to sort of ask these questions, I think it's super important. And the more that, you know, we continue to kind of like make a dent in the industry and talk about these things. I think it does have a compounding effect, like having more voices kind of magnifies, magnifies that theme. And just shifting the focus is like at the end of the day, I think for all of us as professionals like the end, the end goal should really be like the the person receiving the message, even more so them than us. And a lot of those folks that that kind of revert to those arguments or like ad hominem attacks on each other. It's like, you're really just making it about you, you're not making it about the person and their results. Like you're, you're channeling the attention on to your personal public image. And the end of the day. It's like I understand why people might do that. But is that really helping more people? I mean, maybe some people find that entertaining to where they click on it and they learn something that's certainly possible. But I don't know that it necessarily is like a rallying cry for folks to like, Come Come behind something. So I definitely agree with you Johan, you know, going for a walk. Regardless of regardless of the calories that we're eating, or the foods that we choose, or whether you want to be plant based or you follow an animal based diet or you're omnivorous, there are some basic things that we can all do. I'm actually kind of working on a proposal and presentation that's related these things like we take for granted. How going for a walk, getting sunshine, going to sleep on time. Even spending time with pets, like I know we all have kind of drift around that joke around about that at the beginning of the podcast, but like animals, nature, sunshine, sleep, stress management, and even regardless of the food you choose to put in your mouth, like I don't even need to argue about that, like you do you and what feels best for you and I'm going to do my thing and like, you know, if Kristine goes hunting and like I want to eat something that she that she brought back like let me do my thing. But but even how we show up at mealtime, right like attentive eating, like not having Netflix on like putting, you know, being with a loved one or a friend or community member or like, even like if you want eat with your pet, that's cool too. But like attentive eating, chewing your food, regardless of the food that you choose, like there's still so many basic like lifestyle changes that are so powerful. It's like really why I always kind of come full circle back to this, like nutrition and lifestyle medicine is whether we're trying to achieve a body composition, goal performance goals, health goals, longevity, it's like, there are some key cornerstone things that we can all be doing that we can all agree on. Right, like resistance training, when dosed appropriately, is good for everybody. I will like definitely, like push that forward as like movement as medicine there. From that perspective, like going for a walk is a net positive for just about everyone in the human race, or some form of low grade movement right within your ability level. And like what you can do with your physical means getting to sleep on time stress, like there are some universal truths that I think we can fall back on. And then yeah, it's like energy is a key pillar of like managing metabolism and whether your goals weight loss or muscle building, we need to account for it. But there's a lot of different tools as far as like how we can get to an end result, right. And I think that's just accepting that, like, we may not all have the same exact journey, we may not pick the exact same tools and things to get there. But along the way, there are some things that we can all kind of do that are key drivers of health across the board. And then there's personal preferences, like you might enjoy the flavor of certain foods or works really well for managing your appetite for managing your blood sugar for helping you achieve that calorie deficit or surplus, whatever you're trying to do. And leaving a little bit of wiggle room for individuality. Because we're humans, we are individuals with personalities and preferences. That's cool. And then it's like, alright, but there are probably, you know, five to 10 things that we can all benefit from and utilize, regardless of our transformation goal. Oh,

Johan Vesters:

so you mentioned stress a couple times and stress management. I feel like that's that's one that's definitely becoming like more known. I feel like stress management is like a big buzzword now. But how does it impact the metabolism? So we talked about the cattery side of things? How about stress? So how does that kind of play a role there?

Sam Miller:

I'd say probably some of the most obvious ones would be, you know, when we are highly stressed, it's putting us in what's called more of a sympathetic or fight or flight state. It's not optimal for sleep and recovery. So if you're someone who emphasizes your training, and you really want to be performing optimally, we need that balance there, right? We've all had that day where something's on our mind and keeps us up at night. We're a little bit wired and tired. We can't quite go to sleep or a little restless. We know that compounding over time. If we are sleep deprived, that impacts our insulin sensitivity. And, you know, when we don't get a great night's sleep, we may be making some different daily dietary decisions when we show up the next day, right? Like we're a little bit hungrier, or maybe our focus and like dedication towards our goals might shift ever so slightly. So I think that's, that's one key thing. As far as digestion stress can definitely move people in different directions whether that's towards constipation or maybe like excess motility or going to the bathroom a bit too frequently. Stress also decreases our stomach acid. So a very important aspect of breaking down our food is stomach acid plays a really big role in terms of breaking down food like proteins. So stress impacts that it depletes key micronutrients which are necessary for overall metabolic function and are overall health. So whether that's key minerals or B vitamins, like when we're stressed, we are depleting that. And that is very important for our overall health and well being. And stress in itself is kind of catabolic. So if you're trying to build, you know, a good amount of muscle, if we're in kind of the state of fight or flight, that's not really the best for muscle building or digestion. So now we're not like absorbing and assimilating those nutrients quite the same. And it's less protective of muscle, right. So stress is inherently a little bit more catabolic versus anabolic, we need to be a little bit, we need a little bit more anabolism, when it comes to building muscle, or if we have performance goals and things like that, if stress continues, we have elevated cortisol or inflammation in the body impacts thyroid conversion. So in order for us to have optimal thyroid levels, in terms of the metabolically active hormone that circulates, and then and then sort of binds to this receptor in the body. So we exert the effects of the powerful hormone, we need stress levels, managing inflammation, manage in order to convert that optimally. So if stress runs rampant, if the body is highly inflamed if we have micronutrient deficiencies, so for example, like zinc or selenium, those are key minerals, that can begin to show up in terms of the function of some of these hormones and what's happening in terms of the enzymes that play a very, very important role in different reactions that impact that metabolic status quo that we have. So stress can impact decision making for sure we know that like there's a certain reactivity that happens when you're stressed. That's why I think it's important to work with clients on their resiliency. And another reason I'm a huge proponent of resistance training is I think, it really does help us kind of buffer in those in those responses to stress. Stress can definitely impact our sleep. And then from that hormonal perspective, we know that stress plays a role in terms of what's going on with blood sugar regulation, muscle building. You know, I mentioned the sleep cascade and things that can happen there. And then also our digestion and regulation of appetite.

Kristine Andali:

Yeah, we were kind of going to go into that the effects of chronic stress on hormones and gut health and the downregulation, as you can see there.

Sam Miller:

Yeah, for sure. So from a gut health perspective, when we do have chronic stress, I would say some of the biggest things are, you know, the stomach acid component, the when we see those changes in thyroid that I mentioned, that can certainly impact motility. So if you're starting to see constipation, or potentially someone going to the bathroom very frequently, but especially constipation, we end up instead of excreting, some things are supposed to be leaving the body. Sometimes we have recirculation like, for example, estrogen can get kind of recirculated. That's not great for hormonal balance, especially in females. But really the gut, the gut side of things, certainly spent a lot more time in recent years diving into this and even some of the precursors to our stress hormone cortisol. So like the signal from the brain, to the adrenal glands, we actually see how some of these precursors and cortisol itself can impact intestinal permeability. And overall like gut barrier function, the health of the gut motility, stomach acid, and then when we have sort of this compromised gut state, whether it's an imbalance and bacteria, or we have that permeability, things that are supposed to stay in the gut, don't stay in the gut, they activate the immune system. And that actually further perpetuates that fight or flight response that we're having. So it's like, we have this external life stress or like perceived stress that's going on, that our physical being is seeing and experiencing emotionally or from a mental perspective. And then on the inside of the body, what's going on in the gut, and from a hormonal perspective is exacerbating, you know, we basically have these underlying stressors that are going on with our internal health. So this is where you know being cognizant of that balance for both clients or anyone who's kind of a health enthusiast in their own transformation is understanding like, the stress on my body is not necessarily limited to getting like a stressful email from my boss or a client or a conversation or like your mom annoyed you in a text message, right? There's like other stressors that can be going on, especially from an internal health perspective. And this is also true if we use the example of someone who maybe lives a sedentary lifestyle is over consumed calories before just their blood sugar regulation or inability to regulate that blood sugar and insulin resistance. That is actually a stressor on the body as well. So it plays both directions. It's not just kind of that person who's like going into the group workout classes 17 times a week. And under fueling, it's like we also have those stressors from the person who has engaged in that sedentary lifestyle, maybe over consumed from a court perspective, not paying attention to micronutrient density. That person also has a lot of oxidative stress going on too because we're lacking the appropriate micronutrients to create some of our body's most powerful antioxidants. So when it comes to our metabolic health, definitely, you know gut health, hormones, oxidative stress, all of those have this this very closely related, you know, sort of closely related factors that are playing into our ability to achieve our results. It may seem a little bit indirect on the surface, but When we dive deeper, we realize like, Okay, if this is impacting how I feel, and this is impacting how I show up on a day to day basis, it can impact my decisions. And that can impact what's going on with my progress related to my weight loss or building muscle, or even, you know, quality of your sleep and some of the things that are going on the background of a transformation as well.

Kristine Andali:

Yeah, I think a lot of people when they, when they think stress, they think like one thing, like you touched on this, they think, like, maybe it's work stress, right, but they don't think about it being dysregulated blood sugar, they don't think about, you know, all these other things, whether it's overeating, or under eating the quality of their food, if they're sedentary, that, you know, dose dosing of training, right? A lot of people to like when they're really stressed, they don't realize that, like training for some people can still be an added stress to the system. Right. So they, a lot of times, they just think of it as like, emotional stress, when it's so it can be so many different factors coming into play there. And that's when it's, I feel so powerful to have a coach to be able to educate people and say, okay, like, we're seeing all of this different stress where like, they're just seeing one, and where we can adjust, you know, wherever we need to adjust to get them feeling better.

Sam Miller:

Yeah, and I would classify that, right, like, it's just different ways that we're sort of placing some additional strain or burden on the body. And I don't expect clients to be an expert in like human physiology, or biochemistry or any of those things. But if we can begin, you know, as much as like, stress is definitely a loaded word. And most people associate it more with emotional and psychological stress, it can be a helpful way to explain like, Hey, what's going on in your body, it kind of can work against us to some degree and make it feel like we're kind of swimming upstream with some of these health and fitness goals. So by rectifying that and getting to kind of the bottom of what's going on finding the root cause of some of these stressors and underlying body burden, we can make it a little bit easier, it's not necessarily easier right away. But then when we're actually achieving some results, we can make things more sustainable. And also, you're gonna feel a lot better in the process, as opposed to experiencing this resistance, kind of feeling like garbage, and still trying to muscle your way through like willpower your way through. Because, I mean, honestly, some clients are great at that. And even earlier on in my own health journey, like I would be the type of person that would just like, continue to try to just like push, push, push, push, push. And I think helping clients understand that, while there are different things that play stress, that do play stress on the body, and maybe emphasize the different times, like you may be going through a season of life where, hey, maybe you're sleeping less, because you have a new baby at home, or maybe your sleep is great, but you have a lot of conflict in your personal relationships, or you have some job stress, or you're like moving across the country for some reason, like, there's all sorts of different things that people may experience. And so I think being sensitive to that, as a coach and health professionals super important and even clients giving themselves a little bit of grace and understanding like, even though it doesn't seem that it's directly in your health and fitness bucket, right, because a lot of people think like gym nutrition macros, like this is the buck, this is my fitness bucket, and everything else exists, like separate from that. Giving yourself a little bit of an under, you know, that understanding and that space to say, you know, hey, this may be impacting what's going on, in terms of my overall health. And I need to work on this and incorporate this into my journey. Because, you know, by paying attention to it, I can ultimately resolve some of this underlying stuff, whether that's, you know, you've got stuff going on, and people say, Oh, well, like, how is my gut health like really related to my fat loss? Like it's just me going to the bathroom or it's just this not the other thing, but it's impacting the absorption and utilization of nutrients, if you feel uncomfortable, also, in your progress photos, if you're feeling bloated or distended. There's a lot of aspects impacting both your quality of life and your visual appearance. Yeah, right. So I think acknowledging how those things can kind of play out is super important. And clients also realizing the interconnected nature of like, this health and fitness journey and nutrition stuff is part of your life. It's so if you have stress going on in other areas, you know, your macros don't exist in isolation, independent of that some people are very good about being kind of robotic and blocking that out and just like hitting things to a tee, or maybe they have experience with like competition, prep of some kind, whether that's, you know, for sport like CrossFit, or maybe it's something like bodybuilding, very good at putting the blinders on and doing that. But just because you do that doesn't necessarily mean that it exists in a vacuum, right? It's still so interconnected with the rest of our lives. And one of the other coaches who's actually kind of been through the program after you guys we were doing we were having a conversation after the fact and he kind of mentioned he's like, yeah, I really like how you guys like, take us 360 approach to things of like the client's life. And I was like, that's perfect, because sometimes I feel like the word like functional health doesn't really hit the nail on the head. And there's so many like arguments around it. And I don't really always love like the word holistic, because it sounds kind of like we're like burning incense in the background like. So I really liked it when it's like, Hey, we're taking a 360 view of this client transformation of this home. And so with a 360 view, it's like, yeah, I'm looking at your life, I care about your job stress, I care, like, Do you have a 18 month old that's keeping you up at night. So your sleep is an optimal? So we need to dose your training differently, like Christine mentioned that point earlier, which I think is huge. You know, do we need to dose the training differently? Is there something that, you know, you've, you've been traveling a lot for work, and so you have some jetlag, and that's throwing things off from like a circadian health perspective, it's really taking that full picture, and then figuring out within our locus of control within the things that we actually have some influence on, what behaviors can we adjust and dose appropriately that are in alignment with your goals? Right? That's kind of that's really where the coaching conversation ends up going. And that's why I'm a huge proponent of really looking at this whole health journey. And health coaching is really more of like, we're just trying to intelligently manage adaptation. Because when there are stressors, and they're stimulus to the body, the body is going to adapt. It's like that's what bodies do. That's what you mean, coming back to the beginning of today's conversation. We talked about metabolism, like what is metabolism, metabolism is like this adaptation machine that's adapting to energy and stress and stimulus. So as coaches, our job is really how do we sort of best manage and observe the adaptations taking place, and then steer things accordingly, whether it's a nutritional change, this person needs some carbohydrates, or they need some more protein, we need to change the frequency of resistance training, maybe we need to go for more walks, or maybe we need to get more sleep, it all becomes intelligently layering those things and kind of creating the recipe for the client that works best. And I think once we get to that place, it's just, that's really where things are, we kind of like unlock some superpowers, and it can be really helpful for the client, because instead of feeling like there's this, you know, lack of understanding of how things work, and how to actually sustain and, like achieve those results that they're looking for. They understand how things come together. And I think that's super powerful. Because now not only have we made, you know, like a six month fat loss goal, a reality, but now like six years from now, and like decades that follow this person now has the appropriate sort of health behaviors under their tool belt to actually like, be autonomous for the rest of their life, which I think is really, really important. And oftentimes missed by some of those, like, quick fix approaches that we all see on social media, I feel

Johan Vesters:

like with the with a quick fix approach is like with the meal plans and the supplement, you know, schemes and all that stuff, like, can you lose some weight short term, like Yeah, but it goes way beyond that, you know, it should go way beyond just like that category update, or you know, your macros. And once a week, here's your app, and you know, a couple new recipes. I just had a chat with someone yesterday on the phone, and she hit me up, she's like, I really feel like a fucked up, you know, I didn't have my targets, you know, I'm struggling with this, whatever. So I was like, No, you didn't fuck up. Like, let's actually have a conversation about this, you know, like, and then we ran into just different scenarios. It was like, you know, she had kids, she was very busy. Basically, just on the run, like all day, you know, then they were going away for the weekend and won't camping, she didn't know what to do there. And so all those things like that all plays a role there. And that's all stuff that we need to cover, you know, and we can't just say, Hey, these are your macros, good luck, figure it out, you know, which I do feel like a lot of programs are still doing, you know, but we need to look at everything. We need to look at those stressors, we need to look at how busy you are, like what can you actually do, as sometimes also, like remove stuff, right? Because that's a lot. You know what stress management is like, let's actually remove a little bit of stress. If we can, at least, or at least do more of what recharges us because I think sometimes and I know you've guys have run into this too. But like, I feel like sometimes people almost react by adding fuel to the fire right to where, oh, I'm not losing weight. So I'll have to do another run. Right? For I'll have to do another hard workout. Well, on the other hand, we might actually just have to just chill a little bit more. And try to calm down, you know?

Sam Miller:

Yeah, kind of pulling back and do last night just to kind of emphasize the point you made there about camping or having a busy schedule, I think with clients and also in the coaching relationship, allowing those people to view that aspect of their journey as a learning experience and like, Okay, this didn't go as planned this time. But what did we learn for next time like it's a clue of how we can modify, modify things, iterate off of Hey, this was my initial plan. And man was I, I was like, totally off on that I was totally wrong on that. And it's some of the, you know, there's a lot of parallels to like business in life where sometimes we have these ideas, and we think that they might be successful initially. And sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. And a lot of our success is dictated by our ability to respond to those challenges and respond to that adversity or when things didn't go our way. Because the client who's like, Well, I really had this intended plan for camping didn't really go that great. What did I learn from it, and then they come back on Monday or Tuesday, and they just go back into what they know works for them. And they, you know, they time blog to get on schedule, they prepare some meals, or they figure out a way to build momentum and get back into the swing of things. That person's the one who's going to be successful. Like they, they learn from it, they acknowledge that there was a mistake, but they gave themselves some grace to kind of fail forward in a way, and then they begin to iterate on it of like, okay, how can I do better next time? versus, you know, a lot of and I think this is also a problem in terms of coaching is like, clients almost expect like this very critical approach from the coach or like, hey, this was wrong, or you did that like this was off, versus viewing it as an opportunity of where you can grow, where you can change things, how we can iterate Well, how would we maybe do this differently, you can scenario you can walk through different scenarios, you can plan you can almost like if then approach to things right. So hey, if you guys go camping again, over so in the States, Kristine, you know, we got a memorial day coming up. And then there's like, Fourth of July, and Labor Day and all the things after that. You know, Johan a lot of your clients right now, it's like, there's way more daylight for you guys, people have more activities. And you know, they're getting out more, and they probably have a lot more social commitments and obligations, and they had previously versus when it was like super dark for part of the year. So now all of a sudden, people are bustling. And like schedules are busy and things are going on, maybe kids have stuff going on too. And accepting that like, okay, the approach that I used in this specific season of life might be different than the approach that I need to use right now, that doesn't mean that I'm like, a total screw up, it just means we need an adjustment, right? And it's instead of viewing myself as like a flawed human for making that mistake, it's understanding like, Okay, I'm not going to play victim to my circumstances, I'm going to view this as an opportunity for me to grow and make modifications and adjustments. And then plan. So if I know, six weeks from now, I'm about to do a very similar trip to what I just did over that long weekend, I can then make an adjustment knowing that like, Okay, this is what I set out to do last time didn't really work. So I'm going to need to adjust accordingly. So I think that can be super powerful for people. And I love that you sort of mentioned things not going to plan and then the Oh, I got to do more? Well, not necessarily, right, we don't always necessarily need to do more, just because something was missed or omitted or forgotten. Or maybe you didn't hit your exact targets, right. Sometimes it's it's getting back to that formula of the things that we know that work or working to establish and identify, hey, why didn't this work and just being able to have an open conversation about it in a non critical way just kind of bringing self awareness I think to empower future decision making.

Kristine Andali:

I love event planning I use it all the time. So good.

Johan Vesters:

It's the best that's literally like that conversation we had yesterday. That's literally what we did. And we just said okay, let's let's come up with if damn plan so that next time you go you just kind of know what's up, you know? Awesome. Yeah. Cool. I think we touched on a lot of good points. Anything else you wanted to mention the Kristine

Kristine Andali:

link so

Johan Vesters:

I think we we have a lot of good stuff. So that being said, I do thank you for for coming on. We finally made it happen.

Sam Miller:

Yeah, no, I you guys were on my list. And to be fair, I did do like a podcast hiatus when I was finishing the book. So I Yeah, pretty much went like underground for a minute. I love I love doing podcasts. I love guest speaking I love doing those things, but I had to almost restrain myself. And then even once the book was kind of finished, you have the the time period where you're either promoting things or you realize like crap, I still have all these other areas of my business that still need TLC in addition to living in front of a Google Doc for an extended period of time so I think you guys are actually one of other than my I we talked about the muscle for life interview and things like things like that. I think this is I can count on one hand the amount of podcast interviews that have taken place since November of last year with everything so it was a lot of fun and you know it's extra special because I've known you guys for a while and and Johan like seeing your growth and Kristine you as well. And then even how you've kind of evolved in your approach and sharing and content communication is super, super cool. So I was I was excited to be here and be part of the conversation and how hopefully provide people some insight on Nutrition and Metabolism and, you know, give them some actionable tips for things that they can do in their lives.

Johan Vesters:

Awesome. So that being said, Where can people find your book.

Sam Miller:

So the book is available at metabolism made simple.com. But I do share a ton of free content too. So if books you know, for books, not your style, I have my Instagram and podcast are both similar science and similar science on just about every platform, I have some blogs, as well at similar science.com Those are totally free, no cost content for you guys. The book, if you go to metabolism made simple.com It'll kind of reroute you to whatever the best, you know, based on like you landing on that site, you just kind of put in your name and email, and then I'll bring you to the best place for you to buy that book if you want to. There are both our softcover hardcover and Kindle versions available. So if you are like part of JOHANNS audience, there's a chance like you may potentially be able to grab like harder softcover but if not, we got you covered with the Kindle version on Amazon as well. So lots of different ways to potentially learn and then share the podcast which is a good mix certain episodes a little more geared towards health professionals. But we do have some general content that if you're just super into health and fitness you can benefit from as well. And then I'll share some occasional like silly skits and random memes and stuff on on Instagram. So if you need something a little bit lighter, you can cut over that way as well.

Johan Vesters:

Loving usually is just stepbrothers than dogs. I think

Sam Miller:

there's a lot of dog photos, but it's just kind of, you know, I think it lightens lightens the mood. Sometimes when you talk about serious stuff like I do you you need a little bit of that balance in order to Yeah, for sure, you know, connect with people. And I am partial to like my late 90s 2000s To, like 20 foot. Like, it's interesting, right? Because we'll and we'll totally end on this, I don't need to like, make this into a 20 Minute. But what I realized is that in starting a business and being like, so immersed in the health and fitness industry, I hadn't seen relevant movies from like 2015 to 2023. So there's like an eight year gap of like, there's really unless it was a series and I went back and I reviewed it, I missed a ton of stuff. So a lot of my references end up being like, whatever it was like high school, college, grad school and like early adulthood for me. So there's definitely a little bit of a gap. But if it happened between like 2005 and 2015, there's probably a good chance there's going to be a quote, you know, from something. And fortunately, a lot of people in kind of our age group, like recognize some of those classics, so it's a little bit easier. But yeah, there's there's definitely a little bit the point a little bit of stepbrothers that pops up in there but that's just you know, you can't like take Will Ferrell too seriously. So makes it a little bit easier. I have been trying to mix in I mixed in some dodgeball the other day. I had napoleon dynamite in one of my videos the other day, so I'm trying to broaden you know, for everybody's sort of different comedic flavors that they may have. But just if you do make it to my page, just know that I apologize. I missed out on a lot of movies when trying to kind of do this whole health and fitness thing. So there's, there's like, I'll get caught up eventually. But there's like almost a decade gap in my chairs that I

Johan Vesters:

ended on that did keep sharing the classics. We actually love that stuff. So Oh, good. I appreciate it, man. Thanks. Thanks for coming on again. Yeah, of course. And to the listener. We will talk to you again next week.

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