Why real change needs real measurement

the numbers initially give the program structure and I think that that is a really positive thing and people are

often like come in hand throw hands in there I just want to know what to eat I just want to know I just want you to

tell me what to eat that's what I want so when you can deliver the plan and say look here it is when you make up your

meal you can choose from this this and this put it together and these are the numbers around it at the start that's

really reassuring and it really helps people stay on track and it really helps them feel in control because there's no

and I say it's German that you know it's it's black and white that's not gray it's not blurry it's going to be quite

structured

welcome to the metabolic balance stories podcast. This is where we share real

stories and insights to help you on your journey to optimal health with personalized nutrition and best balance.

I'm Cherry Wills. I'm your host and today I'm delighted to welcome back my

expert panel. So the expert panel is some incredibly experienced practitioners in the functional medicine

Welcome to the Metabolic Balance Stories podcast

world. But I want to dive straight in because this session we are going to

bust some myths around MB. Some of the things that people sort of maybe have

commented or um have we've heard people think about metabolic balance and

personalized nutrition. And so yeah, we're going to get straight into some of these questions and comments that we've

received. So the first one that I want to put out there is that with a

metabolic balance nutrition plan, people can be eating low calories. So it's

remembering we our plans are fully like protein, the carbs, the vegetables,

Introducing the expert practitioner panel

salad, and the fats. But it is 100% whole foodbased. And when you actually

can put that exact amount that's listed in the plan into a calorie counting, it

can come back as 1,00 or,200 calories a day. Now, who would like to jump in

first about calories? Should we go straight to Alex? Hello, Alex. Lovely to have you back.

Thank you. What would you say about counting calories when we're talking about whole

foods? It's very flawed. Well, it's not flawed science, but it's dated science and certainly the um research has been

updated. But I think with calorie counting,

people feel in control and some people need to feel in control and it's it's a

great way to sell other eating plans, right? So, I think that's why it

persists. But what we now know is everybody's different. And let's say 100

calories from protein, which doesn't instigate an insulin response, or 100 kgs, kilos from fat. Even 100 calories

from really simple carbs like white bread versus rye bread is going to be different because it all depends on the

biochemistry a in your body b if you're male or female c where even with with

cycling women where we are in our cycle and d and just how quickly our digestive enzymes and there's probably efghi you

know there's just so many different factors in this so you can't you can't

say the calories from a two slices of white bread is going to exactly the same

um nutritionally or our bodies are going to accept it exactly the same way as say two slices of goat cheese.

Yeah. Yeah. I think and I think that's the thing. The calorie counting method is simply a meeting a number in a day

Debunking the “low-calorie” myth

regardless of how you met that number. You could you could have had five chocolate bars and that would be

considered okay you've had your calorie count for the day and it's all good. Emily, what would you say here?

I completely agree that quality definitely trumps any kind of numbers. And then it's about that connection and

consultation with the client around, okay, tell me about your hunger. Are you hungry? Are you not hungry? And where do

we go from that? What symptoms you're getting? Because that tells us what we need to fill those gaps with. And I

mean, of course, we need to we do need to work at a deficit. So even though we're not doing the calories in,

calories out thing, there needs to be a deficit to generate that usage of

storage or stored fat for energy. But we need to fuel that and start somewhere

and work up. And I guess that's the way I've always used these plans as a bare minimum, as that basement to work up

from. And never do we drop back from what's written on those plans, but we're

only building up. And I think most of the clients I work with sort of go,

"Where is all my food?" And I go, "Cool. We'll add it all back in. Let's keep going and building on it." So, it's a

really good opport opportunity to have the bare minimums outlined for us. When we look at how calories are even

calculated as well for individual foods, it's an incredibly flawed system because

it's assuming that we are a perfect. So how you know the calorie system was

originally developed by burning f uh food within a sealed container and then

Why calorie counting doesn’t reflect real metabolism

finding out how much that heat released increases water. So it's kind of like

saying that we all as individuals are completely uh perfect furnaces to burn

every aspect of that food when it is just simply not the case. I think that's

so interesting because really calories is maths. So, are we going to determine what we're

eating based on maths? No. Because maths doesn't give us the simplistic calorie

maths doesn't give us enough inputs and doesn't give us enough data to actually

figure out what we should be eating because like you said, the metabolic rate. So how much muscle you have, what

type of body you have, like whether you easily burn carbohydrate or whether you

actually are a slow consumer of carbohydrate in terms of your digestion, your metabolism, what proteins actually

help your metabolism work effectively, what don't. It's just such a complex

equation that it can't be melted down to calories. And it's why so many um eating

plans people work really hard to meet their calorie rules and yet nothing

changes and and and that's why because then they're not actually embracing the

complexity of people's metabolic needs. Yeah. Heather, what would you what would you

add? Uh, I'd probably come right back to what you said about the um the flawed

plans that if if calories in, calories out was all it was about, then I remember um clients of mine like a

How individual biochemistry changes food needs

couple of decades ago saying that with Weight Watchers, they could so long as they hit their 20 points, it didn't

matter what the 20 points was made up of. And that could be 10 Tim Tams if that added up if one Tim Tam was two

points. And if that worked, then those

things wouldn't be in decline. But they're in decline because it doesn't work and it's it's not sustainable and

it doesn't create any behavioral change. But understanding through metabolic

balance that a balanced meal is protein and some vegetables or some salad and

then maybe a little bit of a low reactive bread like the rye. Then that's

what creates that educational change to understand this is what a meal looks like. Not just if I want to get from A

to B, so long as I do this, it'll work. Because that will never hold. Whereas what I find, you know, I think nearly 5

years down the journey of metabolic balance is that people really do embrace

some of the generic rules lifelong and they understand the effect that they've

had on their body. So they'll always come back to them. So it's like that they're relearning things that they

didn't learn previously. And you know, you'll meet someone who may not have been using their plan for 2

years, but they say, "Oh, and I still have my apple for lunch every day, or I still drink my water quotota, or I still

fast between breakfast and lunch." Whatever it is that they like about metabolic balance, they're still using

that. But if you were just relying on calorie counting, there is no sustainable

change there at all. To me, it's a it's an incredibly flawed way of of choosing

Balanced meals, insulin response, and satiety

what to eat or or knowing what to eat. You know, the the satiety that you get from eating a lovely rich salad with

nice dressing and lovely protein in there that's, you know, a really lovely

sized salad could be the same amount of calories as two or three choppers or

whatever it is. and the society. I mean, the other thing that we, you know, I

probably add into the mix is everybody's gut microbiome is so unique and we have

different bacteria that is able to be super efficient at extracting more

calories, more energy from food because when we're talking about calories, we should probably really talk about

energy. It's the it's the extraction of the energy from the food. And you know,

again, the gut microbiome, that balance, certain bacteria can extract so much

more energy. So what could be 1,000 calories in official maths of a food for

one person could actually be 1,400 calories of of energy that it's

extracted for use in their own bodies. You know, that's also what the evidence has has shown. I are always talking

about how to fueling your body. And I think that when we actually look at

fueling our our individual bodies rather than looking at things from a population

level like everybody should eat this way or all women need this, all men need

that. And we actually look at what is metabolic balance about. is about

resetting your body so that you can determine how much you need to eat. And

like Emily said, that is going to largely be based around hunger.

Yeah. And and that the right signals of that hunger as well, isn't it? It's actually properly really identifying the

signals and chewing food and recognizing when you're satiated. You're full.

You're you've eaten enough fuel and lovely food in that meal time and now

you're ready to move on with your day and your digestion happens nice and

Why early structure builds confidence and clarity

steadily for you. Because that's the other thing that calories you, you know,

it's about how quickly the food is broken down during that fasting period

after the meal. You want there to be a nice slow release of energy, not just a

a quick dunk of sugar into the bloodstream. It also depends on the timing of your

eating. So you know we we know all of the coaches are taught and us

nutritionists know that when you eat simple I'm using simple carbohydrate

foods because they are basically the villain aren't they all the processed sugary foods they elicit a very strong

insulin response. Now, most of our viewers or listeners will know about insulin because, you know, so many

people get told they're insulin resistant. And the reason why you become insulin resistant is because you're releasing too much insulin in your pre

in your earlier life because you're eating very simple carbs. So, that's the

that's one thing. But if we have our protein first as we teach our clients,

you're going to blunt that insulin response. So, you're going to get satiety longer throughout the um in

between meals. And I think that is really important too. So even the timing of your meals, which we of course teach

our uh clients because we could say, "Oh, here's your food." And you go, "Oh, what do we do first?" We reach for the bread roll. We reach for the bread.

Boom. Insulin dumps in the system, grabs it all out, you know, and then the the protein sort of chugs along and

fermentss a bit and um next minute we're hungry again. So it Yeah. So there's

this it's also timing is so important. So following on from sort of this idea of counting calories which I think uh

we're all in agreement here it's a very forward system but is what a lot of

dietary plans do do. So with metabolic balance just to clarify anybody who's

listening to this we actually never talk about calories in metabolic balance because we say it's such a flawed system

of judging the right foods for an individual that we never do talk about it. I wanted to address the bit that MB

is a low calorie approach because it really isn't when you are looking at the full whole foods that we use. But

somebody else has mentioned that metabolic balance is all about numbers. So in quotation mark it's all about

numbers and um so you know from a sort of an understanding of where this

comment might have come from is that we are asking people to weigh their foods

in the initial first stage and also we do need to know the numbers of the

Using numbers to guide clients without restriction

client's somebody's uh weight and waist and hip and thigh measurements. So their

actual body measurements. So we do need to know some numbers in order to do the

analysis. So I suppose that might be where this comment is coming from. The

numbers initially give the program structure and I think that that is a really positive thing and people are

often like come in hand throw hands in there. I just want to know what to eat. I just want to know. I just want you to

tell me what to eat. That's what I want. So when you can deliver the plan and say look here it is. when you make up your

meal, you can choose from this, this, and this. Put it together and these are the numbers around it at the start.

That's really reassuring and it really helps people stay on track and it really helps them feel in control because

there's no and I say it's German that, you know, it's it's black and white. It's not gray. It's not blurry. It's

going to be quite structured. And then as the results happen and they feel better and they're releasing weight and

they're sleeping better and all the all the great things we know metabolic balance does that that falls away. So

then it's like well I know what my lunch looks like. You know I know how much chicken I'm going to put on my plate. I

know which veggies I like. You know that all falls away. So the numbers thing

people criticizing that is probably people haven't done the plan because if they done it they would realize that

that's just some structure at the start. It's like anything learning a language or learning an instrument you need some

guidance at the start but then it very quickly becomes quite automated for the

person and they really understand and frequently feedback that I had no idea

about portions. It's that's visual. It becomes the visual for them. and they know how many blueberries to tip in and

within reason like you're not going to measure your blueberries but they know okay that's what it sort of looks like.

So yes there are numbers involved and the the weighing people and measuring

people if you're critical of that that's a bit like everyone getting a ribbon in the rates like it's reality. Reality is

if you want change something has to change and if you want to measure change you have to measure it. So you can't

have this perfect let's not offend anyone. Let's not say look your waist

measurements way bigger than it should be if the end result is a positive change in that human being. So face

facts it is a fact and they they are part of the plan and it's what drives

people to keep their appointments and come in and assess their pro progress. And often the numbers need explanation.

Personalising Metabolic Balance for different lifestyles

You know, if I measure fat mass and muscle mass every single visit with metabolic balance clients. So sometimes

it's like, hey, your waist measurements come down and your muscle mass has gone up. This is fantastic. This is what we

want. And the fat mass has reduced anyway. So it's it's letting them

understand that it's not just a number. What's the number mean in the big

picture? So yes, the numbers are there, but they're very beneficial in my opinion. It's information at the end of

the day to teach. Yeah. Arreolina, what would you say

here? I think it's really interesting. I have some clients and they they're structure

freaks. So, they love measuring their food because it gives them certainty.

Um, they love the ability to because the meals can increase in size and you need

to know how to increase them. And the numbers give people a really understandable, easy, relatable way of

increasing their meal sizes when they need to. I will often say to people in the first few weeks, take a picture of

every single meal because then you have a representation that's easy to have a

look at and build meals from visual recognition. I also think it's really

interesting because I have some people that weigh themselves every day and they always have and they always will and

that is what is supportive for them. They like to track every single change

and that helps them and I support that. And then I have other clients, I do all

of their measurements and their weight and I do not let them know any of it because for them knowing any of that

information is unhelpful and it really sets them back mentally. So I just hold

all of that within my own practice and I do that for them and we never talk about

weight ever because for them it's unhelpful. And what I love is metabolic

balance works perfectly for both groups. And because you're the practitioner

delivering it, this isn't just sort of some information that somebody needs to digest themselves. Somebody can show up

to any of us and say, "Hey, knowing my figures doesn't help me." And any of us

would be able to work with them. And they need never really look at numbers. And I work with quite a few patients

that are recovering from uh eating disorders and I will get them to make

each meal once and take a photograph of it and then they never weigh it ever again. They just get the ratio the look

of the meal right and that's all that they need to do. There is another comment that we've had uh recently that

um metabolic balanced encourages disordered eating or unnecessary restriction.

So Emily, what would you say about that uh comment? People get very emotive around food. And

I think we're in a society where eating and treating your body really poorly is

now normal. And so whenever you do differently to that, whatever it looks like, people think you're doing

Does structure equal restriction? Understanding real flexibility

something fringe when cuz you are. Metabolic balance has structure for all the reasons that we've explained. and it

it is structured to help people move forward. And then what that looks like

long term is a pattern that can be molded into the person's new normal. So

the disordered part is probably pushing a little bit of limits on what metabolic

balance is, but it definitely creates structure that's needed to help reset everyone's metabolisms, get them working

better, and to guide people into what their new normal needs to be for them to be well, just like we're saying about

what a plate of food looks like for people. So, it's a it's a funny space

this orthorexia kind of thing that's come up now because having KFC a couple

of times a week is so normal for a lot of people. So, doing differently rubs people the wrong way.

So, just to clarify, so you mentioned orthorexia. Orthorexia is this um of of

an obsession. It's a it's a form of eating disorders where you only want to eat what you consider to be purely

healthy food and you become very obsessed with that approach. And I think

from a metabolic balance point of view, we have phase four. So we have four

phases and the fourth phase is all about finding the new balance place where you

are enjoying life and enjoying events and holidays and relaxed times and also

enjoying times when you need to focus and and nourish your body when things are just every dayto-day kind of stuff.

So we are about really finding the genuine balance in that space.

Like Heather said, there are so many shades of gray. The plan on the page is

theory based. It is black, white, strict guidelines. But I think the coach is

where we bring in those shades of gray to truly personalize it for each client and talk to them about what they've got

going on, what's important for them, what situations they've got going up, and how to best approach those and set

goals personally for those people that they can achieve and move towards rather

than setting black and white goalposts that we know they have to go towards or

else they fail. Uh, and it it doesn't work like that. And that's what coaching is all about. And I agree. And sometimes you've got to

really adapt the plan to meet the person where they're at. We have done metabolic balance with FIFO workers who um are

prepping two weeks of meals before they go out to a mine site and and nailing it. We've done it with truck drivers,

interstate truck drivers doing long haul truck driving. And just yesterday I was talking to an air host desk flight

attendant. That's the one. She goes to um Europe and US and all sorts of things

and there's no way they can do it like Emily said black and white. So it has to

be this modification under the supervision of a coach to make that work

for somebody with extreme shift work lifestyle. But most times you can find a

way around all those things for people. And you know, if they're in the outback, there's sometimes there's multiple

things on the food plan they just cannot get. There's just no way knowing they've got access to it. So again, it's that

modification. Say, you know, ideally we'd be doing this, but let's change it to this because that's what you've got

How the four phases create long-term freedom

access to. I really love that idea. I think I heard it from you, Cherry, about

a picnic blanket. So metabolic bell gives you a range of

foods that are metabolically supportive for you and you can think about those

foods like your picnic blanket. But nobody said at the botanical gardens

that you couldn't rove around and eat off everybody else's picnic blanket, too. But it's all about knowing what

your picnic blanket has on it and knowing that they're the foods that support your metabolism. So you want to

come back to your blanket regularly. Yeah. And I think that's the key because the core component of everything that

what metabolic does it it's an objective analysis of somebody's metabolic health

from their blood tests that then we take that functional health picture identify

nutrients that could benefit that client and then find the right foods. And that is the food list. So it is the food list

that's the real keep that's essential and then that food list can be um eaten

from uh in the way that really under the guidance of the coach that can actually

then get the results that that client needs. So I always say everything about

MB apart from the food list for the period of change. So whilst we want change, you got to stick to the food

list, but all the other aspects whilst we keep them as the strong pillars um

and the strong structure, they actually can be molded to fit the lifestyle.

And that's where the coach fits in, right? Well, that's where the coach comes in. They're there to support you, not to

restrain you. And they're there in a very real sense initially so that you

can feel their impact. And then in the long term that then

nobody's forcing you to do anything. You're just following those guidelines

because they make your body feel good. And I had one client where her goal, her

only goal was, I'm a highly social person, she said, and I want to be able to eat out regularly and enjoy myself.

And at the moment, whenever I eat out, I do not enjoy myself. feel terrible after eating out. So, she ate metabolically

when she was at home because she ate out three or four times a week. And for her,

metabolic balance was was a success because when she ate out, a she knew the

best meals to pick for herself that made her feel good and b she stopped having

to worry about feeling terrible the next day. And what I love is that that metabolic

balance can be adjusted to meet the needs like that that could be your goal.

Or I have other clients that want or need to lose 30 kilos of weight and are

diabetic. um and the the plan is going to be implemented really differently and

their goal is completely different but the same plan or you know obviously

they've got their unique plan but the same general structure works in both cases. The other question or the other comment

was that we had was it's difficult or extreme to maintain particularly during

holidays and events. Emily, what would you say around that? I think absolutely

what we've said about it, it gives you structure around what foods to pick when you can't be perfect. So you get this

really nice idea of what options are going to sit best with you so you don't feel terrible. Um, but I think to the

whole point of metabolic balance is to build resilience and healing. So, what we're also doing is getting people's

bodies strong and resilient so that when they eat foods that are challenging for their body to process, their body has

the gusto to to get through it and get over it, you know? So, we're building on

both sides of the fence in that we're not getting that exposure to the terrible stuff that doesn't work for

some people's bodies, but also making their bodies much stronger and more resilient. So, it helps with both sides

of that. Yeah, because we can't always uh be perfect. We're very realistic, pragmatic practitioners and we have to

What “eating normally” looks like after Metabolic Balance

find a realistic framework and a place to to manage things to be able to enjoy

life in general. Yes. I think once people and this is goes back to what Heather said people

who talk about citing numbers etc etc they've never done MB or they've once

people have actually started the program alongside a really good coach who can

gear you along the way and you know applaud all your successes and encourage

you through all the tough times. They feel so fabulous. They they they lose inches. I have Oh, that's very bad,

isn't it? Centimeters. I actually have quite a lot of because I do online mostly clients who don't want to measure

themselves or weigh themselves, but they're really excited to tell me they their belts gone into notches. So,

it it works pragmatically. Metabolic balance works. People feel better. They

lose centimeters. They have more energy. They decrease their inflammation. So

they will come back to it at the end of the day. They come back to it. So um it

works. I I think that's a like because as uh if

you work out what your metabolic good enough is,

it's enough. And there's there's no perfection actually required for metabolic balance

to work. And that's one of the things I love about it the most. Yeah, it's about really adapting uh the

plan to that person for the long term. I'm just not really aware of any other

dietary program or guidelines that truly wants to get somebody into how are you

going to have and have a great lifestyle for the next 20 30 years. I mean, that's

ultimately the goal of of phase 4. It's and and then navigating all the the four

phases is being able to really understand when do you lean into more of

that focus structure and when can you relax out again? Um and when do you

learn in different ways and how do you tweak and adapt it? And this is all that learning that happens as you're in that

initial change period working with your coach. And the coach is your your coach

is only there while you're learning and when you need them. Ultimately, we really want them to graduate, do we not?

We want them to graduate and um and not need it. One thing that I noticed is if

I speak to somebody a year or two after they've done a, you know, a three or four month course with me, I noticed

initially that they would often say, "Oh, I'm not eating metabolically." And I'll go, "Oh, really? Tell me what

you're eating." And then they would go on to basically describe phase 4. Um, so

they they didn't feel like they were limited in any way.

In fact, what I understood them to be meaning was I now just eat what I feel

to eat. that when I sort of held that coaching space for them, they realized

that the way that they now eat had completely transformed and what felt

just natural, normal and completely unrestricted was actually following

their metabolic foundations and also enjoying themselves in

combination. and enjoying then the health benefits that being metabolically

balanced and and healthful actually provides to the human body and just

feeling like and this is me I just eat that's that's often what I've noticed

people will say a few years after doing metabolic balance and if they're

maintaining the core principles they'll often say ah well I just eat and that's the beauty of it long term

isn't it that that's one of the most successful um weight loss, if I'm allowed to use

that term, very oldfashioned term, program in the world to date because

when you do metabolic balance, you get taught how to eat, how to eat properly,

when to eat, what's the best foods for you. Because we've had discussions adnauseium about one man's food is

Building resilience for holidays, stress, and real life

another man's poison. And you know it um it's so successful longterm this program

and I think it's all you know it's anybody who says again

they probably haven't done it or dare I say haven't been coached adequately. Yeah. And it is about te the teaching

and we there's that wonderful quote that I always love talking about Picasso Picasso the abstract artist who did not

paint within rules but he's quoted as saying you learn the rules like a pro so

you can bend them like an artist. And I think that just sums up you learn a

great structure of nourishing your body, but then actually you you can appreciate

at different times when you need to be a little artistic with the interpretation,

but you're also not breaking anything that causes the body injury, damage, and

ill health. you're actually staying within the a nice framework of just

being resilient and and respectful to what we need to do and how we nourish our bodies. I studied

music as a child. So I think of phase two as uh scales. So you're learning all

the individual components and phase three as songs. So, you're

really getting out there and going, "What what works for me? Um, how do I

play this song?" And you're bringing it all together. And then phase four is jazz. So, you um are creating a rhythm,

but you also play discordant notes. And for my mind, that helps me and it seems

to help my um clients as well really understand what they're doing at each

phase. What am I doing here? But it's also the flow of the phases that I think people don't always pick up. And that's

where I think some of the misunderstanding goes that you you know the the fa the phases have to flow

between each other and then we always we're going to have different tide. You have to lean in and change things again

and go back and and because that's the realistic nature of the human body. We're never going to do anything once.

Never going to do anything once and say right now that's it. I am my body will never be will be permanently healthy. Um

it's that it's laughable. It's a laughable thing to think you can just do

like healthy eating once and then you never have to think about it ever again. I mean that doesn't even make any sense.

So that's where Yeah. I've got the gym subscription. Why aren't I getting healthy?

To the gym every day for five days. That should be it me if no. No, we have to

keep on going. Yeah, we have to keep on looking after just just teaches us about real food.

And I'm I doing MB for a while as a coach and as my and myself, it's still teaching me

stuff, you know, like I' I find that in times of high stress, I need to be

pretty damn on point with my meals. Otherwise, I feel all sorts of awful.

But if I'm really high stressed and I've got 40 million balls in the air, but I'm actually eating metabolically and going

dialing it right back again, I'm good. Just basic stuff like that. And that's life, isn't it?

Yeah. That's and that's that's one of the wonderful things we have. It's also understanding how the phases work is

actually why metabolic balance is more freeing because you don't have to remain

in any sort of restrictive phase. You can go out away on holiday and just go

with the moment because you actually know how to reset after the holiday.

And you can just attend um your family event cuz all you need to do is eat your

metabolic breakfast the next day. And and it's actually the phases and the the the ability to easily reset yourself

without having to go back to your coach because your coach has taught you how to reset. That is the in my opinion that's

one of the beauties of metabolic balance because it's actually what gives it the freedom.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you everyone for joining me. I

think this has been a fabulous session for busting some of those myths and it's

trying to get the message out there more and more that we are trying to guide people in personalized nutrition and

it's a health journey that is well worth taking. I think that's uh what I always

Final reflections and how to start your own Metabolic Balance journey

say. It's a health journey that really is worth taking. So, thank you everyone. It's been

wonderful as always and I hope everyone listening has found that useful. Um,

please don't hesitate to reach out to find out more information about metabolic balance. Get yourself your own

plan. That's probably the the best advice because it is incredible what can

really happen when you do really know what your food is. So, thank you again.

Uh, the website is www.met metabolic balance.com

and you can find your coach on the website and reach out to them and start

your journey. Thank you and we'll catch you next time.