Please note: transcript not 100% accurate.
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00:01
I always say, you always have to be more stubborn than your stubborn belly fat. So you have to kind of resist it and go longer than most people to get it off. I’ve struggled with it my whole life. I mean, I’m so glad I podcast because you can solely see the top up. A lot of it is psychological, right? The entire, it’s like this bad relationship with food kind of that we need to retrain. Most South Asians don’t deal well with hunger. Hunger is bad.
00:29
in most cases. And now you’re going to tell me that now you have to do food without for 12 hours. Most of the people that I work with don’t have a food issue, they have a life issue.
00:44
Welcome to Uncover Your Eyes, where we break down the most pressing health topics shaping lives today. Have you struggled with losing belly fat or inches off your midsection? I know I have my entire life, especially being South Asian. So today we are gonna break down that science behind why it’s so difficult to lose the fat around the midsection without just resorting to gimmicks and fad diets.
01:14
Today we have Nathan Johnson. He’s London’s best personal trainer who specializes in South Asian fat loss and sustainable lifestyles in the South Asian community. So welcome Nathan. So, you know, tell me how you got into, you know, I want to know everything like from the coaching to talking more about belly fat and focusing on that midsection.
01:38
Yeah, so taking you back, I was a really fat kid. So all my family are significantly overweight. And I had a knee injury that led to me having a knee replacement only two years ago. So I had lots of pain, not much movement, played a lot of PlayStation. I gained a lot of weight. There’s a biscuit cupboard in our house, which I frequently visited on a day-to-day basis. And then when I was like 15, I didn’t want to stay anymore in XL t-shirts. I’m five foot five as well. So I look like a white 50 cent with like really long white t-shirts. So…
02:07
I decided to embark on like a first fitness journey and try and lose weight in my family home, which obviously most people like. It’s very, very challenging for any type of cuisine or kind of nation. But I decided I wanted to be a physiotherapist and it wasn’t clever enough. I didn’t put the hard work in. So I ended up going to university to do something different. Anyway, I did a sports injuries degree. So a lot of my stuff in the first couple of years of degree was sports injuries, physiotherapy, rugby teams.
02:36
But to be able to maintain the lifestyle in London, because it’s quite expensive, I had to become a personal trainer alongside. And that’s where I picked up the book for that. So helping people change was a lot different than helping people with like cuts, injuries, concussion, twisted ankles. And when I was working in Canary Wharf in Morgan Stanley in the gym underneath, I got exposed to a lot of like, guess, C-suite individuals who just need the gym for many other reasons. And then they come down and I just got the bit and buy the book there.
03:04
After a few years, I became London’s best personal trainer in a gym in central London. Um, and then I, uh, decided to move online. One of my friends was Gujarati or he’s Gujarati, uh, and he had a business very similar to how mine is now. And I knew nothing. I didn’t know anything about the food, the cuisine, the, know, the different variations of, of dynamics there, the different casts, for example, how to navigate food around those. And I had to get really good because I don’t like looking stupid. That’s my biggest thing. I just don’t want to look stupid. So I spent like.
03:33
three or four years working for those guys traveling around meeting my clients, Mumbai, London, US, Kenya, all were the hotbeds I would say, I guess from an Indian perspective, there’s lots of hotbeds, Chicago, London, all of these areas. And I just saw how people were eating, how they were interacting with family. And I obviously had a big client base of Indian people at that point. And I decided to do it by myself. And at that point, that’s when autonomy was born. And then we started really looking at…
04:01
what was really missing within the community, whether it was from a food perspective, a knowledge perspective, an education, and just bringing that together as well. So that’s like kind of the roundabout way how I got here. And the way that we, I guess, focus on belly fat is more a case of we know that from a genetics perspective that it’s a sore spot for most people. know, they understand it, they recognize it, they see that it’s a part of what they genetically have. It’s the first person you gain weight, it’s the last person, the last place that you lose it.
04:30
So we know that a lot of people struggle with that. So we try and empathize, understand, put some direction in place so people can see our videos, see that, recognize and resonate that that’s them. And then they get the good treatment on the inside when they work with coaching with us. So not specifically Sub and Belly Fat, but obviously a large amount of our client base who are Indian all struggle with the same thing.
04:51
Why me? So, you know, I mean, I’ve struggled with it my whole life. I mean, I’m so glad I podcast because you can only see the top up, right? That’s why it’s my favorite thing to do. But, you know, I’ve struggled with it my whole life. And, you know, when we connected, like that was my connecting point was this was me, you know, on your social media. was like, this was me. So,
05:16
Why? Why us? And why is it such a struggle around that midsection? So it’s multifaceted in its approach. So the reason why, and I have it too, so I’m going to say we, and I consider myself as part of the community anyway, I’m an honorary goer for many people. So we have it because of either genetic predispositions,
05:39
Or just generally, lots of people conclude it’s somebody will blame the British. So I get a lot of comments about that. A lot of people blame the famine and how then it interacts and stores fat in those areas. Cause it is very much like a, area where it’s unlimited fat can be stored. So it’s a good storage area for most, you’re looking at energy conservation. But I prefer to look at like what we can control as opposed to the stuff that we can’t. Now this is where then it gets more interesting because there’s things within like the social cultural dynamics that stop people from getting to that point where they lose their belly fat.
06:09
So if we know it’s the last place that comes off, you will end up losing all of your clavicles, your arms, your wrists, and that will be the last place that comes off. And normally during the process of losing fat, that’s when aunties comments and the direction of the social events kind of come and people make their claims and you need to stop dieting now, you look ill, have you got cancer, whatever it is that we’ve heard them all. And it normally discourages people from going that extra mile to get that last bit off.
06:38
And because most people are psychologically wired to fit in or be part of a community or don’t want to stand out. Cause you just want to go to these events and not have your auntie just barrage questions at you for no reason. It ends up discouraging people to go that last yard. So it ends up meaning that people never really attain that physique or that lower belly fat reduction because it is the last thing that comes. So I always say, you always have to be more stubborn than your stubborn belly.
07:05
So you have to kind of resist it and go longer than most people to get it off. Um, but I think that’s, that’s generally why most people struggle is cause it’s, it’s a lot of work and a lot of effort to then get maybe some negative comments and some see some changes, but you don’t see the gratification process. And that’s obviously how we’re wired. We love seeing change. We love seeing results. We love seeing I did this and I got this. And if that is a longer term process,
07:31
Most people aren’t wired to long-term gratification. They want to see immediate results. And when that immediacy does happen, that’s when motivation wanes. That’s when life gets in the way. That’s when it becomes a four-month journey, a six-month journey, instead of a mentally prepared six weeks or a four-week thing. And that’s almost down to also diet culture as well. Everybody tells you you can get in shape in four weeks or three weeks or do a keto, this, that, and the other. So people aren’t really mentally ready to weather the storm, if that makes sense.
08:00
Yes, absolutely. That is all of us, I think. I think we’ve all been there, done that. And we’ve all had those anti-comments, right? Whether it’s, you know, you’re very healthy looking or you’re too skinny at some point, right? So there’s no in-between and there’s just nobody’s happy with you. And that’s the whole body image, you know, another episode. you know, why, what can we do, I think is the main thing. Like, I know that we can…
08:26
kind of pass that middle hurdle where finally we are starting to now lose it off the midsection. But is there something else because a lot of us do struggle with passing. Like if we don’t see any results, even a little bit, where we’re losing some inches or our pants are fitting better, we do give up. We’ve all done that. is it like, I know you can’t blame one thing, but is it the food? Is it the lifestyle? And what can we do to really push that belly fat? Okay, cool.
08:54
There are three major reasons why it becomes really hard. One is that the diets that most people go on are outside of their normal dynamics. So for example, if you’re like my clients in maybe Chicago, they might have had an upbringing where they went to university in Michigan, something like that, and they’re not really connected with their roots. They probably have an easier time to change because they’re not having the traditional food that often. Whereas if let’s say, and they’re more open to then changing their foods and maybe changing to more Western diets and Mediterranean and this type of stuff.
09:24
Whereas if you’re so used to having like your Rajmine Channels for lunches and dinners, and you’re having your poo off for breakfast, then someone gives you a diet that says, hey, now have three eggs or have this, this and this. It can be a large change. And the most important part, if we understand that, it’s probably going to be longer than what you think it’s going to be. Then the dynamic changes, instead of getting like short-term results, it looks at how long can I last on this? And that’s how we view our diets and the way that we deal with our clients is…
09:52
If you wanna get that sudden belly fat off, we need months. So how do I get you to do something for months? And that’s how then more sustainable elements come in of like, oh, is the diet set up so that you can have socials and go to weddings and go to these things that understand how to navigate those so that you’re not going two steps forward, two steps backwards. Does the food include your food that your family are having at home? Like if you, let’s say for example, is a wife is cooking for the whole family or…
10:16
Mum-in-law’s, let’s say for example, you just moved in and you just got married to the family and then you move into the other person’s house. Let’s say for example, mum-in-law’s cooking. That would be very difficult if you’re trying to follow a very regimented diet because she’s cooking for everybody. So we try and make sure that the biggest thing is can you do it for months on end? And then most people stop, fail at that hurdle because they try and they match a diet to their results that they want to get. They want to get the short-term stuff. They want to get the fast stuff. Whereas thinking I need to be able to do it for four months. So what does that mean?
10:45
So that’s the biggest start. The second part is the love for food and the undying conditional navigation of food itself. Within the community, means more than just performance. It means more than just energy and energy out. It means good times, bad times. It means sad times. means celebration. It means someone’s coming over. We must put on this spread. It means so much that food is the core. And unfortunately, when food is the core,
11:11
and you’re trying to remove food, because you’re not trying to eat as much as you need to, you either separate yourself from the pack or you find it very difficult to withstand that for a long period of time because that requires large amount of discipline, a large amount of like going without sometimes. And that kind of connection with food surpasses logic. So like I love this or a lot of our clients and I joke with them all the time is like, I need a crunch. I need a sweet after a meal.
11:39
I can’t, I need to have roti with my dinner, for example. These are all needs, but they’re not actually needs, they’re desires. But we’ve built up over time that this is what I need to have. So we often like look at the, that becomes very difficult over time because people build up these associations with food and then it becomes a barrier to remaining consistent. Cause then you’re, you’re swayed by the, the ante, you’re swayed by the dinner, you’re swayed by the social event. And that becomes a very much harder task to have, if that makes sense. So all of it is about.
12:09
creating something that is storm proof, if that makes sense, or like situation proof, as opposed to going down the long-term. Like I’m a big fan of like, if you’re gonna eat traditional food and you’re gonna have traditional food in the next 10 years, you need to do it now, because we need to see to how. And maybe it takes a little bit longer, because that mom-in-law’s cooking, but you’d rather be able to learn how to do that, then go away from it and then come back to it and then balloon back up.
12:35
It’s kind of like, you know, being a healthcare provider, we talk a lot about, in terms of diabetes, turning down the food noise, right? And that’s very similar to what you were saying with the desires. It’s like just turning down the thinking about food all the time. But that is what a lot of Asians were brought up with. Everything love, the way moms display love, the way everything revolves around food. And I think that’s a big barrier.
13:02
that we have to break and that’s probably the biggest issue. Do you think that, like, so how does protein play a role? Like, I’m not gonna say we’re all, like all Asians are vegetarian, cause there’s a lot that aren’t, but how does protein play a role? Like, is it that we don’t think about protein as much as some cultures do or how does that play a role in this? I think we’re in a bit of a state now in the, guess.
13:30
this century or the 20 to about 2024, I’ve seen a rise in the popularity or the understanding of protein to a certain degree from the community. But I think it falls into three categories. People know that they need it, but don’t tend to prioritize how much they need of it and they don’t, they misunderstand the dynamics. Two is that normally the, guess the…
13:54
the dietary needs of somebody, like for example, veggie or veggie no eggs or Jane or Swaminarium, for example, that creates then another barrier on top. And then the third barrier is the love for food and more towards not wanting to repeat meals very often or liking variety. And when you are vegetarian, for example, and you’ve only got to choose from like, know, soy, tempeh, dals, paneer.
14:19
you then run out of options very quickly and then you don’t want to repeat the thing because you’re used to having lots of variety and your diet would make you a different doll every night, right? So then you’re accustomed to variety and then when you have things very, very similar in rotation, you almost feel bored. And now because the love for food is very exciting and it’s very happy, you doing something repetitive is the opposite.
14:42
So then it’s a turn off for most people. So that’s why I believe that most people don’t get the protein. It’s not that they don’t know that it’s a benefit. They could probably list some of the benefits and they know roughly some of the things, but it’s the psychosomatic of doing that daily that becomes a often barrier. So getting clients to understand how they can make tofu five different ways or soy chunks five different ways or how many dollars that you can make on the side of the different variations and how to make a really lovely chili panit. Like variations like this.
15:11
where you use the same ingredients, but you change the sourcing or the packaging or the variation allows the South Asian community to stay, work within that psychological wiring, but stay consistent. So I think most of it comes down to the, there’s an overcorrection as well. There’s a lot of people, guess in America as well is where they’ve gone more, they’ve gone all protein. They chase protein like it’s their life depends on it. But then they also over-correct calories. So they end up like eating as much protein as they can, but they don’t, they disregard the major thing that is
15:40
for fat loss or muscle building is the calorie intake. So they’ll be like, I’m getting my protein in every day. But then by doing that, they’ve also then took away their chances of fat loss, which is obviously it’s a better evil than most, but it’s also a consideration there too. So I think that’s where the challenge comes in because I speak to your 60 year old people that we have on our team. They understand some level of wanting protein. They just don’t like the repetitive or frequent nature or volume.
16:09
If I said to you eat 180 grams of tofu, which is 200 calories and about 20 grams of protein, you’d be like, holy, holy hell, I’ve never had that amount of tofu in a meal before in my life and my digestive system about to explode. But that’s what you would need to do if you want to get 20 grams of protein. So when someone gives them a plan, they just see this number, they try it for four days, they’re like, I’m not eating that amount. And then they go back to what they were doing before because it doesn’t fit within their remit of what they consider as right, if that makes sense. Right, absolutely.
16:36
You know what? It speaks to a lot of it. Like when I listen to you, I’m like, a lot of it is psychological, right? The entire, it’s like this bad relationship with food kind of that we need to retrain. And it’s been ingrained in us since we’re young. So I think it’s also like a lot of our parents were immigrants, right? Most of us are here now. They were immigrants. So we’ve grown up with that thought process, you know, and hopefully
16:59
You know, with episodes like yourself, we, and your fabulous Instagram, like we will be able to teach our children, you know, these changes and not having those bad, you know, I want to say food noise and bad psychological relationships with food. How does hormones, know, cortisol, hormones, stress kind of play a role? And I want to kind of add a twist in there as well, just talking about women as well. Do you feel women struggle with this more with their hormones?
17:27
Yeah, 100%. And I’m a big like nurture versus nature guy. So that’s my kind of bias. If we’re going to go down the route, just because I can control that with my clients as much as I can’t control nature as much as I’d to. So let’s take women for example. So obviously there’s like major cycles in even in the hormone perspective. So you’ve got stress, then you’ve got your menopause and then you’ve got the, so you’ve got menstrual cycle, then you’ve got menopause. You’ve got like every 10 years you’ve got something, you know, so.
17:54
All of these areas really create a different mood set, different psychology, different feelings, different emotions, which then become relative to your food behaviors. So we know that if people are super stressed or they have a particularly low day, if their association with low energy is that they grab food to boost their energy, then when they are like low energy because of menopause, for example, they will use food as a pick me up to get there.
18:21
And then that becomes a leverage of extra calories, extra food. So there’s all of these scenarios, especially during the menstrual cycle, for example, there’s the notion that we want some chocolate, I these things. And these are all kind of learned behaviors. There’s a really good study actually. And not many people like me saying this because it’s just polar opposite, but they took women in an island in the bottom end of Fiji somewhere and they were looking at the different variations of hormonal symptoms during the month.
18:51
of your menstrual cycle and they compared it to Western women. And they looked at what signs and symptoms did they have and what were they desiring during that time period. Those people in the bottom end of nowhere, they were living on an island, barely communicating with the people that were there, but didn’t have any desire for like chocolate or any of these things. just, they had the bleeding and they had the low energy. That’s all they knew. And then on this flip side is that you look at Western people and then they’ve got the, need the chocolate, I need to take away, need the biscuits, I need the crisps. And then what they did in the study was ask the parents what they also
19:20
did as well. And it’s a polar dichotomy. It’s like whatever the parents did, what their social economic stages did, what their environment did, they repeat as well. anyway, from a whole other perspective, you’re always going to get that ebbs and flows across the four week cycle. But there are learnt behaviours along the way that I like to educate people on and understand that what is true and kind of what is can be worked on and navigated. From a stress perspective,
19:45
There’s obviously a lot of things around how cortisol interacts and potentially navigates like belly storage. I don’t really think I am on the opposite end of the spectrum, which is like cortisol will rise and it will come down. Obviously, maybe sometimes you don’t have that, I guess, natural rise in the morning and maybe like you’re fatigued or you’re just super high cortisol all of the time. Most people who have those cortisol issues often use food and alcohol as a coping mechanism. So it’s more like chicken in the egg situation. So if you’ve got high cortisol.
20:14
your food then goes a bit wary. Whereas for example, I’ve heard of people where they control their food, but have super high stress and they have no problem with their belly fat. And that’s, therefore it becomes a, not everybody is the same. So it’s like, if you have high cortisol, everyone should have high belly fat, but they don’t. So therefore there’s a misalignment there somewhere because we can take people’s Dutch test data, which is where they wean to a cup like seven times across the day. And you can take that data and then you can look at how people react, interact and what their weight loss looks like. And those that
20:44
had high stress, stuck to their diet or stuck to their intake, didn’t really have an issue with the belly fat themselves. So I think often people want ideas and I guess want to attach why that problem is their problem. And often we look for new metrics or meters or data that we can pinpoint, but I think it always comes down to what are you doing when no one’s looking? What are you doing to cope with those demands? Stress is really high. Like I had a binge eat in order for 10 years. And I know what it’s like to
21:13
to wake up in middle of the night at the cupboard with a biscuit already in my mouth. I knew my food related behaviors related back to my stress. Boy, it wasn’t my stress. It was the fact that I was eating biscuits at 4 a.m. in the morning was probably the biggest cursor. So that’s my bias. And I know there’s obviously various different variations that you can look at that, but I’m always like, how do we control this? How do we navigate this? Because we might be able to stop the stress, but you probably have to give up your job and give up your kids.
21:39
So, if we park that over there and say, yes, let’s minimize it as best as we can do, but the flip side, let’s see what we can control from our side. How do we get better food relationship? How do we get better food behaviors? What coping strategies can we put in place that is not food? And how do we cope better? This is kind of my thought process. That’s all great.
21:59
Like I want to ask you, cause you you talked about the binge eating and you know, how we kind of forget sometimes what the bad food is we eat. And it’s funny cause my trainer always gets mad at me. You never log your food on the days you’re eating something bad. I’m like, that happens. So, know, binge eating. Well, a lot of us do it at night, right? Cause that’s when we’re kind of shut down, kids are in bed, you know, that’s, that’s what we do. So what is your suggestion?
22:23
does eating at night play a role? Like, should we not be eating two hours before bed? You know, I’ve always heard that. And that will that help with the belly fat? And also then does intermittent fasting then play a role? So if you stop eating at eight and you go to bed at 10, should you not eat till the next, you know, have 12 hours? What are your thoughts on both? Firstly, we want to categorize what binge eating is. So it’s really important. So binge eating is where you have an outer body experience where you are eating and you can’t stop yourself. That’s binge eating.
22:52
like for example, I was waking up at 3am in the morning with chocolate already in my mouth. That’s uncontrollable circumstances. Whereas if you categorize it as I was on the sofa and I just fancied some chocolate and then I gave in, that’s not binge eating. That’s just, I guess, what we call just overeating. So both can play a role. With the eating past 8pm, there’s no data to support that. Let’s say, for example, you had your 2000 calories from 6am till 8pm.
23:21
or you had them all at 11 p.m. at night, the fat loss would still occur. You might just be heavier with the second one on the scale because you’ve had more food and you haven’t had a poo yet, for example. So it’s not necessary about the times that you eat. It’s more like the food that we tend to eat between the hours of 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. are always super high calorific. They’re always crunchy. They’re always very moreish. And it’s not just their handful. And that’s the barrier for most people. And therefore…
23:47
what normally happens between those hours is just a little bit more uncontrolled eating. You’ve probably done really well for the other parts of the day. And then you say to yourself, oh, the kids are in bed. I just need, or I just want, or I could do with this. And they’re all psychological tendencies of just like kind of letting ourselves use food to feel better. So that tends to happen. Now, intermittent fasting, it’s very interesting because it’s the same principle, which is if you eat over a certain amount of hours, you’ve got to be really like, I see it more…
24:16
downside than upside just because the amount of people I’ve worked with, were talking like, worked out the other day we’re over like 10,000 people that we’ve, like over the last 12 years, 10,000 people. I haven’t seen many people do effectively well. And the reason why is because most South Asians don’t deal well with hunger. Hunger’s bad in most cases. And now you’re going to tell me that now you have to do food without for 12 hours. What ends up happening is at the end of that 12 hours that food noise is even higher because we’ve already got a poor relationship. make it worse. And then we then…
24:46
give ourselves the out by saying, I didn’t have breakfast, let me have a bit extra for lunch. So it’s the psychology behind it. And then from a female perspective, I tend to see a lot more hormonal disruptions. for example, I’ve got a lady who’s 26 and she’s on and off dieted for like maybe four years, lost the menstrual cycle, comes back, menstrual cycle goes. And the only thing that we changed outside of changing some training program stuff was the fact that she wouldn’t eat anything till one o’clock.
25:14
And we know that from a female perspective, you want to get your, like, you got to look at the data around how to solve things. So how to solve binge eating will normally tell people how they can better react with food, how to solve MNREA. You also look at the data of how to solve that. look at how we probably should eat for a female perspective, because normally it’s the opposite. So I don’t want to do the thing that caused it. I’ll probably do the opposite of it. That probably makes sense. So for those people, having frequent windows of food is really more important as a female to not dysregulate at home. And you just got to think from 11 PM at night.
25:44
to 11 a.m., your body’s thinking, I’ve had no calories, how am gonna produce energy to create this system that I’ve got, which is a baby-making system? And normally, longer periods without calories end up that way. That’s where you see a lot of people lose their menstrual cycle on low-end diets when they’re doing.
26:06
know, 800 calories, they do lots of cardio, they’re creating a lot of calorie expenditure and you’re doing that by just not eating. So I don’t recommend it personally for guys who are a little bit more like a stable home only. And it’s more just a, if you want to, but a lot of business owners or entrepreneurs love the buzz of not eating because it fuels their productivity and they don’t have to think about food, which is a benefit. But for the majority of people, let’s say if you’ve got a, let’s say a five out of 10 relationship with food.
26:35
By doing that, you increase your poor relationship with food because the hunger and the going without normally leads to alternative behaviors afterwards. So I don’t, and then, sorry, I’m rambling, but generally people who have intermittent fasting as part of their lifestyle, lots of people in Chicago, New York, my guys in America, they got onto the fad a couple of years ago. What ended up happening is that they got intermittent fasting because they didn’t want to give up portion sizes in their evening meal. liked, you know, the psychological trait of like,
27:04
I wanna feel full, I wanna feel happy, I wanna feel satiated. So they decided not to change that because they really wanted that, because that’s upbringing for the last 30 years. So they said, well, how do I still lose weight and do that? Well, basically I don’t eat for the rest of the day. So then they create this moment where it’s famine and feast, and then they learn no control. They learn not how to say no. They don’t understand their body’s signals, and they end up just like getting used to them over consuming one meal. And then for the next 10 to-
27:34
five to 10 years, when they go back to normal eating, which is like breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack, their expectations of food is so up here and a meal is here that they end up just feeling non-satiated even from a normal meal. Like five, 600 calories is what I would equate for a normal meal. But if they’re accustomed to having, let’s say for example, 1500 calories in a meal.
27:58
anything below that doesn’t feel satiating or that’s what they’ve associated with that. So they end up feeling unfulfilled, end up overeating and going back in these cycles. So in short, I’m not a big fan. Yeah, like, I mean, it’s funny because everything you said, like there was this fad of intermittent fasting, right? I want to say it was like after COVID or during COVID, after COVID, I guess, because everybody gained weight. I fell into that bandwagon and you know what, exactly what you said, it’s funny because I don’t think I ever correlated, but it was the food noise that went up.
28:26
the moment and I wasn’t losing weight. I mean, I only did it for losing weight and it was actually throwing my sugar levels off, more off and I was testing my sugars at that time. So, totally agree with you, not for everybody. How does gut health play a role in, like, do you think that there is a correlation between poor gut health and storing fat there? No, I think gut health
28:54
There’s another thing, like a psychosomatic thing, that make you feel a certain way. I feel it creates more bloating and maybe things that look like storage. maybe when you step on the scales, you get an alternative reading of what your efforts have kind of put in. But from like a perspective of anything, if anything, when you normally have gut issues, you normally absorb less of the thing because you can’t absorb all the nutrients and stuff. So you normally end up getting less calories.
29:23
or less nutrition, for example. So it’s normally down to the fact that diet should go on, will bloat you or will create extra water retention. Or if you just have a poor relationship with like protein intake, you have to build that up over time. If you’ve gone from one meal a week of tofu to then having four meals a day of cheese, tofu, yogurt, protein powder, eggs, whatever, the bacteria in your digestive system is not there.
29:48
Like it’s not there in the quantities that you need it. Like for example, I did a, we call an elimination diet. So I had like candida, I had all these other things that were going on because I was eating too much sugar. And then I had to go off it. So I basically did like a no sugar, nothing. I just did this boring ass diet just to get rid of the candida. But when I put food back in, I saw my, how I didn’t digest the food very well because I hadn’t had something for such a long time.
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the bacteria wasn’t at that same level where it could digest that food. So I generally see that from a protein perspective or the amount of fiber that people have, because that takes a while to build up as well. If you’re not used to having large fiber, lots of veggies, cruciferous veggies, you do end up with a little bit more of a distension. But in terms of body fat, no, it doesn’t, it just appears like that. If you’ve got bloating, you step on the scales and you’ve worked hard for a week, you’re like, damn it, it’s not gone. It must be my gut. I like, went, was in…
30:44
I was in Kenya a week and a half ago with a bunch of people, business owners from Bangalore. And the biggest common question was literally, my guts messed up, my guts messed up, my guts messed up. Like I can’t do this. I can’t lose fat. And I’m like, I take them through this whole presentation of like what I think you should focus on instead of this. And all of them couldn’t tick off the general boxes of like portion control.
31:08
understanding if your cook or your maid in Mumbai is doing the oils right, or how much quantity is there. So I guess it’s one of… I like to say it’s one of those things where people reach onto and say, that’s probably why, but there’s obviously a list of all the basic stuff which you probably underline and miss it as well. Do you think South Asians, like we were talking about bloating, do you think South Asians hydrate enough? No one hydrates enough. So yeah, I think…
31:37
I think obviously you can get your money’s worth out of chai, that’s for sure. And that’s a staple. But I think it’s just a common thing of water is just not really thought about pushed or even the notion of having like, most of it is family is related. the research on like kids growing up is very like, this will be a tangent, but it’ll come back. It’s like, if your family has like a fruit bowl in your kitchen, you’re more than likely kids will be actually less obese over time. And if family members like parents don’t.
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see, you don’t drink water or your parents don’t drink water, there’s no importance, there’s no mirroring, there’s no matching of habits. And I was the same, like my mum and dad would drink their waiting tea, their tea bellies are what we call in the UK. And it’s black tea, so it’s not proper stuff, but it’s just black tea. And they would have that seven, eight, nine, 10, 15 cups a day. And I’ve never seen my mum and dad drink a glass of water.
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So then, so then when I grew up, I didn’t know what was that important because I’m seeing tea and that’s how I’m drinking tea. And then I got into coffee and now I’m getting all my hydration from tea and coffee. But yeah, like I said, if you never see your mom and dad drink a bottle of water or. Right. Yeah. think that’s, that’s really, really key. And I think, like you said before, you’re, I think we’re in the generation where we obviously coming as a larger amount of coming from immigrant status to then transitioning.
32:59
And this is the generation that can either adopt those philosophies of previous and extend them on to further generations, or we’re in that moment where there could be a complete stop gap. And that’s why I’m really passionate about this. Cause I think this generation now 30 to 50, or like let’s say 27, when people have kids or 26, two to 40, they have the ability for to change everything. Cause you know, the stories I share about like kind of families and all that type of stuff, they can be rewired very quickly by them being the…
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star of the family, them being the one person that looks after themselves. And we call it the spider web. So one person gets in shape, they criticize you at the beginning, they say, what are you doing? And then by the end of it, they’re doing the same thing. They’re going out for snacks. They’re cutting back on whatever they need. I think we’re in a time where that’s a real life happening family by family that we see. Are there supplements that can give us a kick?
33:53
like help us, especially those that are really in a bind. I mean, you must have clients that are struggling, trying their best, you know, are there supplements? You know, I don’t want to say every supplement will be for everybody. Of course, we have that disclaimer there, but generically, what are the common supplements? So if you want the one that’s going to create
34:17
an additional burning of calories, it’s caffeine, but talking in dosages of like 200 milligrams as opposed to a coffee, which is maybe 120. Caffeine and things like that, like green tea increase your, I guess, energetic effect. So you will be more energized to then move. it’s not like it increases fat loss. It just means that you’ll move more, which then gives you more fat loss because you’re burning more calories. I think most people from the South Asian community need to operate on a spectrum of like…
34:43
depending on where they sit on the diet front. So if you’re veggie, you 100 % need creatine, iron, all the things that you can’t really get from food in the same dosages. So creatine, which is if you go into the gym, you want to get stronger and fitter, it’s basically, creatine is just for simple terms, it’s like it helps muscles contract and it’s found in beef, which you’re obviously not going to eat special. So we need to supplement with that so that you have adequate muscle contractions to
35:13
improve your strength in the gym. And often with that lacking, you end up being weaker. And that will help with muscle tissue, density, and all that beautiful stuff that comes with age as well. I’m a big fan of getting as much sold from reducing body fat, getting good sleep, and hydrating. But then on top of that, think zinc, some sort of fiber supplement just to keep you fluid, and then caffeine if you want that extra fat loss kick.
35:39
Everything outside of that, do like more on a case by case basis. if you suck at going to sleep, actually going to sleep, not just sleeping duration, suck going to sleep, things like melatonin, ashwagandha, variations that quieten the mind down, they can help you fall asleep better. And we know great sleep actually leads to better fat loss in terms of percentages. So if you have poor sleep, you end up burning less fat and burning more muscle. And we know if you get great sleep, seven to eight hours, a large percentage of that.
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fat as opposed to muscle. So it’s a really big priority there. What are mistakes? I mean, what are the… I don’t want to narrow it to three, but what are… You’ve seen people all over, everywhere, all different countries. I know you work with people. What are the top few mistakes that people are making that are common, whether it’s with foods or lifestyle? The biggest one that I deal with on a day-to-day basis is accuracy. So
36:34
If you treat your food and your diet like a bank account, you’ll be better off or your profit and loss statement if you’re an entrepreneur. Most people, the things that they don’t think matter, matter the most. So a teaspoon of this, a handful of that. If we don’t know the levels of detail that like are specific or objectivity, we can really lead our stray by a couple of handfuls of this or a handful of that.
36:58
I think the biggest, actually the second biggest one is within the community is demonizing the specific food. So every family’s got like a, we change from this oil to this oil because that oil is bad. Or we change from white rice to brown rice. And there’s lots of demonization across the categories where I’m like, I’m Switzerland. I’m in the middle. Everything is good. You can have your chevro, you can have your vine, you can have your food. We just need to learn how to do it. And often when you demonize a food, it ends up being like this good and bad relationship. So you end up on a good day, you remember that.
37:27
this sea urchin is not that good. Or you remember that avocado is great on Monday to Friday, but then Saturday and Sunday, that’s when the fried chicken comes out and then you forget that happened and then back on Monday, I’m on my health kick. So I think demonizing food puts you in that mindset again of food voice, which food volume, is good and bad. And often people struggle with good and bad because it means in and out, in that all and nothing. And when you have an all or nothing mindset, it ends up being quite dramatic from a, from a, can’t stay consistent forever.
37:57
So I think looking at things a little bit more Switzerland, which is no food are bad. They just have benefits and negatives. And if you eat anything in the higher volume, you’re always going to get some negative consequences. thinking about that as a major proxy of being able to learn and teach yourself how to have everything often leads people to stick to diets longer, which is the whole point. And then I think the third one is people will want to chase a body weight.
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that they want to get to. But the amount of body weight that they want doesn’t equate to the physique that they also want. So they want to see something in the mirror, but they also want to be this number. they haven’t, let’s say for example, I’ve got a lot of clients that say, I haven’t been 75 kilos or 120 pounds since I was 16. And then when they see that number, they then they’re like, I don’t want to go any other thing lower than when I was 16. It’s like, well, maybe at 16 you’re a bit too big. And you know, maybe you haven’t got the physique you want. So we need to chase the physique. So a lot of people get
38:56
their auntie’s comments, they’ll see the scale, see how they feel in t-shirts, but they won’t have the physique they want because they’re looking to a number that will define them, whereas actually they want a physique that defines them. They want to look in the mirror and be proud and confident and wear a bikini and these things. And it often leads people to not really finishing their fat loss or end up getting there because they’re too worried about a particular number or what that says about them or what that’s going to get feedback from their family members.
39:24
We help people like when we lose like 20, 30 pounds, we’re like, hey, this number is going to go down probably work further than what you think it’s going to go down, but you’re going to look amazing. Is that cool? And like, yeah, I want to look amazing. I’m like, okay, cool. When you, when I say ditch the scale or throw out the window, just do that for me. So then we just look at the physique because that’s, just keeps you motivated as opposed to stepping on scale, seeing like a number that you haven’t seen since you were 14. And that might be a negative correlation for you, which is not great. What is the most important
39:53
you wellness or fat loss, weight loss, you know, trend that you foresee is the one that will take precedence over the next few years. Unfortunately, it will be Monjano and Ozempic. I think it’s gonna come to the forefront and which already is. But I think it will only progressively improve if that makes sense, but there’ll be better variations that will not lead to further side effects. It’s only gonna get like…
40:24
better, you know, so, um, so I, I envision that, you know, at the moment in time with the, these drugs, have the ability that you most, more than likely have to stay in it for life because of how much it plays around with your home, with your hunger levels. And then it’s very hard to resist that hunger because it’s such a high, high number that you end up regaining your weight back. Whereas if they find a variation that limits that side effect, then you’re, you’re going to be a couple of, a couple of pins away from being in really good shape without the effort.
40:51
That’s back to and fro because most of this fitness journey is about skill set. It’s about learning habits and traits and routines and learning about yourself. Most of the people that I work with don’t have a food issue. They have a life issue. Like, you know, you don’t need food to cope if you have a great life or you don’t hate your job or you don’t hate the person you spend the most time with. And during a fitness journey, you learn a lot about these coping mechanisms, these desires, these skill sets that you haven’t learned yet because you
41:20
Deal with failure because you don’t lose the weight. therefore you see, and I always use the clients, like everything’s a skill set. What’s the lesson that this thing is teaching you? Okay, you go to the social event and you drink too much wine. Okay, what’s that teaching you? Well, it’s teaching me that I can’t really say no to my partner. Okay, well what would happen if you said no to your partner? What’s the worst case scenario? Have you communicated that you want to drink less to do all of this? They’ve learned a skill through her not losing weight, for example.
41:47
on the art of communication and relationship. Like it’s a skill set that they will all miss because they’ll just be pinning the drugs. And then none of these habits or these kind of life skills will be represented through a fitness journey. Because a fitness journey is a transformation process from mind, body and soul. And not just lose weight. When you lose weight, you also shed skills, habits, people, friends, because you become a different identity. But you won’t learn that if you just pin the, example.
42:15
But I love that you said that because it’s about you, right? And it takes a lot of guts and strength to be able to say no, you know, whether it’s in front of your friends, your spouse, whatever it is, to alcohol, to things that you feel are, you know, affecting your weight loss journey. So, you know, I’m going to, you know, I’m going to close with that, that it is about you.
42:35
And my take home message from this whole thing is just don’t let those aunties opinions get to you. Absolutely. And do this for yourself. Nathan, thank you so much for your time today. Tell us where our listeners can find you. You can find me on nathan.autonomy on Instagram. And that’s where we do all of our videos, our coaching, everything like that. Perfect. Thank you so much, Nathan. My pleasure. Thank you, listeners and viewers, for tuning in.
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If you want to catch more episodes of Uncover Your Eyes, make sure to follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and on YouTube. To learn more about me, follow me on Instagram @Dr.MeenalAgarwal Until next time, keep those eyes uncovered!
43:27
See comfortably, near and far.
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with total multifocal contact lenses. Feels like nothing.