58:: break it down for the baddies:: body composition, fat loss, & muscle building

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We are gonna break it down for the

baddies today, talking about toning,

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body composition, body recomposition,

fat loss, fat gain, all of these things.

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We're gonna get to the science behind them

based on the episode that we covered in.

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Episode 56 with Phil Stanforth,

who is a fellow of the American

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College of Sports Medicine.

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Welcome back to Wellness Big Sis the Pod.

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I'm your host, Dr.

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Kelsy Vick, a board certified orthopedic

doctor of physical therapy, a pelvic floor

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physical therapist, and the owner and

founder of the elää wellness sisterhood.

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So it's been a while since we've done a

breakdown for the baddies episode, but

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in general, these episodes are meant

to tag along to an expert interview

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so that we can dive deeper into some

of the concepts that we might not have

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gotten to during the expert interview.

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So before you listen to this one,

if you're a little bit confused

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as you're going through it.

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I recommend referring back to

episode 56 with Phil Stanforth.

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We talk all about toning, body

composition, fat loss, muscle gaining,

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all of these things that we hear about on

social media, but we might not actually

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understand the science behind, and I.

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My whole goal with sharing this is so

that we can all be a little bit more

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aware on when we're getting punked with

some of these social media influencers

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and fitness accounts telling us, oh,

this is how we can tone up in this two

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weeks or three weeks, or, this is how

you can lose that lower belly pooch

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or that underarm fat, like all of

these things that we hear constantly.

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My hope is that.

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This episode can provide some guidance

in the episode with Phil can provide

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some guidance and some actual science

behind how our bodies work as women

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when it comes to Muscle, bone and fat.

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So in general, we can break body

composition up into two broad categories.

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We have fat and fat free mass, and we can.

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Figure out what percentage of both we

have within our bodies and the relative

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breakdown of both within our bodies,

utilizing a DEXA scan, which is the

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gold standard for body composition.

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And I've done one in college at ut.

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I think it was like a hundred bucks.

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It was free as a student, but I think

you can go to a university and fine a

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DEXA scanner in your area and just pay

out of pocket . If this is something

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that interests you, that way you can

track things like fat mass, like fat-free

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mass, like bone, like muscle over time,

and check your improvements, and it's

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just a really objective way to make

sure that you're on the right track.

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So fat can be broken up

into two types of fat.

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You have the subcutaneous fat and

then you also have the visceral fat.

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Fat free mass can be broken up

into two main types as well.

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It basically is anything that's

not fat, but typically we

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consider that bone and muscle.

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So let's talk fat free mass first,

because I feel like we've covered

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that the most on this podcast.

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So we'll make sure to chat through

some of the basics on muscle

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building, how muscle is built, and

then also how bone is strengthened,

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especially for us as women when as

we age, bone mineral density becomes

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quite the struggle and quite

the issue for us to maintain and

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improve our bone mineral density.

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So muscle mass peaks in our twenties and

thirties, and we mentioned that on the

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episode with Phil, but I feel like it's

important to make note of that because.

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In general, typically, again, it's hard

to make this assumption for every female

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body, but the most linear improvements in

our muscle mass and our easiest ability

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to put on muscle happens in our twenties

up until probably about our mid twenties.

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After that linearity of putting on

muscle is a little bit more shallower

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until it starts to flatten off and then.

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When we're a little older, we start

to worry about actually maintaining

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it, and so that room for improvement

is not quite as strong even in our

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late twenties and our thirties.

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But definitely even when

we're older in past menopause.

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Although now with the push for a lot

of menopausal education, I think that

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things are changing, where there is

going to be different supplementation,

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routines, utilization of creatine, things

like that to help us improve our muscle

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mass when we are in that like fifties,

sixties, seventies timeframe in our life.

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And I think it's a really awesome

time that we are all born right now,

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or that we're all living right now so

that we can benefit from A lot of that

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research that is going on right now.

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So if you're new to building Muscle,

we'll provide just like a quick little

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rundown of how muscle is actually built.

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And when I think about toning, this

is what I think of is a increase in

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muscle mass and a decrease in fat mass.

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And we'll get to fat mass later.

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But a lot of the time when I hear about

a toned body or a toned aesthetic, I'm

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thinking, how can we improve our body

composition when it comes to primarily

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muscle mass and then also fat mass.

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So when it comes to building muscle,

the primary improvements of strength

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that you'll see early on actually

comes from improved neural connection.

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So improved mind muscle connection,

and I'll say this later too, but , if

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we don't drive those little buggies

down those neural pathways, we

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lose those roadways altogether.

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So when we're starting a strength

training routine or starting a

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new movement, sometimes those

pathways aren't as well tuned.

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They're a little foggy.

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The GPS is searching for the signal.

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And so a lot of the initial strength

gains that we have in those first few

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weeks that let's say four-ish weeks or

before, comes from actually improvement.

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In our ability to connect to

that muscle versus the actual

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increasing in that muscle size.

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So once we have that connection, once

we have that stronger signal, that's

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when the muscle building actually

starts to occur and the muscle

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hypertrophy actually starts to occur.

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And in order to build muscle, we

actually have to break it down.

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That's what exercise does it.

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Cues the subsequent like rebuilding

of that muscle because we are

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tearing it down during exercise.

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Little micro tears within the

muscle that cues a subsequent

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inflammatory response and then

subsequent rebuilding of that muscle.

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And there's a few.

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Sort of factors that we have to

maintain in order to continually

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build muscle that is making sure

our stimulus is appropriate.

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So if you're new to strength

training, five pound bicep

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curls might be enough for you.

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But over time, we can't just keep with the

five pounds we have to start to increase.

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So we have to have the appropriate

stimuli, and then we also have to have

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a fatigue point that we're reaching if

we aren't reaching that fatigue point

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due to too light of a weight that we're

lifting, or too few of repetitions,

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we're not gonna create that stimulus

for that muscle building to occur.

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So bone is the other component

of fat free mass when we're

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talking about body composition.

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And bone is actually something that's

super duper cool because if we stress

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the muscles via exercise, we're also

stressing the bone because the muscles

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attached to the bones and pull on the

bones and bones actually need deformation

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in order to cause that same sort of

queuing process to rebuild the bone.

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And this is actually one of those

things that's pretty cool, where

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if you are having usually for DEXA

scans and bone mineral density scans,

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they're looking at your pelvis and

your hip bones, and if you have lower

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bone mineral density in those areas

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They usually do generalize it to the

entire body because those are a lot of

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weight bearing areas within the body.

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Our hips, our low back, our

pelvis, all of those areas take

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a lot of force, especially when

we're walking, when we're running.

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And so they usually look at this sort

of like triangular area to see how

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is your bone mineral density, and

to actually get that measurement.

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But when it comes to improving

bone mineral density throughout

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our body, we want to stress the

muscles that are attached to the

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bones that we need to strengthen.

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If for some reason you've sustained a

fracture in your shoulder, or again,

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when you're older after a fall or in your

femur, you want to work those muscles

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when safely appropriate to cue some

of that bone rebuilding in that area.

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So we have to stress the muscles attached

to the bones that we want to strengthen.

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Recent research is also showing

a huge benefit to plyometric and

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jump training when it comes to bone

mineral density, especially in young

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people, but also in older individuals

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we actually talked about

that this past week with Dr.

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Dixie on the benefits of jump training

for older individuals, especially

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when it comes to bone mineral density.

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So another cool reason to do those like

box jumps, do that, jump rope, do some of

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that jump training when we're younger, to

help our bone mineral density as we age.

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So when we're talking about fat

mass, so we've moved on from fat

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free mass, which is bone and muscle.

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Moved on to the other component of body

composition, which is your fat mass.

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And I look at fat mass like two sisters.

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I know I always relate everything to

siblings, but it's easy to relate a

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lot of things to sibling dynamics.

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But for fat mass specifically,

there's two types of fat.

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There's the first fat, which is the

fat that always gets in trouble.

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It's the one we always see.

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It's.

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What we call the subcutaneous fat.

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That is the pinchable fat.

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The fat that we can actually usually see

on a person to say, oh my gosh, they are.

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Unhealthy in a certain way, or it's

what we generalize as the bad fat

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and the fat that aesthetically we

all typically want to decrease.

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However, that's the sister or that's

the sibling that actually gets in

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trouble when in reality the fat that

we should be more concerned about.

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Is the sister, is the sibling

that sort of pokes the other

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sister to get her in trouble.

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Like this other type of fat I consider

is the mastermind behind trouble,

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and that is the visceral fat, and

that's the fat that lines your organs.

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It's typically the fat that a lot

of people don't know about and

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don't even think about because

it's fat that we can't see.

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However, it's the fat that if we have

too much of it, can lead to greater

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detriments in our cardiovascular health

compared to even our subcutaneous fat.

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So the pinchable fat?

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The subcutaneous fat, yes.

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We might aesthetically not like that

one as much, but the one we should be

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more concerned about is the visceral

fat, and the only way to measure that is

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through a body composition scan or a DEXA

scan, which again is the gold standard.

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There's other options out there, but

they are definitely less reliable.

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A lot of them take too much

water weight into account, too

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little water weight into account.

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There's a whole lot of

conflicting factors.

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When we are measuring body composition

with anything other than like a DEXA

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scan, so DEXA scan's the way to find

that visceral fat percentage compared

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to that subcutaneous fat percentage.

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And the breakdown between

the two is largely genetic.

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So the people who are, let's say skinny

fat, might actually present with more

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visceral fat compared to subcutaneous fat.

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Even though to our eyesight, we

might think of them as skinny.

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They might actually

have more visceral fat.

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If someone has a larger belly with not

too much subcutaneous pinchable fat and

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you're like, oh my gosh, what's happening?

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Because they look like they've got a

larger belly or a larger abdominal cavity.

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But they don't actually have that much

like skin or fat hanging off of them.

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Those are the people we need to be

more concerned about because that is

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when the hidden visceral fat comes

into play or might come into play.

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Again, I'm generalizing based on

eyesight, but typically that's what

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we see in those different body types.

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The breakdown between the two is largely

genetic, so it's just important that we

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maintain the appropriate energy intake for

our energy demands so that excess fat is

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not stored either, especially viscerally,

but either subcutaneously as well.

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There's a certain amount of fat

we need, especially as women.

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We need more than men for

different hormonal processes

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like our period that goes on.

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But in general, we wanna keep a healthy

balance so that we're not increasing

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our fat above the recommended ranges,

either subcutaneously or viscerally.

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So the last thing I wanted to

talk about when it comes to body

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composition is actually how fat.

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Increases and decreases

from a cellular level.

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And when I found this out

in undergrad, I was amazed.

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It was so cool.

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And it was one of those things that

I keep referring back to, especially

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when I feel like I am in a energy

excess compared to my demand.

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So I'm eating, I'm fueling more

than what my energy demands

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are actually requiring of me.

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So I like to come back to

this as a way to think.

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Okay.

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Think about what's happening to my body

at the cellular level, and it really

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helps to motivate me to make better

choices with just different fueling

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patterns and like energy expenditure,

exercise patterns that I have for myself.

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So from a fat cell and a fat

growth standpoint, they can

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grow from one of two ways.

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We have what we call hypertrophy of fat

cells, and then we have hyperplasia,

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and we have the same thing when it comes

to muscle fibers, cardiac fibers, but.

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Fat cells will increase

via hypertrophy first.

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So within our given fat cells, fat will

actually store in those cells and get

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larger and larger storage in those cells

until they need to create more fat cells

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to store the fat that we need to store.

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So it first grows by hypertrophy,

so an increase in fat cell size,

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and then it grows by hyperplasia.

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So an increase in fat cell

number, and we increase the

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number of fat cells that we have.

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Based on how full our

current fat cells are.

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So the more we are in this energy

availability excess, the more we

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have the chance to actually increase

more fat cells or increase the number

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of fat cells and not just the size.

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And when we lose fat, we actually

lose fat from each of the cells,

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but we don't lose cells typically.

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So once we actually increase the number

of fat cells that we have, it's a lot

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harder for us to decrease that number

because once we have those cells,

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they're already there given some external

circumstances like a surgery, but

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usually what happens is a lot of the

time we increase our fat cell storage per

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cell and then we increase that number.

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Then when we decrease, fat comes out

of all of those cells, but it's a lot

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easier for us to gain weight back because

we already have that extended number

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of fat cells compared to what we had.

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Before, so I like to think of this at a

cellular level because yes, fat is good.

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I don't ever want us to think that fat

is not good, and especially as women,

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we need fat on our bodies for energy in

order to cue our brains in order to not

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break down muscle, especially when it

comes to exercise in order for hormonal.

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Processes and our periods to even happen.

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But I also like to think when I do feel

like I'm overeating, I'm like, Hey Kelsy,

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you don't wanna increase the number of fat

cells that you have because you won't be

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able to decrease that, and it'll be that

much easier for you to store fat again

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And , this is a very

multifactorial process.

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I'm generalizing it a lot,

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but as soon as I found out how

fat actually expands and how our

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fat cell number actually grows and

doesn't necessarily shrink, it helped

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me be a little bit more aware of

my energy demands within my body.

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So I hope that clears up some of the

confusion on toning, on fat loss, on

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muscle building, on bone health, a

lot of the things that us as women

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should care about, but that there's

so much confusion about in this world.

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So thank you so much for

joining me on this episode.

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If you loved it, if you got some

benefit from it, I'd really appreciate

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it if you could share it with a

friend comment, subscribe, review , on

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whatever platform you're on in order

to help our little community here

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on wellness, big sis the Pod grow.

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Thank you guys so much for listening,

and I'll see you guys again on the next

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episode of Wellness, big of the Pod.