Subscribe on Apple 

Subscribe on Spotify 

If you’re on a GLP-1 medication, you’ve probably noticed your appetite, cravings, or progress shifting over time, and it can feel confusing or even a little scary. Most people assume they’re supposed to feel the same way the entire journey, so when hunger returns, appetite increases, or cravings pop up again, the panic sets in. 

Add in the highlight reel of social media (where everything looks effortless and perfectly controlled), and it’s no wonder so many people start to feel like they’re “failing” or doing something wrong.

In this blog, I break down the three distinct phases nearly everyone on GLP-1s experiences and how to navigate each stage with confidence instead of fear. You'll learn the nutrition, lifestyle, and mindset strategies that make the biggest difference at each phase, so you can stop panicking and start problem-solving.

Why Understanding These Phases Matters

I made a TikTok video about these three phases that went viral, with thousands of comments from people saying "I thought I was the only one" or "I thought something was wrong with me."

The truth is, what you're experiencing isn't unique. It's not a sign that you're broken or that the medication stopped working. These are predictable patterns I've observed for over a decade—first with bariatric surgery patients, and now with GLP-1 medications.

Obesity is a chronic medical condition that requires lifelong management. That means there will be peaks and valleys. There will be times when everything feels easy, and times when you struggle. The quicker you can accept that reality, the faster you can shift from "I'm a failure" mode into problem-solving mode.

Let me walk you through what to expect.

Phase One: The Suppression Phase

What it looks like: Food thoughts practically disappear and you hardly think about eating. Cravings are non-existent. Everything feels effortless, and weight is dropping consistently. If you're a hyper-responder, this phase feels like absolute bliss as you tell everyone how life-changing this medication is.

The trap: Falling in love with this extreme level of suppression and thinking it should last forever.

Smart moves for this phase:

• Don't lose weight too quickly

Aim for no more than 1% of your total body weight per week (or about 4% per month). Losing faster than this typically means you're losing muscle mass along with fat. Set timers if you need to remind yourself to eat.

• Prioritize nutrient-dense foods

Since you can't eat much volume, every bite needs to count. Focus on foods that pack more nutrition into smaller portions. For example, instead of a big bowl of lettuce (which is mostly water and has minimal fiber), choose something like edamame, which gives you protein and fiber in a more compact form.

• Don't chase the suppression

The goal of GLP-1 medications is not to make you so suppressed that you don't eat. The goal is metabolic help, reducing urges and cravings so you can make rational food choices instead of emotional ones. There's a difference between helpful appetite regulation and developing disordered eating patterns.

Track your body composition monthly to make sure you're not losing muscle. If you're losing more than 1% per week, you need to adjust. Try adding more nutrient-dense foods, and consider working with a registered dietitian or nutritionist.

Phase Two: The More Food Phase

What it looks like: You notice you can physically eat more than before and your restriction isn't as intense. But here's the important part: you're still making progress. Your weight is stable or still trending down and your health markers are improving.

The trap: Freaking out because you think eating more means you're going backwards.

Smart moves for this phase:

• Remember this was always supposed to happen

This is not a failure or your medication "stopping working." This is your body adjusting, and it's completely normal. You cannot sustain extreme restriction forever (nor should you).

• Return to volume-based eating

Now that you can eat more, bring back those high-volume, low-calorie foods. Salads, cucumbers, peppers, berries—all the foods that give you bulk and satiety without a ton of calories. If you were having one portion of Greek yogurt before, maybe now you have two portions plus extra berries.

• Don't forget your protein, fiber, and fats

Just because you're adding volume doesn't mean you abandon the fundamentals. You still need adequate protein for satiety and muscle preservation, fiber for blood sugar control and gut health, and healthy fats to support leptin signaling (the hormone that tells you you're satisfied).

• Play with your macronutrient ratios

If you're still feeling hungry despite eating more volume, you might need to adjust your ratios. Ask yourself:

Am I getting enough protein? (Protein increases satiety)

Am I getting enough fiber? (Fiber creates physical fullness through stretch receptors in your stomach)

Am I getting enough fat? (Fat helps with leptin signaling and satisfaction)

For example, if you're eating rotisserie chicken and vegetables but still feel unsatisfied, you might be missing fat. Add a quarter or half an avocado, a small piece of cheese, or some nuts to round out the meal.

Phase Three: When Urges and Cravings Return

What it looks like: Urges and cravings start popping up again. Not as intensely as before you started medication, but they're there. And it can be jarring if you've had months of feeling completely free from them.

The trap: Thinking this means everything is falling apart and you're headed back to square one.

Smart moves for this phase:

• Check your nutrition basics

Are you actually balancing your meals? Are you getting enough protein, fiber, and healthy fats? These aren't just buzzwords, they directly impact your hunger hormones and blood sugar stability. 

• Use food ordering

Don't just focus on what you eat, think about the order you eat it in. Start with a bit of fiber, then protein, and save carbohydrates for last. You don't have to eat all the fiber first and then all the protein—just don't lead with carbs.

When you eat carbohydrates first, they get absorbed quickly, causing a blood sugar spike followed by a crash (which triggers cravings). When you eat fiber and protein first, it's like creating an obstacle course in your stomach. The carbohydrates get absorbed more slowly, your blood sugar curve is gentler, and you avoid the spike-and-crash cycle that drives cravings.

• Address lifestyle factors

As time goes on, lifestyle factors start to matter even more and you can't overcome them with medication alone.

Sleep: When sleep is poor, ghrelin (your hunger hormone) goes up. You're hungrier, more emotional, and make impulsive food decisions instead of rational ones. You're not thinking, "What supports my goals?" You're thinking, "Give me the bread."

Stress management: This isn't an emergency protocol when you're about to have a breakdown. Stress management is a daily, relentless commitment to emptying your stress bucket and keeping yourself resilient. For me, that looks like morning walks, prepping protein and water for my desk, having at least two proteins and two fibers ready to go in the fridge, and setting boundaries on when my workday ends.

Nervous system regulation: Your body often signals that something's wrong before your brain catches up. Most of us are disconnected from our bodies. But learning to recognize early stress signals (tight chest, racing heart, tension headaches) lets you address problems before they become a raging fire.

Mindful breathing, meditation, or even just white space (turning everything off and sitting quietly for a few minutes) can make a massive difference.

• Talk to your medical team

There's no shame in needing a medication adjustment or adding another medication. Some people experience physical hunger (which is different from urges and cravings), and that might require a different approach. An experienced provider who works in this area will recognize your pattern and know what adjustments to recommend.

For me personally, adding Contrave (bupropion-naltrexone) made a huge difference. There are options—you just need to work with someone who knows what they're doing.

These Phases Are Normal (Not Failure)

These three phases aren't a sign of failure, they're a natural progression. The data shows (and I see this clinically every day) that people maintain their progress when they continue the habits they built along the way.

The most important thing to understand is this: 

You keep the weight off as long as you continue to do the behaviors that got you there. 

That's why you can't do unrealistic things in the beginning. I see people online saying, "I'll just pay for the meds for 2-3 months, lose the weight real quick, and figure out what to do next." But that makes absolutely no sense when this is a chronic medical condition that you have to manage for life.

So instead of panicking when you move from Phase One to Phase Two or Three, recognize where you are, adjust accordingly, and keep moving forward.

Want to dive deeper into the three phases of GLP-1 medications? Listen to the complete episode of The Obesity Guide for more insights on navigating each phase, understanding what's happening in your body, and practical strategies for managing your health with confidence instead of fear.

New to GLP-1 medications or want to avoid common pitfalls? Check out my mini-course: The Top 5 Mistakes That People Make on a GLP-1. You'll learn how to optimize your nutrition, avoid losing muscle mass, and set yourself up for long-term success from day one.

TRANSCRIPT:

Disclaimer: The transcript below is provided for your convenience and may contain typos, errors, or grammatical inconsistencies, as it has not been professionally edited or proofread. Please enjoy it as-is and read at your own discretion.

Please note: The content shared in this podcast and blog post is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider for personalized medical guidance.  

The 3 phrases of GLP1 Transcript

 Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. I'm so excited that you're joining me today, and I wanna say welcome to all of our new listeners. I recently have had some videos on TikTok that really took off, which I was not anticipating. I have to tell you, I make videos. Pretty much in the corners of my days.

And what I mean by that is I'm busy seeing patients all morning, and I'll kind of make a two, three minute video before I eat my lunch, and then I move on with my day. And these things get edited and posted so quickly. It's less than a 10 minute process when I make social. So by the way, if I have any clinicians listening and you're thinking, well, I, I can't do all this social and it takes so much time and dah, dah, dah, I actually have a little group that I have.

I don't talk about it often. 'cause most people, it doesn't apply to them, but. I actually help clinicians to do this really quickly because I don't think that getting good information out there should be a painful process, but that's not the point of today. The point here is that these videos took off, and I'm gonna talk today about the three phases of being on a GLP one.

And I think I have woven this into a lot of other episodes, but I think I just stated it so matter of fact, in one video that it really resonated. I'm gonna go over today. What I see happen as people start GLP ones, and then what ends up happening as they go up on the dose have they've been on a dose for a long time and there are these phases and it's a natural arc and so you don't need to be surprised when these things happen.

But what was so clear from this video that got. Gosh, at this point, hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of comments is that everyone said, oh my gosh, I'm in this phase. I'm in that phase. Or, oh, I experienced all of these. I thought I was abnormal. Everyone thought that they were a special snowflake when really this is just the arc of things.

Being on a GLP one medication follows a very similar arc to what it's like when patients have bariatric surgery. So for me, I guess I was never shocked when I saw these patterns because I've always seen this. And so one of the things is that with overweight or obesity, again on this podcast, it, I really like to hammer home that it's a chronic medical condition, right?

Means that you did not choose this. You did not pick this. It's partly based on genetics, partly based on some of the things in our environment or what our lives look like or stress levels or. Some psychosocial factors, but a lot of it, let's say about 70% of it is based on genetics and there's hormones that play in so many things

it's a very complex disease. And so people I think thought when GLP one medications came out, oh, amazing. I'm gonna get on this. Never again. Think about food and everything solved. And what I know is that. The definition of a chronic medical condition is that you have to manage it for life. And there are, uh, peaks and valleys.

So there's times when you feel so great and then there's times when you struggle. That's just really part of it. The quicker you can come to acceptance of that, the more you can get into problem solving mode. And whenever these things. Get hard when problems flare up, then you just handle them. Instead of thinking, I have, I'm a failure.

I've put on 20 pounds. Sometimes that's gonna happen. Like someone commented on that video how they had to pause it for a few weeks for a procedure, maybe it was a surgery. I forget what they had commented, and they put on 20 pounds and they said. I'm, I'm so disappointed, or I'm so frustrated.

Right. And the thing I wanna stress is, I totally get that valid. Let's have a five second funeral and then let's move on. Let's move on from that emotion and, and get to, okay, what's my next, no regret move here. What's the next move I need to do? What can I get back to that worked? Is there something new I need to try?

Do I need to go back to a doctor? I'm gonna talk about these three phases, but real quick

just a little bit of background on what I've been doing recently.

I have been putting a ton of work into planning my April, 2026 in-person retreat. It's happening in Indianapolis, Indiana, and right now I wanna say we have a group of about. 11 or 12 women. I need to look at the exact headcount. And then with the people that are coming to help support me to host the retreat.

So I'm hosting it obviously, but I have, Amanda Saer coming in to run a workshop. She's an incredible coach and really great friend of mine. She's been on the podcast before. She is excellent. If you have any, type of business needs, she is just incredible. I'm also bringing in, Laura LabRat.

She's a stylist. The whole goal of this retreat, the name of it, is beyond the scale. The thought process really being, I have seen for years now, women. Go on this journey. They have transformed in some capacity with their health and you really need to get to the place then where you get to the next side where you work on body image.

There's usually a lot of trauma there. There's a lot of, just not being used to dressing your best, feeling your best. There's a lot of questions about health and supplements and genetics, and I said, you know what? I wanna do it all in one retreat. I know it's a lofty goal. I know it's a lofty goal, but I saw the vision in my mind in this past year.

I invited some people that had done the 30 30 program, that's the small group program as well as some others that have been in my world for a really long time. So everyone that's at this retreat, no one's really new to any of this. But we're just really gonna do a lot with workshops on body image.

I had them all run their genetics reports before, so they're gonna get some, customized reports We're gonna go through. How can you actually, realistically work with this report, not have it work against you, but what can you do to benefit from that? We're gonna talk a bunch about supplements. I think that this is such a misunderstood.

Area. Everyone's taking random stuff. They have no idea what they're taking. And there is great stuff to take, but you need to know what to take. You need to look how to vet what you're taking. Why would you wanna take certain stuff? And the thing that I can't even believe we were able to make this happen for this retreat, my mom and sister are gonna come.

Now, for those of you that don't know, my mom is a world renowned physician that helps with women's health. I mean, women have been coming to her. They fly in from all around the country. I'll never forget growing up, there was a time when, well, actually multiple times when sometimes my mom would say, oh, you know, I'm gonna be home a little bit later.

The clinic and where we lived was about 30 minutes away from. Uh, oar, international Airport. And she'd say, you know, uh, the family called, they're coming. They, there was, there's five of them. They're on the schedule, they would block the whole afternoon. Uh, they're like, we fly, we flew in, we're here.

There's more traffic than normal. Things like that. And, uh, yeah, you got, sometimes you gotta go where the good doctors are. And, you know, there was, there was not a concept of telemedicine before, if you want it to be seen by somebody, you flew to them.

And this is still a thing nowadays, and I know that you know this, obviously this isn't an option for everyone. But anyway, I cannot believe that we're gonna have her there. And yes, I was like, I need to bring you in and I wanna bring some women's health into this because a lot of who is in my world, they are.

Either starting to go through perimenopause, in perimenopause or in menopause, and we don't talk enough about it. And what's really interesting is, you know how there's been this whole, oh, now we're, we're realizing how good hormones are and things like that. Well. Frankly, having grown up, I always knew that.

And the only difference being that clinicians were not listening to their patients, they were not doing testing, they were not actually looking at who's in front of them. It's so funny because my mom had always been doing all those things, and now it's just what's evidence-based and what's on trend right now.

But the reality is if you had always been listening to what a woman was going through. This has always been a thing, I can't believe all the things we're gonna do the real life, like, let's make this food together, right? Like nutrition workshops, we're gonna do a protein tasting. I'm kind of calling it like a battle of the proteins because I am bringing in a lot of different products that I want people to try and I want them to see do they like these things or not.

And I want to educate a little bit on, how can you look at these things and figure out what's, what might be better or not for you? And so these are all just things that when you're in person, it's just so much easier to do these things. We can do a sound bath the day they come. I know I've talked about that before on the podcast, but that's really a passive restoration modality where the day when they're coming in, everybody is out of sorts.

Whether you've been driving, flying, everyone's excited, but you actually need to be calm to take in all this information throughout the retreat. And there's so many conversations that you have with people and that can be actually really exhausting. But if you are really nice and regulated, you have such a better chance of taking it in and having a great experience.

We're gonna do that the day they come. All of this planning, let me tell you, it's not quick. About six months out, I have been just massively preparing for this, I can't wait. I actually have two retreats because that and also the. There's a group that I run with Amanda Saer, where we help female physicians called the Female Founders Accelerator, and we're doing that one in February.

I went from doing no retreats to now multiple retreats, so I'll let you know what 2026 goes, but more on that to come today I wanna talk about. Again the three phases with GLP one. So let, I'm gonna tell you first just what the three phases are and then what you need to look out for and what could help in each phase.

Again, each of these could be 10 episodes on their own. This is the kind of stuff that I'll stick it, that I usually stick into when I do really big, deep dives on the behind the curtain, those little mini drops of the behind the scenes podcast. This is usually the type of stuff that I dig into. Okay, so phase one is you are suppressed suppression is what I wanna call it.

In the suppressed phase, if you are a hyper responder or more on the really responsive side, this is not everyone. This is, these are the people that, that absolutely love it and that are preaching to the world how amazing it is. But you are so suppressed with food. You hardly think of food, you don't have any urges and cravings.

Everything's really easy, weight's really dropping off. It is just this bliss nirvana, and you think that's always gonna be the case, and we'll come back to that, what you could do during that phase. Okay. Phase number two is that you are less volume restricted. I call this more food, the more food phase.

You now realize, oh, that's interesting. The weight's staying off. But now I can eat more than normal. So what will sometimes happen is, let's say I have someone, they're still losing fat and they're doing great. And their health is improving. So they've been on the same dose for, I don't know, 3, 4, 5, 6 months, and then they'll start to tell me.

It's really interesting. I'm able to eat more, but I'm still making progress. And again, because I'm so close in the relationship with my patients, seeing them monthly, I am able to tell them, that's absolutely no problem. Let's do X, Y, Z. Okay. That's phase two, phase three, urges and cravings return.

Not as bad as they were before, but they're here and there and people freak out. Okay, so let's talk about phase one When you're super suppressed, the one thing I wanna tell you is don't go too quickly. So again, don't surpass 1% total body weight loss per week. Don't make this, oh, I'm so suppressed that I don't eat set timers if you need to.

No, I don't want you getting sick because you're, eating past what feels enough and things like that. But you really do need to get your nutrition in. I would still focus on whole based foods, in the five mistakes that people make on a GLP one mini course, I talk about how the foods need to be more nutrient dense. And I give you actual examples. You do not wanna lose weight too quickly during this period, okay? You wanna still focus on whole based foods, but make it more nutrient dense. Instead of having a big salad, salad is basically all water has no fiber. Salad is actually not your friend.

I'm not against salad, but I'm just saying like sometimes people are like, I can't get all this stuff down and it's okay. So you need to eat foods that have fiber and protein, but that are more, that are more dense. So for example, at a Mame fits in that category, you get a great amount of protein and fiber, but it's you.

It's not a big bowl of lettuce, right? So these are things that can very easily be solved for. You need to prioritize what matters in this period. You need to prioritize getting your protein, getting your fiber, it's the same stuff I talk about all the time, but here's the thing that really needs to matter.

Do not chase the feeling of suppression. Some people really love this. It's a very slippery slope. And so what I really say is that's actually not. The goal of these medications that you're so suppressed, you don't eat. The goal is metabolic help. It's not create an eating disorder. The reason I say don't fall in love with suppression, don't chase that.

You wanna get enough help where you're able to do the things that you need to do. That you're not having urges and cravings all the time. Like that's the reason we want it, but we don't want it where you're so suppressed that you don't eat. That would be what I really look, would look out for with the suppression phase is, do you need to set.

Timers to remember to eat. Are you in some capacity looking that you're getting enough protein and fiber? Are you doing a body composition monthly and making sure that you're not losing more than 1% per week? So 4% in a month. I have all these formulas on my website. If you go to renta clinic.com and you click on podcast, you can.

Search total body weight loss percentage, and you'll find the episode and the writing where we have the formulas, everything like that. I also have it inside the mini course, the five Mistakes people make on a GLP one. So really all my programs have all these formulas in it.

Don't lose more than 1% per week, four in a month. So if you're losing more than that, then we have to look, do you need more nutrient dense foods? You might need to change those things so you don't wanna lose too quickly. 'cause otherwise you lose a bunch of muscle. That's most people sometimes right in the beginning though, some people will lose a lot those first few weeks or month or two, and a lot of that is just inflammation going down, water weight changing.

Don't get too worried about that. That's why I'm really a fan of looking at how the body composition changes. Phase number two, when you're noticing that you're physically able to eat more food. Remember that this was always what needed to happen. This is not a failure. This is always the direction that it needed to go.

Now you get back to volume-based eating, bring your salads back, bring some cucumbers back, green peppers. Whatever it is you're into, I'm always talking about the things that I like, with Greek yogurt, maybe you're having two Greek yogurts, right? Like instead of one portion, you do too.

Although Greek yogurt, a portion is three fourths of a cup, and let's be real, if you do that plus some blueberries, you're not gonna have room for much else, right? But my point is. Let's give you more berries. Berries are very low calorie, very high fiber, am amazing on the glycemic index.

They don't jack up your blood sugar, let's get back to some of this volume-based eating. Absolutely no problem. The problem becomes that if you didn't watch your nutrition in the suppressed state. Then once you get to the more food state, phase two, you freak out 'cause you think, oh my gosh, I'm gonna gain the weight back.

Look at me eating more. You can have incredibly healthy, amazing food and still do great. So again, people still make traction. I wanna stress with all these phases, the data shows us, and I see this clinically in the clinic. This is real. It's not just in a study. That you keep the weight off as long as you continue to do the behaviors that you did up to that point.

That's why we can't do unrealistic things right in the beginning. I hear all the time online, well, I just need to real quick get it off. I'll just pay for the meds 1, 2, 3 months and then you'll see what you're gonna do next. That makes absolutely no sense. Don't do it. It's a chronic medical condition.

You have to be able to do these things for life. Okay? So that's, in this, in, in phase two, you're gonna get back to volume-based eating. You're not gonna forget your protein, fiber, fats you're gonna play around with. Do the ratios need to change? Remember, if you're needing more food, it could be a bulk issue, which is fiber, like stretch receptors in the stomach, things like that.

It could be a protein problem, a satiety problem. But remember, along with satiety, go fats. Fats are the things that are helping leptin that says you're satisfied, you've had enough. If you're not getting the right. Macronutrient ratio for that. You could have a problem now you can work with a registered dietician or a nutritionist.

You can work with someone on this. Or if you don't have the funds or the time, or you don't wanna do that, then just slowly change the ratio on things. This is what it looks like practically. It's that if you're like, okay, I'm looking at my plate and I realize I have, I'm trying to think of an example, pull off the top of my head.

You have some rotisserie chicken on the plate, and you have some veggies. And you think, well, I'm getting my protein and I'm, getting fibers. You have no fats on that plate. Can we throw a fourth of an avocado, half of an avocado? Can we put a little piece of cheese? Can we do a few nuts? We need to balance that in some capacity. Otherwise, even though you're getting protein and a great amount of fiber, you might still feel incredibly, what I call like scroungy, right? You still really want food, you're unsatisfied. Yeah, because we didn't have fat to turn to help with any of the signaling.

Okay. Last phase here. Phase three urges and cravings return. Again, not all the time. I wanna say about 95% of the time. It's not as bad as when you started, but they're here and there. If the problem becomes that you actually had a really good amount of time where you didn't have that happening, or it wasn't as intense, and so you freak out because you think, here we go, the weight's gonna come back.

I'm going back to exactly how it was, and that's not the case. But you need to not have the freak out. When you're at phase three. Again, you're gonna look, am I actually balancing my foods. I talk a lot about are you getting enough protein, enough fiber, the fats like we just talked about.

But what about the ordering of how you're eating it? So are you starting with a little bit of the fiber first, some protein, and you don't have to eat all the fiber first and then the protein, and then the carbohydrate. But when you use that food ordering and you have the carbohydrate just at least a little bit later, you slow down the absorption of that sugar.

It's like an obstacle course in the stomach. Physically that the carbohydrates don't get out as quickly, you're not absorbing them. The curve is lower means you're not having as much of a blood sugar spike, and a lot of the time the blood sugar going up and down can be what triggers, urges and cravings.

The other thing that I would look at is before when the medication is. Newly on, you're getting a lot more help. But as time goes on, lifestyle factors, and I hate that term, but I know no other way to, to sum it up. Those factors start to really matter even more, and we can't overcome it with the medication.

For example, if your sleep is not great. Remember when sleep is off, hunger hormone, ghrelin is up. You are more hungry, you are more emotional. You make emotional decisions with food instead of, Hey, rationally, what's my goal? What would support me? What would health look like? What's the next best decision?

You're not thinking like that. You're like, give me the piece of white bread, sleep really matters. How is your stress level? There's no one that I work with that can't work on this, and this is a daily active process. This is not an emergency procedure when you're about to lose it and have a breakdown.

Stress management is a daily, relentless commitment to how can I empty my stress bucket and how can I keep myself resilient? So for me, you hear me talk endlessly about this. It's the walk in the morning that I do. It's me prepping the waters and the protein drink that I have on my desk. It's me making sure that I have.

At least two proteins and two fibers good to go in the fridge. It's taking time to get on the vibration plate for a few minutes. At the end of the day, it's deciding when the day is gonna end and not, oh, I'm just gonna keep working all evening because that boundary, while I love to overwork, I love working guys, I would work 24 7 if I could that.

Although I don't realize it, what ends up happening is I overeat and that's my check engine light, that I'm not taking care of myself, that something is wrong. That is stress management and it again, it doesn't even have to be that you're anxious or down or anything. Horrible is happening. Stress is just about cumulatively what is all happening.

And are you managing it? We are in a world of. Overstimulation 24 7. We are trying to multitask all the time. It's not normal. This is not normal how we're living, so you need to actually work to have a different life. There are sometimes periods where I turn everything off and I just sit on the couch and my office and I just cross my feet.

I close my, I and I just. Spend a few minutes there. You can call that meditation, you can call it whatever you want, but there are times where you just need white space, where nothing's going on. Most people I work with need that. That's the stress management part. Nervous system comes into this.

What do I mean by nervous system? Your body is sometimes the first signal that something's wrong, majority of us are very disconnected. I say it's a little weeble wobble, head up here, and there's, there's no idea what's happening below. One of the things we have to do is actually get you connected back to your body.

One thing I noticed before I left corporate medicine was that I was getting headaches constantly. They were attention headaches. It was always by the end of the day, when I got home, when I could calm down some, when I could get sleep the next morning, I'd be okay again. But there were certain things I could do that could help that, but I just really, my body was so strongly.

Not enjoying what was happening, that, that was my nervous system saying, Hey we're not gonna do this. So your heart might be going a little bit faster, it might be some of the feelings that you're having in your body. It's really your alarm signal for what's happening.

And the more you clue in, you start to learn what the early signals are instead of it needing to be a raging fire by the time you handle it. My thought is. That for nervous system regulation. Do we need to do some mindful meditation, some deep breathing, a vibration plate in some capacity? We need to manage that for you.

And then the conversation, obviously, because you're listening to a physician, it's gonna be, do you need to talk to your medical team? Is there an adjustment in medication, another medication that needs to be added? There's nothing wrong with that. There's no failure if that occurs. For myself, I've said how I needed to look into, Contra, which is Wellbutrin, naltrexone.

It never made a bigger difference in my life than when I added that. It never made a bigger difference, and I thought to myself, why didn't I start with this? There are adjustments that can be made. There is a certain pattern that you will present with in your physician if they work in this area all day long.

We'll know what is right for you, because some people, the hunger is out of control. Hunger, physical hunger is a very different thing than urges and cravings all day long. And by the way, those of you listening, you're like, it's just your nutrition. No, it's not. No, it's not. You can be eating no processed food.

Not too many carbohydrates, doing all the right things, not undereating all of it, and still have urges and cravings. Some people, their physiology is different. You know, someone was like, oh, if the food industry, if we fix the food industry, all of this would be gone. And I, and I, and I wanted to say to this, I mean, I said a comment, but the reality is we've had overweight and obesity before the food industry ever existed.

Before processed food was a thing. People pretend like, like in the past decade, people decided that they wanted obesity. It has always been something where genetics are different. We are built to hold on to weight. This is something that we're. Actively having a fight.

Yes, we're not as active. We have cars. There's the food industry, but that's not the only thing. This disposition was there even before. Okay, so just to summarize these three stages, if you're in the suppressed stage, don't fall in love too much with it. Still prioritize what matters when you're in the more food, less restricted phase.

Focus back on volume-based eating. The answer is not. I just get more, more, more meds so that it's, I'm more and more clamped down because eventually that can't be sustained. Okay. Phase three, when you have more urges and cravings, really get back to am I doing all the things that support me? The hydration, the food choices, the ordering, the, do I need lower carb if I have a higher insulin resistance?

How's my sleep stress? Nervous system, medications. There are so many things that can be done. This is not even everything. You need to involve your medical team, and if you're working with someone that doesn't know what they're doing, please find someone, because I think it'll be really worth your time and sanity and honestly years of your life.

Because what we know is that if this is not getting managed properly, what always really kills me is that with overweight and obesity, we die 10 to 15 years earlier if we can't manage it. And that's really sad to me. Honestly, when I learned that was something where I said. Gosh, I'm gonna change, right?

Heart disease gets us liver disease. I could go on and on, but it's real. This is not just a, we're not just talking theory here. We're not talking looks. I do not care about your looks at all. I'm sorry. I I have no interest in just shrinking your body. I care about your health improving hopefully today you got some insight and you are feeling either, you're either feeling some relief because you've gone through all this and you realize, oh my gosh, I'm not alone. Or you have some better guidance. Should this happen to you. It won't happen exactly like this for all of you. I have some rare birds.

Very rare birds where they stay in that suppressed state the whole time. Nothing's ever changing for them. They're always feeling amazing, awesome. It's just not the norm. And I don't want you to feel crazy if you are like most people that have this disease, I just want you to learn how to manage it and just continue on with your life and have a full life and not have this be the thing that, that you're always feeling damaged with.

Nothing is wrong with you. Everyone has some struggle in life and even people that don't struggle with weight management, they have other things, so don't worry about it. They, they've got their problems too. I find something that's really missing out. There are episodes like this, which are just real life, what we actually, you know, like what I've seen in the past decade, right?

Clinically, I think episodes like this are missing so that people can, can kind of get a perspective on this. Alright, I wanna ask you a massive favor. If you are newer to the podcast or if you've not ever done this. If you are a regular listener, you like the podcast, you're listening, can you please leave a review wherever you are listening, whether it be Apple, Spotify, audible, I don't know where you're listening.

Please leave a review. It helps others to be able to find this information and we're a little bit of a unique corner of the universe because. We don't do diet culture here. We have a mix of realistic things. We bring in evidence-based medicine, but I'm also not opposed to other modalities that we know help and support things.

Not everything's gonna come from a randomized controlled trial. It's a very unique mix of what we do here. If we don't have reviews, other people can't find it. 'cause that kind of helps to get the word out. I really wanna ask you if you feel so inclined to leave a five star review and to really say.

Maybe why this podcast is helpful to you. So if others are looking, they could say, oh, that might be helpful for me too. I know when I find podcasts I always look at the reviews, I would be so grateful if you do that. And if you want to get regular updates from us, you wanna know what podcast is coming out Monday every so often.

If there's the Behind the Scenes podcast and stuff like that, you can always get on my email list. If you go to ntia clinic.com, right on the front page, there's Hack Your Hunger Hormones. That's a three day course multiple videos and there's a PDF and everything. You could do that, or you could click on the podcast tab and we actually have a roadmap where you can.

Get a list of episodes in a lot of different categories. So if you just wanna hear about medication or if you just wanna hear about side effects, we have it broken down in a category and hyperlinked in that free PDF. So a lot of stuff on my website if you wanna check that out. Also, I think someone said, oh, I never knew that you guys.

Do this. We have really long blog posts that go along with these episodes, so we have everything written out. So if you're ever like, oh, there's a formula, or there was something talked about, you can actually search my website for formulas, you could search for hair loss.

That's, there's a lot that's there. I mean, honestly, I'm starting to realize, wow, this is actually a really comprehensive resource, so. If you haven't checked out my website, I really think it's worth going there and taking a look for a lot of the free resources as well as, deeper dives on things.

Alright, I hope that you guys have a great rest of the week and I'll see you Friday.