How to Boost Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss

0:00Ultra running shoes are all about space. The space to go further. To feel better. To do something you never thought possible. And this space starts with Ultra Fit. Unlike traditional running shoes, Ultra Fit gives toes more room to move naturally. So every step is strong, balanced, and comfortable. Whatever you're lacing up for, stay out there. With Ultra. Shop now at ultrarunning.com. That's A-L-T-R-A running dot com. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast instead of doom scrolling? Smart move. Another smart move? Getting help from one of State Farm's 19 ,000 local agents when you choose to bundle home and auto.

0:43Bundling. Just another way to save with the personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. Late night bites with friends? Already hard to beat. That first too hot bite of fries you couldn't wait for, followed by ice cold Pepsi. Now that hits different. Suddenly, the energy kicks back in. The night goes longer. And the laughs don't stop. Because Pepsi brings out more flavor, more fun, and more of the moment. Food deserves Pepsi. Grab a Pepsi Zero Sugar today.

1:23According to recent studies, only 12 % of Americans are metabolically healthy. That means that 88 % of people are unhealthy with their metabolism, specifically as it connects to inflammation and insulin. And there are numerous conditions, many that will surprise you, that are connected to metabolic dysfunction. And it's not just diabetes or being overweight. It's low testosterone in men. It's PCOS. It's menopausal symptoms. It's a number of other issues I'll dive into today. and I'll be covering the surprising truths about your metabolism and what truly drives energy, weight, and blood sugar, and how to reclaim control of your metabolic health.

2:08Welcome to the Dr. Josh Yack Show.

2:28ultra running shoes are all about space the space to go further to feel better to do something you never thought possible and this space starts with ultra fit unlike traditional running shoes ultra fit gives toes more room to move naturally so every step is strong balanced and comfortable whatever you're lacing up for stay out there with ultra shop now at ultra running.com That's A-L-T-R-A running dot com. So researchers have described the prevalence of metabolic health in American adults as alarmingly low. Only about one in 10 Americans is metabolically healthy. And poor metabolic health leaves people more vulnerable to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, having a heart attack, a stroke, and other major health crises.

3:19And metabolic health is defined as having normal blood sugar, healthy triglycerides, a waist circumference within a healthy range, and normal blood pressure and normal cholesterol without needing medications. Again, if your medications are driving them in a normal range, that doesn't mean you're metabolically healthy. It means that you are covering them up with a Band-Aid. Now, the most common metabolic conditions, those involving the disruptions in how your body uses energy, such as glucose and fatty acids and hormones, can be ranked by prevalence. And I'm going to go through the most prevalent metabolic conditions, and a couple of these are sure to surprise you.

3:57Now, number one, of course, is metabolic syndrome. Okay, around one out of every three U.S. adults, according to the CDC, has metabolic syndrome. Now, metabolic syndrome is a group of, if you have numerous of these disorders together, you have metabolic syndrome. It's a cluster of conditions that occur together, like high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess abdominal fat, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels. And this is a big deal because, as I mentioned earlier, it greatly increases your risk of a heart attack, a stroke, and type 2 diabetes. And the root is really this. Again, with most metabolic conditions, it is insulin being imbalanced and too much inflammation.

4:42So metabolic syndrome is number one. The second most common metabolic condition is type 2 diabetes. Nearly 12 % of U.S. adults, that's 38 million people as of 2023, have type 2 diabetes. We know that's caused by high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and beta cell dysfunction of the pancreas. So complications of type 2 diabetes long-term are neuropathy, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease. And I had a man reach out to me this week, a family friend, and he said, Hey, Josh, can you help me with my type 2 diabetes? He said, I've had it for 20 years. And the thing for him is just, you know, I had him write down what he's eating on a daily basis.

5:24And it's just way too many carbohydrates, way too many processed foods. He just doesn't realize it. And then too much stress. There's a number of those things causing it. But he reached out to me because he's starting to have neuropathy and kidney disease. He's in his mid-60s and his body is just totally breaking down because of it. And listen, it's just a matter of time. If you have type 2 diabetes or you are borderline pre-diabetic or insulin resistance, it's just a matter of time before you have these other organs that just completely shut down in your body. Number three is obesity. 42 % of U.S.

5:59adults are obese. This is often considered a metabolic disease because it's linked to insulin resistance, inflammation, lipid dysfunction. It's important to know that your body fat, if you have extra body fat, especially your it acts as an organ. So just like your muscles are an organ or your brain's an organ or your heart's an organ, your body fat is an organ that releases hormones. and it's connected to hunger hormones like ghrelin and fat-burning hormones like leptin and a number of other hormones in your body. And so if you have excess fat, you have these hormones that cause you to have more food cravings and cause you to have low energy feeling lethargic and also causes you to release these inflammatory compounds that causes your joints to deteriorate and hurt.

6:45So the reality is, is obesity due to the extra fat causes metabolic dysfunction hormonally because it acts as an organ. Now, number four is this non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Now, listen to this. Nearly 40 % of U.S. adults have fatty liver disease. That is crazy. You know, fatty liver disease is when your liver starts obviously having a lot of fat embedded in the tissue and around the liver itself. OK, and this causes, of course, long term, it can cause cirrhosis, causes fibrosis. But basically, one other big issue is your liver isn't able to fully detox properly. So we have all of these environmental chemicals we're exposed to on a regular basis.

7:32BPAs, forever chemicals, chlorine and fluoride in our drinking water, medications, you know, air pollution, all this stuff. Glyphosate from our food that's bombarding our body. our liver is overburdened and your liver is responsible for balancing out estrogen levels. So think about this. If you are a female with fatty liver disease, and that's 40 % of women, listen, if you're overweight, there's a very good chance you have fatty liver disease. And that extra body fat and what that's doing around the liver specifically keeps your body from detoxing excess estrogen, which greatly increases your risk of breast cancer and other types of cancer like cervical and ovarian cancer if you have excess estrogen.

8:17In addition, with excess estrogen, it's going to increase your risk of PCOS and of infertility. So issues there as well. And what happens is sometimes you can have this excess estrogen that's turned into androgens, and then women can start having more male-like characteristics. Now, here's another thing for men. Think about if you have excess estrogen, your body's not getting rid of estrogen. That causes testosterone to drop and starts men to have more feminine-like characteristics, which, of course, men don't want as well. That's not healthy. That's not how God created you. So overall, fatty liver disease, this is probably the least talked about metabolic condition that people are suffering with, and they don't even know it.

8:59In fact, I would guess that probably even though 40 % of U.S. adults have fatty liver, over 80 % of people don't know they have a fatty liver. It might be over 90%. It's very, very high. And this is connected with major hormone imbalances in the body. And that's why most people don't think of the liver as an organ that's responsible for hormone balance. But it is in a major way, especially when it comes to balancing out your estrogen. Now, number five is this, hyperlimidemia, which is really connected to high cholesterol or excess LDL cholesterol. Now, typically, LDL is labeled as bad. HDL is known as good cholesterol.

9:40It's way more complex than that. But just for simplicity's sake, let's say the reality is most of the time when your LDL is very high on your blood work, that is definitely tied to excess inflammation and insulin resistance. And that's a metabolic disorder, also having low HDL and high triglycerides. Also, 38 % of adults in the U.S. have high cholesterol. The risk associated with that is atherosclerosis, heart attack, stroke. And, you know, there are so many people and men specifically, they get to be around 60 years old and they'll have a heart attack or women. They'll get in their 60s or so and they'll have a stroke.

10:22You know, I'm thinking right now, my own father in law passed away because of this. And it was out of nowhere. It was very unexpected because he had low grade, actually high blood pressure for years. and infected in that way. And we have a family friend recently. Actually, I have two of my best friends. Their moms, both in the past few years, had strokes. And now they're living with them and being full-time caretakers. And again, it's overlooked things like high blood pressure, high triglycerides, too much cholesterol in the body. And this is your greatest increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

10:59And this is tied to metabolic dysfunction. Number six is high blood pressure. We just talked about this. 47 % of U.S. adults have high blood pressure. This is linked to insulin resistance. Obesity, of course, is connected there as well. It's just stress, emotional stress, not diet, even though that's a big factor. But emotional stress and being too busy is the single greatest causative factor of high blood pressure. And also a lot of fear, anxiety, and worry in your life. Being emotionally unhealthy is another big factor. Number seven, PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome. Around 15 % of women of reproductive age have PCOS.

11:43This is really tied to insulin resistance and then elevated androgens. And obesity can also play a role, but it's really that insulin resistance being the single greatest factor correlated with the androgens. Remember the androgens earlier I talked about if you were liver. So some of these diseases are really connected. polycystic ovary syndrome is primarily an issue of the pancreas with insulin and secondarily an issue of the liver when it comes to also estrogen clearance and we know pcos is the one of probably the one of the if not the single greatest driver of infertility in women today um and so major major issue there and so here's the thing if you want to heal polycystic ovary syndrome you have to focus on your metabolic health and fix insulin primarily followed by liver health and reduce inflammation.

12:33Number eight, this might surprise you. Gout is a metabolic condition. Around four to five percent of U.S. adults suffer with gout. That's uric acid buildup, often linked to obesity and insulin resistance. Number nine is type one diabetes. Now, we know this is an autoimmune condition where you have destruction of the pancreatic beta cells. And really the consequence there is complete insulin deficiency. Now, I've cared for a lot of patients with type 1 diabetes over the years. And even if we can't get them completely off insulin, we can get them to be able to greatly reduce insulin. Now, I want to say there are some more advanced therapies today, such as stem cell therapy and other things where they're sort of reigniting and working on the pancreas itself.

13:18There's forms of regenerative medicine. They're seeing really, really good results with type 1 diabetes and the improvement, even maybe certain cases of the reversal of with that. But overall, for the most part, there are absolutely things you can do to greatly improve it, even if there's not a 100 % cure there. And then number 10 is mitochondrial disorders. Now, I would say the amount of people that have mitochondrial disorders that are genetic, that's rare. However, the number of people with mitochondrial dysfunction is very high. And that's really going to be connected to low energy. If you suffer with fatigue and exhaustion and low energy, you get a good night's sleep and you're still not feeling well, or you have hypothyroidism or chronic fatigue syndrome, something where you're just tired a lot, that's tied to mitochondrial dysfunction.

14:11And I would say over 50 % of people have mitochondrial dysfunction to where they're just fatigued and tired constantly. You can see here on this summary table, the most common metabolic disorders that people suffer from, and they're numerous. As we talked about, over 88 % of people, that's literally almost nine out of 10 people have a metabolic disorder. And now I want to dive into the biggest root causes of metabolic health or poor metabolic health. And number one, by the way, is being overweight. Now, obesity itself, which 42 % of US adults are obese, which it's the single greatest driver of insulin resistance, as I mentioned, because the extra body fat you have acts as a hormone, and that disrupts insulin sensitivity, and hormone imbalance and causes inflammation.

15:04So if you are five pounds, 20 pounds, 50, 100 pounds overweight, weight, one of the single greatest things you can do is focus on losing the body fat. Okay. And you don't want to do it with fad diets, you want to do it with lifestyle changes. And you want to do it dietarily by focusing on getting rid of the ultra processed foods, getting rid of the excess sugar, and focusing on consuming a diet that's low glycemic. Here's the here's the here's the secret protein and fiber in some healthy fat. Okay, you can do small carbs, but that's really not your focus protein fiber some healthy fat okay so it's meat it's vegetables those are i mean that that is the basis of your diet if you want to reverse metabolic dysfunction if you want to lose body fat quickly most of your diet should be protein such as meat and vegetables okay now now let me give you what a diet would look like okay it's to be metabolically healthy and this is a good diet that tastes good wake up in the morning i'm just going to share with you what i ate to be metabolically healthy.

16:09Wake up in the morning and do a superfood smoothie. Now, the smoothie is this, okay? It's a half a cup of berries or a half an avocado or a half a can of pumpkin, something like that, something low glycemic, high in fiber, and then 40 grams of protein. Maybe it's 20 grams of a bone broth protein or a stem cell protein or a collagen protein, and another 20 to 30 grams of a plant-based protein or a protein that comes from animals. Like it could be egg white or it could be beef protein, but some sort of protein. Okay. So you've got protein, you've got fiber, and then you could add water or even a little bit of coconut milk in there and get some healthy fats there as well.

16:50Okay. And then here's another thing to be metabolically healthy. Add pumpkin pie spice or a full teaspoon of cinnamon in there because that's amazing for insulin. Okay. Do that for breakfast. For lunch, what I would say is do organic meat, do a side of vegetables. And if you want to do a small amount of carbs, maybe it's like a quarter of a cup of a sweet potato or quinoa or something like that. Or have a big salad with vegetables or soup with vegetables or soup with meat and vegetables and rice, something like that. And then for dinner, what you want to do is meat, double vegetables, and some healthy fat.

17:29So it might be grilled salmon or a grass-fed burger and then steamed broccoli and cauliflower or carrots and asparagus. And then put some tahini over it with some sea salt or some hummus or some cashew cheese or something like that. You know, those healthy fats. And then for dessert, hey, have a bite of dark chocolate. If you did a diet like that almost every day, your metabolic health would improve very, very quickly. In fact, I've had people follow a diet like what I just shared with you. I've had people lose over 100 pounds in a year. I've had people lose 20 pounds in, I would say, as little as a month, but a lot of times two months.

18:0810 pounds a month. So you can lose weight very quickly if you really focus in. Now, I do want to mention one other big factor. OK, so that's fixing insulin directly. One other big factor that causes metabolic dysfunction is excess cortisol. And if cortisol gets too high, that will cause insulin to get too high. OK, or if cortisol is imbalanced, especially at nighttime, that's another problem, too. But chronic stress and poor sleep both elevate cortisol levels. They also then impair insulin sensitivity, and they also dysregulate your appetite hormones like leptin and ghrelin. If you don't get enough sleep or you get stressed, you are hungry.

18:51Have you ever noticed when you're stressed out, you just want to eat a bag of potato chips and a pint of ice cream? That's that cortisol. And know that next time. Okay, I'm stressed. Why am I hungry? Oh, I see. My stress is driving cortisol. That's then driving insulin. that insulin then is turning on my hunger hormones of leptin and ghrelin, which also will cause me to store body fat. That's what's happening hormonally. And here's according to research, adults who sleep fewer than six hours per night are 55 % more likely to be obese compared to adults who sleep seven to nine hours per night. One hour of quality sleep of difference increases your risk of storing body fat or being obese by 55%.

19:35Chronic stress doubles the risk of metabolic syndrome, according to medical research, through cortisol dysregulation, which then causes abdominal fat accumulation. Okay, so in addition to following that low glycemic, high protein, high fiber diet with moderate fat, but if you can do, and again, lower carb, if you can do that and get some of the stress off of your plate, Take more walks outside. Create more margin to do hobbies and things you love. Spend time around more uplifting people and not around the relational stress or the toxic people in your life. If you can make those adjustments, you can lose weight very, very quickly and fix your metabolic issues very, very quickly.

20:19Now, another causative factor, the third biggest cause of metabolic syndrome is this, a sedentary lifestyle. Sitting is the new smoking. Lack of movement reduces muscle glucose uptake and weakens and harms your mitochondria, leading to blood sugar issues and fatty acid imbalances. Only one in four U.S. adults gets enough physical activity. People with low physical activity levels have a 73 % higher risk of developing insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. And think about it like this. Part of our issue today is most of our jobs and our form of transportation is done via us not moving. OK, so our work, most of us have desk jobs or work from home on a computer.

21:03Most people, when they need to go somewhere, they're riding in a car. Historically, over 50 percent of jobs were agricultural and people had to walk or ride a bike or a horse or they had to do something. And listen, and I have not ridden many horses in my life, but I will tell you that the few times I have it, I was working my legs. I remember my legs being it was at least doing something. My point is this, you need to be physically active. And sometimes it's just walking, okay? So most people need to be walking an hour a day. It could be 30 minutes in the morning or 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes at lunch, 20 minutes at night.

21:40If you did that and then had three days a week where you did more physical activity, like went to a gym, maybe do some weights and cardio combined, something like that. If you do that three days a week, went to the gym, and then on the days you didn't, you walked for one hour, that would be enough. and that would get you in really great shape. So you don't need to go and work out an hour a day, an hour, three days a week or 40, you know, you can get a lot done if you are smart with your time. So you've probably seen the headlines, inflation, tariffs, recession. And the truth is there's a lot to be concerned about.

22:19Many economists are warning that a recession could be coming soon. And just like we take steps to protect our physical health, We also need to take steps to protect our financial health. And that's why I'm turning to physical gold and silver to help protect my retirement and saving. Now, I personally trust Preserve Gold. They can make the process simple and they genuinely care. They're amazing Christian people I really respect. Right now, they're offering a free wealth protection guide. And you can get this by just texting AXE, that's A-X-E, to 50505 to get this free guide. Plus, you can get up to$15 ,000 in free gold or silver with a qualified purchase.

23:00Don't wait. Text AXE to 50505 today and take the first steps towards protecting what you've worked so hard to build. I'm praying for and excited about your financial prosperity. Now, the fourth most common cause of metabolic syndrome is this. Toxin exposure. And this includes alcohol and smoking. Toxins damage your mitochondria. They disrupt liver detoxification. And they increase oxidative stress, all of which impair your metabolic pathways. Smoking increases the risk of type 2 diabetes by 40 % alone. Heavy alcohol use increases the risk of metabolic syndrome by 85%. Think about this. Drinking heavy alcohol is worse for your metabolic health than smoking, even though smoking is terrible for your health.

23:50heavy alcohol use is incredibly damaging. And even moderate drinking can disrupt liver metabolism and blood sugar regulation. Now listen, if you have one day a week, where you want to have one glass of wine, or even up to two, let's say you're doing two drinks a week, that's really not going to affect you much. Okay. But if you're drinking daily, even if it's one glass a day, or you are drinking heavy on the weekends, it is absolutely going to cause major issues. And by the way, I know this because when you look at certain other countries um like italy and france i mean they may have a small amount of red wine here and there even throughout the week and actually drink even more than i said and and they have very little metabolic dysfunction but overall we see this especially heavy drinking um causes major issues or drinking even even one glass a day that's not healthy okay it's not healthy at all i would say try and drink two weeks two glasses or less a week.

24:45Keep it very low. And the last major cause of metabolic health issues, and again, this is having a poor metabolism. We all want to have a healthy metabolism. You want to be burning fat. You want to be lean. You want to have good energy. You want your blood work to look good. We all want that. Well, 9 out of 10 people don't have that. And the fifth big reason why is hormone imbalances. Insulin issues, cortisol issues, leptin issues, estrogen issues, thyroid hormone issues, testosterone issues, all of these hormone imbalances will cause metabolic dysfunction. Disregulated hormones distort hunger, fat storage, energy use, making it harder to maintain stable blood sugar and weight.

25:28High cortisol and chronic stress are linked to a 220 % higher risk of obesity. One of the greatest things you can do to become obese is be chronically stressed. In fact, isn't it crazy to think about that even though you're not doing anything, just being in a stressed out state is as bad for you as eating a milkshake and French fries and pizza. Isn't that crazy? Most people think that stress does not affect their weight at all. They think it does not affect their metabolism. It affects it as much as eating one of the worst meals you could ever eat, sitting there drinking a soda and piece of pizza.

26:08That's how bad being in a stressed state is. And most of it has to do with we're way too busy. Most of us also, a lot of people also live in a state of fear, wanting to please everybody, of worry and trying to control things out of your control. So much of this also comes down to building your faith and following the advice in the Bible where God is saying, you know, it's like Matthew 5 and 6, listen, don't worry. Like I take care of the lilies of the field and the birds of air. I'm going to take care of you, right? And I think that most of us are also, we're taught in the United States of America that success is the epitome.

26:46Success financially, success in terming having a lot of fame and followers, looking like the perfect family on the outside. And we're all trying to maintain this appearance and be successful in the eyes of the world with power and fame and money and all those things. That's very stressful when you feel like you have to perform in that way. But when you know that God loves you unconditionally, and I think about it like this, like my one-year-old and five-year-old right now, the thing I want for them most in life is to be growing in their character, for them to be kind to others, and for them to use their God-given gifts to grow in those in order to serve other people and make the world a better place.

27:26And I also want to see my girls happy, laughing, like enjoying life, having a nice balance of working hard, but playing hard and having great relationships. Like that makes me happy. Your heavenly father is the same way. He wants to see you joyful and happy and using your gifts, but also playing, having fun. How many of you, when you think about your average week, are you playing and having fun? Are you doing things you love to do? You're deeply connecting with others. Or are you every single minute you're bringing kids to soccer practice? You're bringing them to dance. You're bringing them to gymnastics.

27:58You are, you know, you're constantly trying to, you know, volunteer and do this. Like every part of your day, you've got something scheduled. Every single part of it. And maybe part of that is doing one thing that's healthy. And I find this with a lot of my patients is when my patients have this mindset that, oh, I just have to do more to get healthy. Oftentimes, the single greatest thing you need to do to get healthy is do less. Okay. or do something where you're not trying to get ahead. Reading a novel for fun. Going for a walk in nature just to take a deep breath and relax. Doing lunch with a best friend and having two hours.