The Bite Size Podcast with Lorayne Michaels

Cardio Isn’t The Hero, Protein Is

• Lorayne • Season 2 • Episode 75

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We unpack why progress can stall for women over 35 even with consistent training, and how smart metrics reveal what the mirror misses. We share the five biggest mistakes, real numbers from our own scans, and the exact fixes that restore muscle, reduce fat, and calm stress.

• who this is for and why the scale misleads
• lessons from competing and unhealthy dieting
• what InBody scans reveal about fat and muscle
• protein targets and macro tracking basics
• why under eating slows progress
• cardio that helps vs cardio that harms
• lifting heavy for bones, muscle and metabolism
• stress, HRV and practical recovery tools
• walking after meals as a simple win
• clear next steps and how to get support

Please, please, please, if this is something that you're curious about, but you have questions about, contact me. My email address is LorayneMichaels22@gmail.com. I would be more than happy to do a free assessment to figure out where you're at, to find out where you want to be. If this episode has helped you in any way, shape, or form, please share it with somebody. Like it, subscribe, make sure you are never missing an episode. The best thing you can do that I would be so forever grateful for is if you review this podcast.


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Email Me: LorayneMichaels22@gmail.com

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back to the Bite Size Podcast. I'm your host, Lorraine Michaels, and today is Coaching Corner. So I'm super excited because this is some really good information as far as for women over 35 who are either thinking about starting their fitness slash weight loss journey or women over 35 who are active and they have that healthy mindset already and they've already have gone down this road before, but it's not working anymore. You're hitting a wall, maybe with your nutrition, with your exercise. You can't seem to get the results that you are wanting, whether it's gaining muscle, losing fat, having that toned look appearance, and I use that in quotation marks. I mean, it looks toned, but that lean appearance, whatever it may be, this is for you. So we're gonna be talking about a couple of different things. I'm gonna be talking about monitoring and measuring your metrics. So not just your weight, but your body fat, lean muscle mass, different metrics that you can measure to make sure that you are on the right track. And also, I'm gonna be talking about the five biggest mistakes that middle-aged women are making in their fitness and health and exercise. All right, so let's dive in. If you are new here, welcome. And I would absolutely love it if you dropped it in the comments where you're listening from, because I love connecting with people from all over the place. So there's that. All right, so as you know, I am a personal trainer, I am a wellness coach, I've been in this fitness space for a very long time, over a decade. And I also have over two decades in medicine. So very well versed in these things. And um, I used to compete, I used to do fitness modeling, and so I have been in this realm of diet and exercise and lifestyle changes and supplements and all the things. And so when I was competing, I had a very strict diet, and I will be honest, it was done in a very unhealthy way, and I dropped weight, dropped body fat percentage, but I felt like crap. So I might have looked lean and jacked, but I felt like crap. And it's because I wasn't doing it correctly, I wasn't doing it in a healthy way. No fault of my own. I was just doing what I was coached and told by my coach, and I didn't know at the time. And now, fast forward, you know, 20 years later, I do know what is right and what is wrong and what is healthy and what is not healthy. And I see a lot of women making these mistakes. But before we get into that, I'm gonna talk about me and my metrics, just so I can give you a real life example. So, for many, many years, I have been intuitively eating. So after I competed and I knew and I got used to measurements and ounces and protein and really learning macronutrients, which that is the first step when you are going to change your physique, appearance, your diet, you need to know. And if you don't, then hire a coach like myself that can help guide you and educate you and get you on the right plan for your macronutrients. So depending on your age, height, weight, that determines how many and whether you're active or not, that determines how many calories you need to live, not just to lift, not just for to get whatever goal that you're trying to achieve, not just that. This is just to exist. And so you have that. And then depending on if you want to lose weight, gain muscle, whatever it is you want to do, then you're either in a surplus or a deficit. So meaning you're either increasing your calories from that amount or decreasing your calories from that amount. Now, after I've learned what I need and what to do, how to manipulate that and what amounts that I need to eat, I've been intuitively doing that for years. And I haven't competed in many, many years since 2015, so 10 years. So I haven't had, I haven't been on a really strict diet like I was. But recently I have been tracking with the in-body. So if you are watching this, you can see that I'm holding up, or if you're not watching this, I am holding up an in-body scan report. And these in-body scans, these in-body machines are amazing. I absolutely love them. They, depending on what kind you use or have. This one in particular tells you your water weight, your dry lean mass, body fat mass, your weight, skeletal muscle mass, body fat mass, body mass index, percentage of body fat, and then it breaks it down into your limbs. So your right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg, your trunk, how much muscle is there and how much weight is there. And so I have been tracking this since I would say, I think it, I don't have my very first one, but I think it was March, February or March of 2025. And um, I have with me today one from um it shows a last date of April 10th, July 25th, and then today, October 23rd. And on this other one, I have two different ones. Um this other one goes back even further. It goes back to 2024. So I have been tracking this for a very long time. And what I do is I get on it and I know how much I weigh, I know how much body fat percentage I want to get down to. Um, and then after I get on this, then I know where I need to adjust my calories and my macros, depending on what I need to do. That being said, I am not happy at all whatsoever with my results. And let me tell you what has happened. So my weight has relatively maintained around 118. So yeah, it's ranged from 22 to 113, 113 to 122. That's where I am fluctuating. My body fat percentage has been fluctuating from 22 percent to 26 percent, 26.5 percent. And so the and let me make sense of all this for you. So, what has happened is my body fat percentage has been fluctuating, but and when you look at the graph, it has been increasing slightly, but my weight has been the same relatively around the same, and my muscle mass has been decreasing. And because I have these metrics and because I measure this and I know the reason for that, and and I thought that I had been eating healthy, intuitively eating, right? So I don't restrict at all whatsoever, meaning if I want something sweet, I have something sweet. I am just very mindful about the amount and the serving size, the portions. So I have very little I am able to do that. I have clients that are not able to do that, and they it's either all or nothing. So I work with you however you work, what's best for you. But I don't ever restrict my clients. I don't tell them you can't have this just because psychologically it doesn't work. And so because my weight has relatively been the same, my body fat has gone up and my muscle mass has gone down. That means that I am not eating enough of protein because I know that I exercise at least four to six times a week, mostly four to five times a week. I exercise consistently, I'm walking consistently, um, and I'm lifting heavy when I can. Most of the time I try and go heavy because I'm on a progressive overload plan, because I want to build muscle and lose fat. But the thing here, the missing piece that I want to explain to you is I have not been tracking my macros. I have been intuitively eating. And although my appearance has relatively been the same, it I look good. Um, and I don't mean that in any kind of vain way or conceited way. Like I look fit, but I know that I haven't been tracking. And now looking at these numbers, I know that I have not been eating enough and I haven't been eating enough protein. And so this leads me to the five mistakes that women over 35 make in their fitness journey. Number one, they're not eating enough protein. I am a prime example of that because my numbers tell me flat out there's no bones about it. Number two, you're eating too little. I have clients that they come to me and I take a look at their diet and their exercise plan or lack thereof, whatever it may be. Part of your assessment, I figure out what you're doing, how you're moving your body, when you're moving your body, what you're eating. You track your macros with me so I can see what exactly you're eating, how much you're eating. A lot of times my clients aren't eating enough because historically they've been told eat less, move your body more. And unfortunately, that has led them to down a wrong road that is not creating optimal results for them. Number three, doing too much cardio. This one drives me bonkers slightly because for one, I am not a fan of cardio. I do not like doing cardio. I used to love to run. That's different if it's therapeutic for you. But as far as like going into the gym and rowing or running on the treadmill or the elliptical, I do not like doing cardio, nor do I think that it is beneficial for you. And and let me, before you come for me, some amount of cardio is beneficial for you because the it is great for your heart. It's great for your circulation. Yes, that type of cardio is walking. Walking for 15, 20 minutes after every meal. That is great for you. I love that. I encourage that. I do that myself. But doing 45 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half, two hours worth of cardio is not good for you. Number three is doing too much cardio. Number four is not lifting. This is something that I talk about often and more often lately, um, because as we age, women, 35 and up, everything, your bones depend on this. So hormones change, which leads to, you know, calcium and your bones that are deteriorating as we're getting older. Unless if we lift, when we lift, we are building stronger bones as well as building that muscle. And in addition, muscle is more metabolically active than fat. So the more muscle you have, the more metabolism, the more active your metabolism is, the more you're burning fat. So the more muscle you have, the more fat you're going to burn. So not lifting enough. They're not prioritizing lifting. And number five is not managing stress. And this one is something that has been increasing in my life personally, and I know that I am not managing my stress effectively because I wear a whoop, I absolutely love it. And part of the metrics that track on there is my HRV. And my HRV, which is your heart rate variability, what that is, is how your body not responds to stress, but how it recovers from stress. So some stress on your body is good, like working out. That is good. That is good stress. But when you have the stress of a job or the stress of a child or whatever stress, fill in the blank, and your body is going into fight or flight mode, as we know, and your body can't recover from that. So sometimes, and I also learned that you have sleep stress as well. And when I first started wearing it, I noticed that I had a high, high amount of stress in my sleep and I wasn't getting into REM sleep. I wasn't sleeping long enough, but it wasn't restorative sleep. So I had to switch up some supplements that I was taking. And now my sleep is great. I have amazing restorative sleep. However, my HRV is plummeting so much so that on my Whoop app, it is telling me that my recovery, I'm in the red more times than not. And it's because of my HRV, which is directly linked to my nervous system and stress management. So this is something that I personally need to be working on. What are things that I can do to regulate my nervous system, to bring my body back to a calm zen state? This is breath work, is something that you can do to help with that. Doing things that bring you joy and bring a feeling of purpose. So something that I have been doing, which I stink and love, is volunteering at a ranch. And so I get to get up on, you know, once a week and I go to this ranch and I feed the animals and I feed the horses and I walk around the pasture and I'm doing chores. I'm doing work, right? I'm picking up poo. I'm feeding animals, but I am in nature doing something that I absolutely love around animals, petting them, interacting with them, um, helping. So it's a sense of purpose and it's a sense of peace that I absolutely love and look forward to. Another thing, and um, this might sound funny, but is training. I absolutely love training clients. I love interacting with them. I love seeing their progress. I love encouraging them. I love, you know, seeing when they're updating their app and entering their meals and just this interaction. And I love helping women achieve their goals in their fitness and health journey. I absolutely love that. That brings me joy. That helps regulate my nervous system. Some tips and pointers. So I went through the five biggest mistakes that women over 35 are making right now in their fitness. So, to recap, not eating enough protein, eating too little, doing too much cardio, not lifting or prioritizing their lifting, and not managing their stress. And now I have given you a couple of tips, a couple of pointers along the way to help you mitigate that. I do want to circle back to uh the the top three, the three that I mentioned, not eating enough protein. So I had mentioned getting a coach, hiring a personal trainer. I do in-person and online personal training. Please, please, please, if this is something that you're curious about, but you have questions about, contact me. It is no, I give free assessments, no obligation. If you have any questions, please contact me. My email address is LorraineMichaels22gmail.com. That's in the show notes. All the ways you can connect with me or contact me is in the show notes. I would be more than happy to do a free assessment to figure out where you're at, to find out where you want to be. And I will give you a roadmap on what you need to do in order to get there. So if you're unsure, get a coach, get a trainer, someone that can help you, point you in the right direction. Track your macros. See where you're at. There's no way it's impossible to make any changes if you don't know where you're at. Prime example is my in-body scans. If I didn't do an in-body scan, I wouldn't know where I was at. I would just be going off of my appearance and how I feel. And that is not going to get me the results. So that will help with the whole the first two, not eating enough protein and not eating enough whatsoever. And then you already know what I feel about and what I said about the cardio. Stop doing cardio. In fact, I can get you the results you want with doing zero cardio. Unless if you wanted to make sure you get your walks in. But I I highly suggest the walking after meals at least, you know, 15, 20 minutes. If you can't do that, do five minutes. Like that is good in and of itself. But no more cardio, friends. Anyways, that is all I got for you today. This was your coaching corner this week. I absolutely love doing this. If this episode has helped you in any way, shape, or form, please share it with somebody. Like it, subscribe, make sure you are never missing an episode. I have some phenomenal guests coming up. So stay tuned for that as well. The best thing you can do that I would be so forever grateful for is if you review this podcast. If you've made it this far, I love you to death. Please, please, please review this wherever you're listening to it, whether it's on Spotify, Apple, wherever, Amazon, please review it because that is how this will get spread. That is how people can find it. Um, and that's all I got for you today. Remember, guys, you're divinely created for a divine purpose, and there was no mistake in you. We'll see you next time. Peace.