Weight loss & sleep with Greg Fearon
This week's episode on the Sleep Like A Boss Podcast is all about weight loss. How is that related to sleep? What is the right approach to weight loss? How do we often sabotage our weight loss - and our sleep?
Greg Fearon and I want to answer these questions in this episode.
Greg is a nutrition and health coach who helps over 40+ women thrive, not just survive, while losing up to 20 pounds in 90 days. With a background in endocrinology, gynecology, nutrition and coaching, Greg helps his clients master their minds and bodies.
In working with his clients, Greg sees many women consider exercise the answer to their weight loss problems when, often, this goes so much deeper than that. He works with women on many different aspects because he realizes that women have such complex biology and weight loss is just a part of the equation to make his clients strong, confident and healthy.
Weight-loss Myths
One of Greg's key goals is to keep women away from the BS that stops them from losing weight and being healthy. And the first step is to get them educated on all the myths that are out there.
Things like "I have to stop eating carbs to lose weight." Carbs are not an essential nutrient; we can live without carbs. But carbs provide fibre. Anything from a plant is a carbohydrate, so you're potentially missing out on many nutrients and energy-given foods, all in trying to lose some weight. Carbs are four calories per gram, which is the same as protein. So, you have to ask yourself: "Is it the carbs making me fat?" And the answer is a resounding no.
Greg believes that one main problem with the nutrition weight loss world is that people pin everything on one thing. And it's almost like a cult that brainwashes you into thinking that you must be extreme to change your life and habits. And that's not the case.
Greg's approach to Weight-loss
Greg's approach to weight loss might surprise you. He explains that one big thing he learned in his career is that we all have an emotional and mechanical side.
The mechanical side is lifting weights, eating this food, doing 10,000 steps, going to bed at night, etc. But underpinning all of that is the emotion, aka energy in motion. So nothing will change until we've mastered the feeling and understand what's going on on the emotional side of things and how we're going to fix the other side.
One of Greg's mottos is:
How we do one thing is often how we do other things. And sometimes, weight loss is just a symptom because our emotional side affects everything, and it manifests through gaining weight, eating the wrong foods, staying up late, etc.
Greg also explains that the number one reason why diets don't work is that we create stories in our brains. So what will happen is you will be told that you weren't good enough for something by a parent or someone you respect and love. So you carry that with you, and you develop this story that you don't deserve to be happy and healthy, you don't deserve to be fit, you're not good enough to be fit, you don't have the discipline or the motivation to be fit. So you keep doing what you're doing, even though you're not happy. And this pattern of self*sabotage often appears in our work as sleep experts as well.
The connection between Sleep and Weight-loss
Greg shares that there is a massive connection between sleep and weight loss.
A study showed that people who got five hours of sleep or less, given the same calories as another group who got six and a half hours lost muscle mass and weight. People who sleep less than six hours tend to eat about 400 calories on average more each day, their metabolism gets reduced, and they are less likely to move around or exercise. So, for Greg, sleep is the beginning of the fat loss game.
When clients come to him, he always looks first at their sleep and stress levels. Then he moves on to their daily movement and nutrition. And the exercise comes later. Because if you think about it, most women haven't exercised since high school or college, and it's impossible to throw yourself into it suddenly. Exercise is great, but it needs to be gradually introduced with the proper guidance.
And Greg's final advice for all the women out there is: "Yes, you have to love yourself where you are. But you can always improve too. And that's still self-love."
If you're interested in learning more about Greg and working with him either 1-on-1 or in a group coaching setting, make sure you connect with him on Instagram, visit his website and listen to The Greg Fearon Podcast.
