Why Crazy Protein Goals and 12,000 Steps Are Making Your Hormones Worse (Not Better)
Protein targets that require a second job to hit. 12,000 steps that assume you have two spare hours to fill in during the day. Seven hours of sleep, if only it were that simple.
The mainstream wellness advice isn't bad for everyone. It's just not realistic nor designed for your body, at this stage of life. And there's a difference.
If you've been doing everything "right" and still feel terrible this episode is for you.
Kylie breaks down what's actually worth your energy in perimenopause: why protein quality beats protein quantity, why the calorie conversation is more nuanced than anyone's telling you, the one thing nobody talks about enough (fibre - seriously), and how to build a movement routine that fits your actual life.
Plus a word on sleep that finally makes sense of why the standard advice has never worked for you.
In This Episode
Why 12,000 steps and mountain-sized protein goals are setting perimenopausal women up to fail
The real protein conversation: quality, variety, and what red meat actually gives you that cups of egg whites and buckets of cottage cheese never will.Calories, carbs, and why a balanced plate beats a tracking app every time
Fibre - the unsung hero of hormone balance (and why cruciferous vegetables deserve more love)
Movement that fits your life, where to actually start and how to build from there
Why generic sleep advice is useless and what to do instead
Mentioned in this episode:
The 3am Sleep Fix — $37
Big love,
Kylie x
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Transcript
Somewhere between the gym bros on Instagram and the wellness influencers trying to tell you to eat cups and cups of cottage cheese and egg whites, plus walk 12,000 steps a day, women in perimenopause got a bit lost. And here's what frustrates me. These women aren't lazy, they're not unmotivated, they know what good nutrition looks like, they're working full-time, they're raising kids, they're looking after aging parents, trying to hold everything together.
So to have someone tell you that you need to walk two hours a day on top of all of that, yeah, great idea. Thanks a lot, buddy. Today we're gonna cut through the noise because this [00:01:00] advice isn't just wrong for everyone, it's just not designed for your body. It's not realistic at this stage of life, and there's a difference.
So today we're gonna talk about what actually works. So let's name and call it out what's being pushed right now, and I'm seeing four things that keep coming up over and over. First up, crazy protein targets. We're looking at severe calorie restriction. We're looking at 12,000 steps a day, 15,000 one guy said.
And of course, here's the kicker, seven hours of sleep. And look, on paper, none of these are terrible advice. But here's the problem. They were never designed with perimenopausal women in mind. So let's start off with the steps. Like 12,000 steps is roughly two hours of walking. So two hours. This is on top of a full [00:02:00] workday, school pickups, dinner, checking in on your parents, feeding the dog, plus everything else that needs to happen before you fall into bed.
So for women who are working, especially in an office job, that number is completely disconnected from reality. I saw one woman, she gets up at 4:00 in the morning to get in her two hours of walking before work. And I just thought, "My God, good for you, love. I just couldn't." Which brings us to sleep.
And generally, I don't know about you, but my deepest sleep seems to be between 4:00 AM and 6:00 AM. So when it's thrown around, "Oh, just get more sleep. Just prioritize sleep. Get seven hours sleep." Most women would kill to have seven hours of sleep at night, and that's exactly why they're here, why you're here listening.
Saying sleep more to a woman who's waking at 3:00 in the morning with her heart racing is not [00:03:00] advice. It's a death wish. It's a definitely a punchline to a very bad joke. Now, the problem isn't the goal. The problem is it was never designed with your body, your life, or this stage of life in mind.
So we've really got to have a look at, like who is giving this advice. If it's on the internet, if it's on social media, if it's any form of personal trainer, usually if it's a dude. Not all dudes, but always a dude. They're kind of missing the point that there's a hormone-driven dysregulation at play, and all women, if we get to this stage of life, will go through it.
So it's important and we need to take a little bit more, I guess, care. And also honor the women who are at this stage. We're not stupid, right? We don't want to be pushed around and we don't want to be spoken to as if, oh, if we can't stick to a calorie deficit, we can't get our steps in [00:04:00] if we can't just do what they, they know works.
Seriously, we can go and tell them to fuck off because I'm, I'm over it. Okay. So that's what the problem is with the current push. So we'll go through these one by one and what else we can do instead. So protein is a big flare on socials right now. And I want to be clear, like protein absolutely matters in perimenopause.
It matters for our muscle, maintaining our muscle mass. It matters for our metabolism, for blood sugar stabilization. And so this isn't me telling you to ditch protein or to not prioritize protein, but we don't need to go eating copious amounts of cottage cheese. We don't need cups and cups of egg whites just because they're low calorie.
Like, that's not the goal here. What we actually want and need is variety and quality. So this- so protein, [00:05:00] the most available source of protein comes to us from animals. But if you sort of think of it as a whole package, so first up, we look at red meat. We're also getting iron, we're getting zinc, we're getting B12.
We're not getting that in a cup of egg whites. If we look at fish and oily fish, salmon, sardines, this is where we're getting our omegas, our omega-3s, which is anti-inflammatory and directly hormone supportive. Plant-based options are our chia seeds and our hemp seeds for those omega-3s. We want to be eating a variety of nuts, a variety of seeds.
And legumes as well are a really important source of protein. So the goal is like nutrient density, not just hitting a protein number. So think about the quality of the food that you're eating and the variety. So mix it up, but real food. That's what we're after. So [00:06:00] what a realistic hormone-friendly day of eating actually looks like? So for me, it's winter here in Australia right now, so I'm having porridge for breakfast. But I make my porridge with milk, so I'm getting protein from the milk. I add on some yogurt onto my porridge, a handful of berries. I'm using frozen berries, so I just defrost them while I'm cooking my porridge in the porridge.
And then some nuts and some seeds on top to kind of give it some texture and some crunch. So I'm adding in those fats and I'm adding in those protein. For lunch, I'm a big fan of soup right now, so going through and I've cooked up some beans and legumes in the slow cooker in sort of like a tomatoey chili kind of base.
And again, a big dollop of yogurt or yogurt mixed in with tahini on top of that is really nice, and some chili. So, you know, it's, it's eating for the season and eating [00:07:00] for now. So it doesn't have to be all chicken breasts and egg whites. Okay. So let's talk calories next, because this one can get a bit messy.
So calories do matter. That's true. But calorie counting as a strategy for women in perimenopause is often unproductive. This is because over the years, I've seen women get so caught up in the number that they lose sight of what's actually in the food. So I would rather you use... I use a plate method with my clients.
So this gets us a good balance of protein, of vegetables. So we want good color. Eat the rainbow, so rainbow-colored veggies on your plate. Good plant-based carbohydrates and healthy fats. So if we tick off those four elements at each meal, it's gonna keep us feeling full and it's gonna keep our blood sugar stable.
So we also want [00:08:00] plant-based carbs, and I want to say this really clearly. Potatoes, sweet potato, brown rice, quinoa, all of our root veggies, so beetroot, turnip, swede, all of those are really important at this stage of life. They are not the enemy. Good fats. So are we having healthy fats at each meal? So avocado.
Are we cooking with olive oils? We can sprinkle seeds and nuts on our veggies or like I do in my porridge. These are critical for hormone production. So they're not optional. But if we're focused on calories, I can see us sort of sliding back into that, that old low-fat kind of era that we were bombarded with in the '80s and '90s.
Because it's easy if we're gonna cut calories, cutting out fat is the easiest way to do it. But think about the quality of fat. So the nutrients that you're getting from the fat in an avocado, for instance, is very different to the [00:09:00] nutrients or lack of nutrients you're getting for the same calories in a bag of chips.
So healthy fats, absolutely. So when, when we eat, like, and focus on real food and a variety of real food, the calories kind of take care of themselves because real food is filling and it's satiating. And you're gonna feel nourished when you eat a variety of real food. So see, here's something worth saying out loud, that the woman who obsessively tracks every macro, every calorie on MyFitnessPal is often more stressed than the woman just eating a balanced plate of real food, because the stress is also gonna wreak havoc on your hormones.
So there's a real cost to calorie counting and macro counting that we're not talking about So if somebody came to me and said that they'd been on a calorie deficit for months [00:10:00] and nothing was changing, so hormonally I'd be looking at are you getting the balance of food that you need? Are you getting enough protein?
Are you getting enough fiber? Are you getting enough carbohydrates? Are you getting the healthy fats? Because we need all of those things to support our hormones. So we're supporting our thyroid hormone, we're supporting our adrenals, and our cortisol, our stress response. We're supporting that swing and that decline in estrogen and progesterone.
So it's really important that we're eating well. So next we'll move on to fiber. Now, I think fiber's the unsung hero, and no one's sort of talking about this as much as we should be, and I'm on a mission to change this. So fiber doesn't get the same hype as protein, but in perimenopause it absolutely should.
Specifically we're looking at our cruciferous veggies. So this is our [00:11:00] leafy greens. So our broccoli, our cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, and then our leafy greens. So baby spinach, spinach, rocket. Because all of these directly support hormone regulation and estrogen metabolism, and that's not a small thing.
We don't need more supplements for this if we're already eating well. So fiber keeps us full. Fiber feeds your good gut bugs. So our prebiotic fibers, things like leek, sweet potato, onion, as well as, like, all of those cruciferous veggies that we just spoke about. Oats is another one that your good gut bugs love.
So we want to keep your microbiome. We want to keep those goods, like a healthy gut bacteria. So if we're creating a healthy environment, we're feeding our good gut bugs these sort of foods. Fiber also keeps our digestion moving. It's like a broom for your bum. It keeps things [00:12:00] moving through. It mops up all of the bits, all that we want to get rid of, that we literally want to poo out. And when we're eating our veggies, you're also getting a good mix of antioxidants and polyphenols and minerals and vitamins that you're never gonna get in a protein shake. So a healthy gut equals better hormone balance. So it all connects, and better control over your hormonal symptoms.
So how do we get cruciferous veggies in every day without making it feel like punishment if you're not a veggie lover? For me, it's easy. I can steam them, I can stir-fry them, I can throw them in a curry. My kids are always complaining, but they're used to it and they eat it anyway. I always put, like, if we're having nachos for dinner, I will always throw in a tin of, like, bean mix or four beans. I [00:13:00] always rinse it and then throw them in. If I'm making a curry, I'll always put chickpeas in and peas, and it drives my kids nuts, but it's just an easy way of, of getting them in there. If you're making salads, you can roast broccoli, roast cauliflower.
It's really easy to make kale chips. So kale can be a bit meh, but if you rinse it off, squeeze it out, sort of massage it and make it a bit softer, pat it off with a tea towel, drizzle a bit of olive oil, toss it around, salt, chili flakes, put it in the oven, and then you get these beautiful crispy kale bits.
So you can have that in your salads or you can just have it on its own. So just keep it simple. Don't overthink it. Just look at the meal and go, "Okay, do I have some greens in here? How can I add more greens in?" And most of the time you can just throw them in as an extra.
Okay, so the next one I wanted to address is movement.
So [00:14:00] movement that actually fits into your life, because I don't want to give you a version of movement or exercise that is gonna make you turn off the podcast right now. Okay. So the current ideal weight loss for women is get your 12,000 steps in. Even 10,000 is still a lot, particularly for women who are working, especially if you're office bound.
It's a bit different, like if you're a teacher and you're on your feet a lot and you're moving around. Nurses, you probably would get in your 12,000 steps. But I'm thinking more of women not getting that kind of close to that step target.
So what I would say is, where are you at now? Okay. So if we can improve on where you're at now, anything is a bonus. Okay? So if half an hour, if you're not doing anything right now, and half an hour is what you can manage, then commit to that half an hour. So make it realistic. And this is what's gonna set you up for [00:15:00] success. Anyone can go out, we can smash out the 12,000 in a day, but if we're gonna back that up and do it every day, like is that realistic?
But half an hour, that is realistic. 'Cause honestly, we're probably all spending at least half an hour at scrolling through our phones. So we can put our phone down, go outside, go for a walk. And then once we're in the habit of doing half an hour every day, it's not a lot to aim for. Then we tick it off every day. Yep, doing that, nailing it. Then stretch it out to 40 minutes and build from here. If we get to an hour a day, amazing. But think about where you are now. Start where you're at now, not what some number on TikTok tells you to be. Just a word, strength training, non-negotiable. This is for muscle, which is critical.
It's for bone density. It's for your metabolism. We wanna get in some mobility training [00:16:00] there. Keep those shoulders moving. Keep those knees moving. Keep those hips moving. This matters enormously in perimenopause, and it doesn't get talked about enough in the whole steps and protein conversation.
Weight training matters. If you haven't been to a gym in a long time, it's time to start seriously considering getting into the gym. If you love Pilates, walking and Pilates together is a great combination. Don't let anyone tell you it's not enough. And, and again, like I just did bang on about weight training, but if Pilates is where you're at now, okay, you're doing something.
So, don't beat yourself up that you're also not at the gym. The goal is to find a plan that fits in with your life. So movement. So we wanna move our body, we wanna get our heart rate up, we want to build some muscle. Find a plan that fits with your life, something you enjoy, not some arbitrary [00:17:00] target that was plucked out of thin air for somebody else's body and somebody else's schedule.
Okay. Now sleep. I'll keep this one short, but I can't let it go without saying it. Just sleep more. Just go to bed earlier. Sleep seven to eight hours a night, which, yeah, fantastic advice. Like, truly fucking groundbreaking, right? Most women in perimenopause would absolutely love to sleep seven hours.
That's exactly why they're listening to this podcast right now. Sleep advice that doesn't account for hormonal disruption is useless. So the fix isn't better sleep hygiene. It's not going to bed earlier. To fix your sleep, it's addressing what's actually waking you up in the first place, and that is a very different conversation here.
So, I'm just gonna say it out loud. So if I hear women being told, whether [00:18:00] it's from their doctors or from some wellness influencer who's 25, or some gym bro just telling a woman who is in her 40s and 50s to just get more sleep, like, I seriously wanna stab them because it's not that easy.
Okay, so here's the summary. And sorry, yes, I do have my 3 AM Sleep Fix program, which I have worked very hard on, and I've had the first round of women go through it, and we had amazing results. And sleep is not a, "Oh, I've fixed my sleep now. Now we're good." It's, it's building in... It's understanding why you're waking up and then countering why you're waking up.
And when we get to that level, it can make such a huge difference. So kind of going beyond, like, the sleep hygiene that we've all been told about 100 times.
So here's the summary to wrap it all up. So protein, yes, [00:19:00] but make it real food and mix it up. Get some variety. Calories. Think quality of calories, not just the number.
Steps, yes, are important. Movement, but start where you are and build from there. Strength training, if you're already doing it, awesome. If it's not, let's put it on your radar. Sleep, we all want it, and there's actually a good way to get it, that has nothing to do with putting your phone away. So if sleep is the thing that's wrecking everything else, your energy, your food choices, your mood, your patience, I want you to check out the 3:00 a.m sleep fix. It's not a sleep hygiene checklist, it's a hormonal fix. So like I said, women who've done it have said it finally makes more sense than any generic sleep advice that they've been given before. So you can grab it, the link's in the show notes for just $37. And then stay tuned because something bigger [00:20:00] is coming that is gonna bring all of this together, and I will have more on this very soon.
Okay, bye for now, and I will see you in the next episode.