Why Am I Gaining Weight Eating Clean and Working Out?

Maggie: You don't have to squat. There are plenty of other options. If you say, hey, my back bothers me, there are so many other options to get the same stimulus without putting that pressure on your back.

Andrea: I could have died on impact. Just the fact that they said, you're lucky that you've been in the best shape of your life. To me, I have that passion: train in the good seasons of your life. Train when you can, because you never know when you're going to need that muscle for something.

Nikkiey: Is walking on an incline more effective at burning fat than not on an incline?

Maggie: It depends on who you are.

Nikkiey: What's going on, everybody? Hey, you guys, welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show. Today's episode is going to be a really special one, but also a very, very fun one. I can just feel it. Even just chatting with these ladies beforehand, we were having fun and laughing. So what we're going to be doing today is diving into your questions, the listeners' questions. Over the last few days, I opened the floor on Instagram for you guys to ask any questions around health, around fitness, around your mental well-being, all of the above.

And you guys delivered. And today, I'm not answering these alone. You've already met Andrea. You've already met Maggie. They are here with me. They're the incredible WarriorBabe brand leaders, and they are here to answer these questions. Women you love, women you've already met on these episodes before. If you haven't yet, please make sure you listen to their episodes. These women are professionals. They are leading voices in the women's space, in midlife, in health and fitness. And what I admire the most about these women is they live this work.

They coach it. They embody it. And tonight, we're going to be breaking down your biggest questions and any obstacles you may have. So again, if you haven't listened to their episodes, go listen to them after this one. With all that being said, what's up, guys? Hey, Maggie. Hey, Andrea.

Maggie: Hello.

Andrea: Hello. How's it going?

Nikkiey: I feel like it's a virtual sit-down chat, but it's like we're on the couch hanging out right now. That's the vibe. I love it.

Maggie: We need to meet and hang out on couches more often, actually.

Nikkiey: Yes. Okay. So the first question, let's just dive right into it: please share your workout program and diet. Actually, hold on, before I pass it to you, Maggie. This question kind of frustrates me sometimes. I'm not going to lie, I'm just going to be point blank and honest. I need to put a disclaimer when we answer this question, because our workout programs are specifically unique to what we need and what we're focusing on.

So when we answer this, it doesn't mean you need to go and follow this workout plan and this diet plan, because it won't work for you. It's not specifically for you. That's the disclaimer. With that being said, I'm going to pass the floor to Maggie. What is your workout program and your diet?

Maggie: I'm going to go right off your disclaimer, because I feel a little sassy when people ask me this. Our situations are a little different than the average menopausal mom who is running around to soccer.

We get paid to look a certain way. This is our job. And all three of us do something completely different from each other as well. We do what works for us. So yes, I can give someone exactly what I do, and I know the first thing someone's going to say is, I don't have time for that. Well, yeah, you don't get paid to do it. I wouldn't do it if I were you either. But if you want to optimize your health, you need a coach.

If you don't know, you need a coach. If your goal is to fit into your jeans and feel as good as you can feel as a 52-year-old, your goals are going to be completely different than mine. I like to walk around about a month out from a show. If someone said, hey, do you want to do a show in a month? Okay, let me dial in for about a month and do it. So I walk around much differently. Ten years ago, I didn't care to be this fit, but now I do.

So yes, I lift six days a week. I do cardio quite a bit. I lift like a bodybuilder, though. Everything I do in the gym is to gain muscle and to remain lean. But muscle comes first. And it's the same with my diet. Muscle comes first. I eat to gain muscle, to keep muscle and to stay lean. So I can give you exactly word for word what I do, but that's not going to help you.

What's going to help you is knowing what it's going to take for your body. You need to be in the gym three to four days, and you need to prioritize protein. I know you're sick of hearing that because you want to know exactly what we do, but you really don't, because you probably don't want to do it.

Nikkiey: But what do you do, though?

Maggie: I'll tell you exactly what I do. All right. Monday is legs, quad focused. Tuesday is chest and triceps. Wednesday is back and biceps. Thursday is legs again, glutes and hamstrings. Friday is shoulders. And then I fit in core and sprints at least two to three times a week. I do a lot of sprint interval training. And then I always get in my steps. That's the basic, that's how I break it up. I lift heavy and I lift hard. I take about an hour, hour and 15, hour and a half. Sometimes I get chatting with people, so I stay. But if I go and dial in, I can get out of there in an hour and 15 or something.

Nikkiey: Better be only chatting during that rest period.

Maggie: I know. People need to leave me alone. You'd think the headphones help. They don't.

Nikkiey: I'll circle back to you when it comes to your macros. But I want to hear, Andrea, what does your workout split look like?

Andrea: All right. So seven years ago, I was frustrated, burned out, a busy mom. I'm still a busy mom; it's actually even busier now that my kids are in high school. I wanted to find a plan where I could look toned but that was maintainable, that didn't consume more than I could give, and that wasn't stressful.

So what works for me is four days a week focused on strength. I absolutely love cardio, and that's what I used to always do. So I said, one day a week is going to be my bonus workout, and I'm going to do all the cardio I want in that workout. That made it fun. If I felt overtrained, I could always just pop in my cardio workout. The four strength days are two upper body and two lower body, with specific things, progressive overload. That's the same thing bodybuilders do to gain muscle, right?

Low reps, heavy lifts, follow the progression to gain the muscle. And then after five years, I'm like, wow, I've got the muscle size. So now I tell people, especially on social media, I can be a little bit more flexible to maintain the mass I've built, because over half my body weight is muscle. But you've got to stick in there and build that muscle. So, four days a week strength and one cardio. And then after my helicopter crash, I had to adjust what that cardio was, because I had loved running so much.

I had to pull that back and stick to swimming now, and TRX. And with progressive nerve damage, even 10K steps a day is actually hurting my hips and my back. I don't talk about that much. But swimming doesn't do that, and TRX doesn't do that. It almost makes me cry, because if God closes the door on something you love in your fitness journey, there's a window to still stay fit. To me, that's an incredible feeling, that there's not just one way to be healthy and fit.

Nikkiey: You can find these other ways. You found what worked for you. You had to make a major adjustment and you found it. You're a great example of that.

Andrea: Thank you. Sometimes I go through seasons of, I'm just going to focus on swimming, and I'll do that a couple months in the summer, just for fun. But strength is always that foundation, because I know that's what's going to carry me through. There is a way to look pretty toned. Not as toned as Maggie, but pretty toned. And it's still me. I'm going to be busy.

Nikkiey: I think what's really cool about the three of us is we're at different phases. Maggie's in her 50s, you're in your 40s, I'm in my 30s. It's really cool to pinpoint our different styles of working out for what we specifically need. You found exactly what you needed. Before I close the loop on this question and share what my plan looks like, Maggie, I want to jump back to you. I just want you to talk about how many calories you're eating and what your protein intake is. We don't need to go into protein, fats and carbs.

Maggie: Okay. When I'm in maintenance, I don't track really hard. When you've been doing this for a long time, you kind of earn that freedom, and I've kind of earned that. But I still know what my maintenance is. I probably eat way more protein than the average Joe. I need to, because I'm older than both of you, and our need for protein goes up. That's the only macronutrient that changes as you get older.

For me to stimulate muscle protein synthesis, I have to eat way more protein than I used to. So my minimum is usually about 150 grams of protein. Carbohydrates, I'm usually around 100-ish. It depends. If I'm going on a big, huge hike, I take that into consideration. But mainly I stick around about 100. Fats, maybe 80 or 90. It really depends. Calories, 2,000-ish.

That's where I am. And when I'm getting ready, when I'm like, okay, I need to cut, I get a little poofy. We go through it. We're women. Our bodies just do this. But I have that control. If I know I need to cut back 200, 300 calories, I will cut out my handful of nuts in the afternoon. Done. And I've cut back 200, 300 calories. So it's just nice to have that knowledge and have that freedom.

Nikkiey: Love that. Andrea, what about you?

Andrea: My macros are kind of a range. I'll do about 40% fats, about 30% protein and the rest carbohydrates, which typically is almost 30%. So it's almost an even split. I used to track more carefully at first because I really wanted to build that muscle. But now I'm in maintenance mode, and I don't freak out if the scale goes up. I stay within about five pounds. I found my sweet spot. That's the beautiful place to be: realizing you don't have to be X amount of body fat forever, or this on the scale forever.

There's a range where you're going to look pretty good at a couple of different weights. If I gain more body fat, my butt looks better.

Maggie: And my face. My face always looks better if I have a little more fat.

Nikkiey: And you notice that about yourself. That's what's cool, that you don't have to worry about the scale anymore, because you can be like, hey, two extra pounds.

Andrea: My husband likes that fat.

Maggie: That's such a good point you brought up, though, because I love my body when I'm around 12% body fat, but I hate my face. I'm much more wrinkly at 12% body fat. So there are pros and cons. There's a payoff to being really lean.

Nikkiey: A hundred percent. I'm glad you brought that up. Just to close the loop for the listeners, if you're wondering what my workout is like. First of all, I think it's really cool that between the three of us, at the beginning of our journey, as we were learning and trying to understand nutrition, we really focused on the tracking aspect. We really put in that work on a daily basis of paying attention to exactly our protein, exactly our carbs, exactly our fats, so that we could gain the freedom we have now, which is not needing to. I don't track meticulously anymore. I'm more in that earned intuitive eating. Intuitive eating gets thrown around the industry now, and people say, I intuitively eat. But okay, do you really intuitively eat? Or are you just, quote unquote, eating healthy, and it's just a small three meals a day? We've earned that from doing the work.

I think that's really cool to highlight, because we put in the years of work, and a lot of women ask, do I have to track for the rest of my life? No. But you've got to put in the work at the beginning so you can earn where we are now. Right now I just coast at maintenance. I make sure on a daily basis that I'm hitting about 140 grams of protein, and then I let the rest fall where it needs to be, making sure I'm getting the fats in, because I know for me right now, fats are important as our hormones are changing. That's my main focus. If I had to guess, I'm probably hitting anywhere from 2,000 to 2,200 calories a day, and I just coast at maintenance.

And my workout plan right now: I'm trying to grow these legs, make them a little bit thicker, and make that booty even thicker, even though it's already thick to begin with. I'll do full body three days a week, but I'll focus on lower body first. I'll do one or two exercises focusing on legs each day. That's just because I recover way better doing full body.

I'll go in with the same intensity doing one or two exercises in full strength mode, and then I'll have that 24 hours until I hit them again. That recovery period is just a little bit better for me than having a full-blown leg day. I've learned my lesson in the past; I just do not recover well. Then for upper body I'll hit back, shoulders and arms, but mainly I keep it to shoulders and back. I rarely touch the biceps and triceps.

I personally don't want them to get any bigger. I also don't lift heavy, heavy weight in my upper body. I don't want to get bigger. I'm just trying to maintain that muscle. But I'll push the weight on the lower body for sure.

Okay, let's jump into the next question. A lot of women really want us to talk about this one, because it was asked a couple of different ways. The question is: why am I gaining weight even though I'm eating clean and working out?

Like I said, this is a very common scenario for women in their thirties, forties and fifties. They're eating, quote unquote, clean, but does that actually mean they're eating enough? And working out, does that mean they're actually training with the right intention? I'll pass it to one of you guys.

Andrea: I have a lot of women, especially at my church, ask me this. They're eating clean. What does that actually mean? And is it strategic for your hormones? You can be eating clean but accidentally eating too many calories, especially fats. It's very easy to go over 400 calories in something if you don't read the nutrition label. That's what's nice about tracking: you understand food, the value of food and macronutrients. You're like, oh, okay, this is why I'm eating clean and still gaining weight. Or, this is why I'm trying to be good, and being good is eating a thousand calories a day. And that thousand calories is dropping your hormone levels and sending everything plummeting.

So it's important to at least track and not just say clean eating, because that doesn't mean you're going to reach your goals or support your hormones.

Nikkiey: I love that take on the eating clean aspect. Now I want to pass it to you, Maggie. If they're eating clean, they would think they would lose the weight, right? So why are they gaining weight even though they're eating clean?

Maggie: Sometimes it's, I'm eating clean, so I can eat as much as I want. That's literally what happens. It happened three times; I had three different women. One of them said, I'm eating clean, what's happening to me? She thought eating clean was no protein. She was eating vegan, so she was eating no animal products. It's fine if you want to be vegetarian or vegan, but you have to have the knowledge to do that and get in enough protein. Her fat and carbohydrates... her body had no idea what to do with what she was doing.

So we had a little chit-chat. I'm just amazed at what people think eating clean is and the emphasis they put on it. No one has defined it. And sometimes we do have to have some processed foods. Sometimes the only way I can get my protein in is protein powder, and protein powder is a highly processed food. So we need to get over eating clean. You need to know what your macros, what your calories are made of.

Nikkiey: Drop the clean.

Andrea: Yeah. So many people judge you on whatever you're eating. You're having a treat, like some ice cream, and they're like, that's not clean. I'm like, it doesn't have to be.

Maggie: What does that even mean? There are no morals there.

Nikkiey: Just to piggyback off what you guys are saying: I hear the term eating clean, and then I ask, like you did, Andrea, what does that actually mean to you? And they start unpacking it. Okay, well, I'll wake up and have oatmeal with chia seeds, or toast with butter and an apple as I head out the door. And I'm like, where's the protein? Then they go on with the rest of the day: I grab a chicken salad for lunch, and for dinner I make whatever I need to make for the family. And I'm like, can you guess how many calories that is? Because it's probably around a thousand, if not a little bit less or a little bit more.

Maggie: That's 1,200. And under 50 grams of protein.

Nikkiey: Yep. And under 50 grams of protein. Exactly.

Maggie: You're going to screw up your metabolism, and you have no glucose tank at all. All those carbs you're eating have nowhere to go. They're swimming around looking for your adipose tissue. They just want to go make more fat.

Nikkiey: Exactly. Thank you. That's what I was looking for. It's just getting stored. That's why they're gaining the weight, because collectively, what we're saying is they're not eating the right amount of food to fuel the things that need to happen for them to lose the weight.

But let's unpack this, because a lot of people get tripped up. When we say you need to eat more food, or the right types of food, they get scared, because they think they're going to gain weight that way. Of course, because they have gained weight eating 1,200 calories, so they're going to think that.

Andrea: Well, it takes a lot of patience too, because it's not eat a thousand calories and the next day eat 2,000. That's setting yourself up for disaster, right? It has to be slow. It has to be patient. That's what's cool about a coach. They'll help you get there, and they'll help you understand that.

Nikkiey: Okay, let's piggyback off of that. How do you set and adjust macros? That's a question that came in. I want to start with you on this, Andrea, because I think you're incredible at helping women understand the difference between numbers that are just tracked and numbers that are strategically set. How would you break that down for someone?

Andrea: Tracking macros is a little bit tricky, but strategically setting them takes into account your height, your weight, your goals, whether you've been dieting for a long period of time. That's going to adjust what the macros should be. Anyone can go to a macro calculator online, type it in, and it'll shoot out some macros, but that doesn't mean they're going to work for your body or your goals. You have to take those key things into account and then realize that's not the Bible. Your body's adjusting, so your macros need to adjust too, especially if you're experiencing burnout or fatigue.

That's when it's like, hey, you need some more carbohydrates; that's why you're experiencing that. Or if you have some sort of hormonal fluctuation, you probably need some more fats, or maybe you do need more carbohydrates. It's having that knowledge and understanding of how macros are helping my hormones: I'll have fewer perimenopause symptoms if I do this. It seems simple, right? Eat more fat, and now my hormones feel better. That's the difference: having that base knowledge.

I think what's cool is we're teaching that knowledge too. We're not just giving someone a set of macros and saying, here you go, figure it out after this. It's, how do you do it for your whole life? How have I done it for seven years? You have to be willing to adjust.

Nikkiey: I love that. I love making it known why it's important how you're setting the protein, fats and carbs. And then I want to pass it to you, Maggie. You work with a ton of women who are underfeeding themselves and/or afraid of carbs. What does that look like when you're trying to bring somebody into the macro world and you're like, hey, I need you to eat 150 grams of carbs? How do you help them adjust?

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Maggie: The first thing I do is make them track religiously for at least a week. I like two weeks, and I take an average to see what they're actually bringing in. I tell them, don't diet, don't do anything different, which is hard when you're tracking, because all of a sudden you start paying attention. But I want a baseline. Then I can see, okay, maybe they're not that bad. Maybe they're at 1,400, 1,500. That's a good starting place. Then I can show them where it's falling. Look at your protein, look at your carbs, look at your fat.

What's always amazing to me is that we can keep them at the exact same calories, because they'll freak out at first. I'll say, okay, you've been at 1,500 calories. Let's keep you at 1,500 calories, but they're going to be made up of this. And without a doubt, within two days, it's, I'm eating so much. Yet they're eating the exact same amount of calories. The satiety is mind-blowing. They can't believe it.

Nikkiey: Mind-blowing. It's crazy when you put it that way.

Quick break. If you're finding this episode helpful so far, it would mean a lot if you could hit pause for just a second, leave a quick rating or review, or share it with someone who could benefit from it. Your support helps more women discover these tools to build muscle, lose fat and feel confident. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey with me.

I also want to piggyback on what you said at the beginning, Andrea, to close the loop on adjusting macros. It's important for women to understand that you don't just go from 1,200 calories to 1,900 calories in one sitting, because that can be really scary. Someone's going to think, I'm going to jump up this much food, I'm going to gain weight. There's a strategic process to it. That's why I think we can all agree it's important to work with a coach on this. You're not just going in blind following a macro calculator, and then three to six weeks in, the macros stop working, you're left in a loophole and you don't know what to do next. That's why it's really important to hire somebody who knows how to help you along the way. With adjusting macros, you slowly and strategically add anywhere from 50 to 150 calories, depending on how your body takes it. I don't know about you guys, but it mainly comes from the carbs and the fats, because the protein number is already plugged in and we're having them hit it. Then you watch the biofeedback of the body: how they're sleeping, their moods, their energy improving, all of the things. And if their body's holding well, then you're good to go for the next increase. You strategically get up there in weeks, not one sitting.

And as I'm saying this, I want you to know that macros aren't static. Even though I'm saying there's a starting point, and you could find a macro calculator and try to start, I'll tell you, you're going to be so confused, and it may not even be the right macros for you. It's all based on what your starting point is. Then you need to adjust the macros as your body responds: the biofeedback, the strength, the hunger, the stress, all the things. And there's something really cool the three of us have worked on together. It's a step-by-step program called the Macro Method, and we can literally help you step by step with education to understand what macros are and how to implement them into your journey. I firmly believe this is the education most women never got but desperately needed. We're linking it in the description below. Definitely check it out.

Anyway, I wanted to go to a funny question we got: what brand of bagels? I don't know if you guys eat bagels, but you know that I have eaten bagels... Do you eat bagels or you don't eat bagels? I missed that.

Maggie: I don't. I said you always eat bagels, because I see them on your story.

Nikkiey: I have had a bagel, I think, every single day for the last two years. I don't know if that's eternally good for my body, but it's a carb that I need to get in my day. My blood work's been fine. Andrea, do you eat bagels?

Andrea: I eat them once in a while. It kind of depends. I'll get that craving for a bagel. I like Dave's Killer ones. I just look for whole wheat or the less processed stuff. But I have my own breakfast that I'm obsessed with, and it's rye toast, or sourdough.

Nikkiey: Actually, that's a good question for us to answer. The breakfast questions. Really quick, that's the same brand I love to use. And I just love how detailed you guys are with the Instagram stories. You pay attention to all those little things. But I love that I can say you can fit a bagel into your macros. You can make it work. On that note, what is your favorite breakfast, Andrea?

Andrea: For the past seven years it's pretty much always been eggs. I'll do two eggs and a cup of whites, so it's super easy to get protein. Then I'll do peanut butter, cacao nibs and pumpkin seeds or coconut flakes, typically on sourdough bread or rye bread.

That's made in Wegmans over here, and it's really good for my gut health. I've noticed the processed wheat breads are the ones that give me all the bloating, and I thought, oh, I can't have bread. But no, I just have to use the more natural stuff. That's what it's about. So I load all that on the bread, put my egg on top, and eat that. And on the weekends, I'll have waffles.

Nikkiey: The Kodiak ones?

Andrea: Yeah, the Kodiak ones are so good. I'll have those and put frozen cherries on them that I thaw. So my syrup is just cherries. And then the eggs again, with peanut butter and the cacao nibs.

Maggie: You guys and your morning carbs.

Andrea: Once you like it, you don't need to change.

Nikkiey: Oh, hey, Maggie, I just heard you there. Do you not have morning carbs? Tell us why.

Maggie: I'm not telling.

Andrea: Yes, please do.

Maggie: I'm not telling any of you.

Nikkiey: Why? Well, you could just say your first meal is later.

Maggie: Listen to me. I really struggle with insulin resistance. My insulin and my blood glucose get out of control very easily. So especially in the morning, I have to be very careful with carbohydrates. It kind of throws me off for the day. I didn't used to be this way; it's really been the last five, six years. And if I think, oh, I'm going to start implementing a little more carbs, without a doubt my A1C goes up.

And I track. I wear a continuous glucose monitor, so I have to be careful of that. So I'm a little jealous.

Nikkiey: But I love that you're highlighting that. Over the last five to six years, what did you notice that somebody else should pay attention to? What did you notice symptomatically that made you realize this?

Maggie: The first time I put on a continuous glucose monitor was the most eye-opening thing I ever did. It explained so much, and I learned so much about my body.

And that's why I did it, because my A1C was up at, I think, 6.7. I was pre-diabetic. That was before I had lost all the weight. I thought, once I get the weight down, I'll be fine. So I started putting them on occasionally, just to check in with myself. And even being this lean and this fit, I have to be super careful, because it really wants to climb back up there very quickly.

Even with the amount of muscle I have, I just think it's part of being older. My estrogen has dropped, and you just don't have those receptors you used to have. So I have to watch out. But if I time them right and eat them at lunch and dinner, I usually sleep a little better. If I'm going to up my carbohydrates, it's usually paired with protein, and usually at dinner. And it helps. Thyroid-wise too, I do a little bit better. So I just have to be strategic and time them a little better. Morning is not a good time for mine; it throws me off for the day.

Nikkiey: Understood. I love that you mentioned all of that, because it's really important to learn and understand that as you get older, things change. Not a lot of women understand the internal changes that are happening. They're just dealing with the symptomatic side of them.

Maggie: Yeah. And when people see what I eat, they're like, you eat so much fat. Yes, because fat doesn't raise my insulin. I metabolize fat much better than I do carbohydrates. So I get my extra calories with a little higher fat than most people probably do. And I feel better. My hormones are better.

Nikkiey: I prefer the fats. Give me all the fats. It's crazy that I'm saying that, though, because a couple of years ago I'd have been like, give me all the carbs. But now it's give me all the fats.

Andrea: I think it's about being open to change, right? Maggie's listening to her body as she's aging. You have to understand it's a process. We have to be open to new things. Maybe right now I don't need to, but maybe in the future I'll need to change. So that's important.

Maggie: Yeah. And especially when you have that data. It's so cool that we have these wearables now, but they're not for everyone. If you don't understand what your blood sugar is doing, it's just going to stress you out. Don't go throw one on if you have no idea how to read that data. When I exercise, my glucose will spike to 170 without me eating any sugar. That's just what your body does. So many people panic: there's something wrong with me. No, that's your body doing what it's supposed to do. So don't go throw one on unless you know what you're doing or have a coach to help you through it.

Nikkiey: And what's cool too, the overall message right now, is that the ways we first started working out and first started eating are not how we eat or train now. It is an evolution of a journey.

You don't do the same workout plan or the same macro numbers forever. You have to evolve. It has to evolve with you as you change and grow and get older.

Maggie: Absolutely. And that's why you have to stay in the know. You have to stay educated, because new studies are coming out all the time as well. There are new studies, your body's changing, and you've got to put it together.

Nikkiey: This is actually a good segue into the next question, and I love this one because I think we can clear up some confusion women have. The question was: is my metabolism actually slowing down, or is that a myth? So many women automatically assume that their metabolism slowing down means their body is shutting down. But that's not how metabolism works. Maggie, I want you to start us off here because you explain this really well. Is it a myth? How can women understand what's happening to our metabolism as we get older?

Maggie: Studies actually show that your metabolism doesn't really budge from about age 20 to, I think they said, age 64. That's when you actually start to see a little bit of change. I think that's what the studies show. So granted, your body is showing all the signs of a slowed metabolism, but it isn't actually a slowed metabolism. It's a loss of muscle, because from age 35 on, you're losing about 1% unless you are intentional about keeping your muscle.

The less muscle you have, the less of a glucose sink you have to use that extra energy. That is what's happening. It's not your metabolism slowing down or your body being broken. You are simply losing muscle and bone mass. Bone is metabolically active tissue as well. So when you're losing bone and you're losing muscle, where is it going to go? Your visceral and subcutaneous fat, and your liver.

So fatty liver disease and all that fun stuff is because you're losing muscle and bone. Your body's not broken. You've got to put on muscle. Everything you do should be muscle-centric. Everything.

Nikkiey: I feel like I just need to do a mic drop. If I had a full-blown mic right now, I'd just drop it. I hope you rewind that and listen to it again, because that was a lot of knowledge packed into a two-minute answer.

Maggie: Sorry.

Nikkiey: Oh no, that was great. People need to understand that about metabolism. Andrea, do you think she missed anything, or is there anything you want to tack on?

Andrea: No, that is right on point. Muscle is our safety net as we age. It really is. And bone density: you've got to get in some impact somehow to keep those bones strong.

Nikkiey: You've seen it firsthand.

Maggie: Wait, me or Andrea?

Nikkiey: Andrea. Firsthand with her body. She may not have survived, or come out as strong as she has from that accident, without preloading her body with strong muscle and bone. Isn't that what the doctor said to you, from what you were wearing that day?

Andrea: Yeah. I could have died on impact, because I had a lacerated spleen. I was wearing a leather coat, and that kind of cushioned the impact just with that alone. But my knee, the tibial plateau, completely shattered. It was horrifying to see.

It was like potato chips. You didn't even see a bone anymore. They had to use cadaver bone to rebuild it. And just the fact that they said, you're lucky that you've been in the best shape of your life. To me, I have that passion: train in the good seasons of your life. Train when you can, because you never know when you're going to need that muscle for something. I didn't think I was going to have to recover like that for the last two years. This is the third year now. But if you're able to walk, if you're able to lift, that is a blessing you should take advantage of now.

Maggie: Oh, absolutely. Look at cancer, even. For one, the more muscle you have, the more metabolically fit you are, and the less likely you are to get cancer. But if you still happen to get cancer, your percentage of survivability goes up exponentially, because you're just stronger. My 22-year-old son was diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin lymphoma, and he was in the best shape.

He was strong. He was muscular. He stayed strong through all of his treatments. His body didn't break down. He got back to normal, which I'm so blessed by. I skipped all the sad parts, but he had a strong, resilient body, because it was always so important to him to keep muscle on his body as a 22-year-old. Sorry, I can't think of the word right now, but just what it does to your bones, your muscle, all of your tissue.

If you are metabolically fit and have muscle, your survivability just goes up. I think it's like 50%.

Nikkiey: I love that. We've gotten on this muscle-centric path from the really short answer you gave about metabolism slowing down: what happens is you're just losing muscle over time. And this is really cool from different perspectives: one with your son, and one with your actual physical experience, Andrea.

And for me, my perspective is I worked in the emergency room. I saw women coming in, and I took care of my grandmother when she was sick and had a stroke, and that woman never worked out a day in her life. I saw the effects of not having muscle in your body, not just on your metabolism, but on your physical strength. There were so many hip fractures on a daily basis, women coming in after falling and breaking an arm or a leg. They're so fragile. And like Tony Robbins says, you can just look at somebody and know how they live their life.

You know these women didn't work out a day in their life. So take into consideration that answer plus the muscle-centric avenue we just went down. If you're listening right now and you don't work out, ladies, I think it's really important to focus on, and I think you'd agree, not just going to F45 or Orangetheory. Those things are okay. But really hone in on strength training, getting into the weight room, the machine room, the barbell room, and using that equipment to build muscle.

That's going to make you physically stronger, and in turn it's going to boost your metabolism. It's going to make it stronger. It's going to make it faster. And it's going to get the results women want.

Maggie: We haven't even touched on what you need for stimulus, how uncomfortable that needs to feel.

Nikkiey: Oh, right. The stress on your body.

Maggie: What does Dr. Vonda Wright say? She calls them the namby-pamby pink weights. That's not going to cut it. Good for you, you're doing something fantastic, but you've got to force your body to adapt.

Nikkiey: You can't just go like this. If you're not watching the video, I'm just going through the motions. You can't just go through the motions in your workout. You actually have to make ugly faces and grunt. You have to sweat. If you're having a conversation during your set, or at the end you don't feel a burn, then what's actually happening? It doesn't count until you start feeling the burn.

Maggie: I think so many women don't realize what that feels like, and it's scary to them. They start getting to that point and they're like, ooh.

Nikkiey: Okay. I'm sure there are two questions that stem from that, so maybe we can branch off. Women are either, one, afraid to get into the gym. They're afraid to use the weights and afraid to step into the area where the men are. And two, when we want them to lift heavy, they're afraid to get injured. How can we answer those two things? Let's start with confidence in the gym first.

Maggie: Just walk in there, ladies. Just get it done.

Andrea: If I were speaking to a woman who's maybe always done group classes, I would say grab one of your friends and just have fun in there. Try out all the machines, because with the machines it's hard to hurt yourself. So try the machines and get familiar with how they're used, or ask one of the trainers. They always provide those free consultations, and the trainers will show you the form. Once you have the form, you're going to have more confidence because you know what to do. You'll have a plan in there instead of walking around. Nobody wants to be that girl fumbling with the machine. I still get embarrassed in new gyms when I have no idea how to work a machine. It never goes away, actually.

Maggie: That's a new machine. You've got to learn new stuff. Rip the Band-Aid off.

Nikkiey: For me, the confidence at the beginning came from getting the plan from my coach. At the end of the day, y'all, just get a coach, like you're saying. They're going to help you even if they're not there in the gym with you. I'd read the plan, because it was all in email form, and I'd be like, I don't know what this exercise is. I have no idea what this means. I'd go to YouTube and watch the demonstration of the exercise. Then in my brain, I'm like, okay, cool, I can go in the gym and do that. That gave me the confidence: oh, I know what I'm doing. I can walk into the gym and do that exercise.

Andrea: Absolutely. It may take time to get used to, but at least you're figuring it out.

Maggie: And once you're in there, you realize no one's looking at you. They're all looking at themselves in the mirror. They don't care what you're doing. They're not even watching you.

Nikkiey: I used to wear a hat just to help. I wish I still had that hat. I had it for a really long time, and it was a blinder for me. Even if you thought people were looking at you, I couldn't see anybody. I was just in my own space, and it helped.

Andrea: That's a great idea.

Maggie: I don't watch anyone else, so I know they're not watching me.

Nikkiey: Okay, what about the injury side of things? How can we help women when we tell them we want them to squat and they say, oh, I don't have a spotter? Or we want them to pick up the heavier weight, and they're nervous. What would you guys say to them?

Andrea: Perfect your form. Form is key. Even those who have a coach say, oh, I would never film myself. Filming myself at the beginning helped me realize how obvious it was that my form was off. In your head, you think, I can squat. Then you see yourself and it looks nothing like the video on YouTube. So that's a simple way: for the ones you're not sure of, film yourself, or have someone check your form in person.

Once you have the form down, it's harder to get hurt. And don't be afraid to drop weight. Be patient, because you know how fast women try to go: okay, I've got to lift heavy, I'm going to go up 20, 30 pounds every week. It's too fast. You've got to be patient for that muscle growth. Right, Maggie? It takes a while.

Maggie: A long, long time. And you don't have to squat. There are plenty of other options. That's another good reason to have a coach.

If you say, hey, my back bothers me, there are so many other options to get the same stimulus without putting that pressure on your back. If you love squatting, go for it. That's great. Some people's bodies handle it better. Some do not. And if you haven't lifted, or you do have back problems, there are options.

Andrea: I'm not supposed to deadlift anymore with how my legs are different now. But there are other ways, right? It's having that knowledge of how to correct it.

Nikkiey: I love that you guys brought that up: Maggie with the squat thing, and Andrea, how you don't have to deadlift. I didn't use a barbell or go to the free weights for the first two years of my bodybuilding career. I used a Smith machine. It helps correct the form. It helps you stay in the right position, rather than a free-weight barbell where you could easily swivel and lose that good form. So glad you guys brought that up.

Okay, the next question is a pretty good one. Maggie, I want you to take it first, because I believe you'll break it down really well, especially for women who rely on walking on a treadmill for their cardio. The question was: is walking on an incline more effective at burning fat than not on an incline?

Maggie: It depends on who you are.

Nikkiey: I love that answer.

Maggie: There are so many layers. Let me figure out your story first. This is the huge cardio onion. So, okay: you're a sedentary person. You have a desk job. You haven't moved forever. Just walking at a little bit faster pace than your average walk through the mall is going to get you right where you need to be. If you're someone who is extra, extra fit and needs a little more stimulus, you're going to need a little bit of an incline.

Part of this is being familiar with what happens to your body and what fuel sources you're burning based on what zone you're in. We can talk about zones one, two, three, four and five. Some people even use six. And you can do the math. It's like 220 minus your age.

Andrea: I've seen zone six lately.

Maggie: We've got to talk to Peter about that. You can do all that, but the easiest way is just to do the talk test.

Honestly, are you going to burn fat just doing low steady state? Yes. You're hardly using any glucose at all. Your body's going to be able to use that harder-to-reach source, which is fat. So no, you don't need an incline. Some people do. So where are you at? Are you able to talk? Is your heart rate too high? Is your neighbor next to you, and you're huffing and puffing and can't talk to her? Then you're burning glucose.

You're not really burning fat. You're in the zone where your body needs extra, quick fuel, and you're burning sugar. And if you're doing that for a long time and you run out, it's going to start to break down some muscle. So you want to stay in a fat-burning zone for your body, and that's going to be different based on your cardiovascular fitness.

Nikkiey: Love that. There was a question I think is really important. I don't think I've really talked about it on episodes before, and I'd love the perspective of the three of us to come together to help the woman who asked it. I'll share my perspective first before I pass it to you guys: postpartum macros and losing baby weight while exclusively breastfeeding. People wanting to lose that baby weight while breastfeeding. It's interesting this question came up, because some of my friends have just had babies and have been asking me what they should do in this season and how they should diet. And my response is: this is not the time for aggressive dieting.

A lot of women think they need to eat less, eat less, eat less. This is my perspective and understanding, even though I've never had a baby, but I've coached a lot of people who have. And you guys have had your fair share of babies, so I'll pass it to you. But your body's healing. Your hormones are shifting. Everything is at work, and you're producing milk, which requires energy. The priority is fueling your body appropriately so it can support both your supply and your recovery. I've always told women to pay attention to what they're eating and eat more.

Now, when I say eat more, I mean eat more of the right types of foods. Typically I tell women, if they're tracking, to add about 500 more calories, because they are burning that many more calories while they're breastfeeding. I'd love your input, from your coaching experience with women and/or your own experience having babies.

Maggie: Your body's going to prioritize that baby's health. It's going to take from your body what it needs to help that baby grow. So if you're not giving your body enough, it'll start taking your muscle. It'll start taking your bone. Your teeth are going to start falling out. It's all kinds of fun.

Nikkiey: Oh God. Really?

Maggie: Yeah. And the building blocks of this tissue are amino acids. And where do amino acids come from? You're going to hear it again: you need to up your protein. Nursing moms need to up their protein. That's the building block for this tissue. That baby's going to get what it needs no matter what. It's going to take the hydration; your body was built to make this baby grow. So give your body what it needs so you can still thrive as you're nursing.

Nikkiey: Anything from you, Andrea?

Andrea: Well, I've had four kids, and I wanted to breastfeed them as long as possible. Your body's going to tell you if you're not eating enough, because your milk supply will drop. That's the most important thing. Do you want to breastfeed? That's the best for your baby, and if you want to do that, watch your food, eat well and listen to your body during that time. Every single time, I noticed a trend: it took about six months before my body was okay with releasing that last 10 to 15 pounds. So I just focused on strength training and on listening to my body. I had a C-section, so you just walk. It's good.

But to add to that: harsh workouts. I couldn't nurse after a harsh workout. With the lactic acid, my babies would get sick. So I'd have to pump and dump, because of what your body releases with really harsh workouts. So you have to be careful.

Nikkiey: Interesting. Is that for an extended period of time, for the duration of the entire time?

Andrea: People are probably different. It was really an issue for me if I went for a hard run or sprint, really a harsh workout, or if my body was really sore. So you just need to be more gentle with your body when you're nursing.

Nikkiey: Interesting. Well, this is great. I'm taking notes for when I have babies. I just hope I don't lose my teeth.

Maggie: You're healthy. You'll be fine. You might start getting weird cavities and stuff, though.

Andrea: I've had enough cavities. You can see my dark fillings. I have four or five now. And now the studies are showing how much hormone changes affect your teeth too.

Nikkiey: Sweet. I love that. This is the perfect question for us to close on, because it ties everything we've talked about together. It's also a misconception; women think they don't need these, and it drives me nuts. The question is: do rest days matter more in your forties, your fifties, as you get older?

The short answer is yes, but not for the reasons most women think. Personally, rest days are not about doing less. They're about creating the recovery your muscles and your nervous system actually need so the workouts can work, in my opinion. You go to the gym and break down the muscle. Outside the gym, you can do active rest days. It's not just about not working out.

You can go do a hike. You can do those things. You need less impact on your body during the recovery period, because the recovery period is where your body grows. Like I always say, you break it down in the gym, and you build it post-workout. Andrea, any additional comments on that one?

Andrea: No, I completely agree with that. And rest days are hard for me. They really are. Now that I'm in perimenopause, I see the difference. They matter even more, because as soon as I start to shorten my rest days, my perimenopause symptoms increase. I'm like, okay, that was the horrible trade-off. Let me rest more in between.

Nikkiey: Interesting.

Andrea: It really runs me down. I'm like, oh geez, I need a good rest day. Sometimes, based on my recovery, I'll have to move rest days. Sometimes I'll stack two together. I just know, because I start performing worse in the gym, my recovery is horrible, and I start to feel stressed out and overwhelmed.

That's completely hormonal. Maggie and I talked about ghrelin too. That's your hunger hormone. It's horribly affected if I'm overtraining. So if you want to stay lean, it's easier if you rest more.

Nikkiey: And for you, when you're overtraining, do you experience more hunger? Or are you not hungry at all?

Andrea: More hunger, more issues with temptation. Just eat all the sugar and never feel satisfied. And then I'm wired at night. I'm like, hold up.

Maggie: Kind of the opposite happens to me. When I'm really pushing hard in the gym, my leptin goes up, so I'm not as hungry. And then I know I'm not eating enough to keep that muscle. That actually happened to me. I did a challenge the last eight weeks, and it was really hard. I was like, I can't eat, I can't eat. And I thought, I'm doing all this work in the gym and I'm not hungry enough to get in the protein I need to actually benefit from these workouts. And I was shot. I had to back off a little, because my body was not responding.

Andrea: That's a good point to bring up, because a lot of women say they're never, ever hungry. Realizing that's a hormone you can help support is important.

Maggie: Yeah. And it depends on the exercise. Sometimes lifting will make that leptin go up, so that's why I'm not as hungry. And a lot of times with cardio, if you're doing more cardio, that's when your ghrelin goes up and you get a little more hungry, because you're really burning through the blood sugar. I grew up in the eighties, when you were just so terrified of gaining body fat that you'd think, I have to work out more, I have to keep going, let's ignore the hormones. But that's not true. That's the beauty of understanding macros and nutrition: you can rest a little more, work out a little less and still get results, even better ones. If this was 15 years ago, I would have been like, yay, I'm not hungry, I'm going to drop some weight. This time I was like, dang it, I should be building some major muscle with all this work I'm doing. So it was the opposite: I need to eat more. And it's so much better to be on that end of it and have that freedom. It's crazy to me.

Nikkiey: I notice it when I don't eat enough the day after lifting, on a recovery day. There have been some days where I'm like, shoot, I didn't eat enough. I am so sore it's unbearable. Oh my gosh, see, this is what happens. I didn't fuel my body enough to heal my muscles and grow my muscles. So now I'm stuck. They're just waiting, pulsating for food, and they're not able to grow and recover.

Maggie: Yep. That's a great point.

Andrea: Yeah. I'll feel really bloated and inflamed. And that's inflammation. It's not that I'm gaining body fat. Understanding that, your body is literally showing you it needs to slow down for a minute.

Nikkiey: Yes. Well, ladies, this was so much fun. Thank you for being here. Everyone listening, this wraps up our Q&A. I hope this episode answered the questions you brought us and, more importantly, gave you clarity on what actually moves the needle in your fitness journey. Once you understand what we talked about, the strategy, the implementation, the action steps when it comes to your macros and your workouts, you can start to change things, shift things and take action in your everyday journey.

And if you need more help, like we said multiple times, get a coach. I started my journey with a coach, and there were times when I was coaching and I still needed a coach. So if you're looking for a coach and you want to start 2026 strong, check out WarriorBabe and see if we'd be a fit to work together. Ladies, thank you so much. I love it when we can come together, be real, have fun, answer the questions and be honest with everybody listening.

Maggie: Thanks so much.

Andrea: All right. Oh, there goes my phone. Bye, everyone. Have a good night.

Nikkiey: Real quick. If this episode resonated with you or gave you the push you needed, I'd love for you to pay it forward. Drop a quick rating and review and share the podcast with someone who might need it. Your feedback not only helps the show grow, but it might just be the nudge someone else needs to kickstart their transformation. Thank you so, so, so much for your support.