Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi, welcome to It's a Kinetic thing with Karen K. I'm Karen. Today we're going to dive into the GLP1 weight loss shots.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: So for anyone new to the GLP1 conversation. What are the injections and how do they actually work?
[00:00:14] Speaker A: So they are actually peptides. The GLP stands for glucagon, like peptide. And they work in many ways, but the biggest things that it does is it lowers your insulin resistance. And so for many of us, our pancreas is making a normal amount of insulin, but for whatever reason, our cell isn't letting that insulin inside the cell to do its job, which is to help you burn your food as fuel and not store it as fat. And so when we get insulin resistance, that insulin doesn't get in the cell, we don't burn food efficiently, and we start to store fat. So if we lower that insulin resistance, that insulin gets in the cell, it does its job. So that's the big thing. And why it was developed was for like type 2 diabetics, because they're all insulin resistant. The other thing they found kind of as a side effect is it slows your GI system down so you get full faster and you stay full much longer, which helps put you in a calorie deficit so that you're losing weight.
And then we also know that it works on the pleasure centers in our brain that makes us crave things like carbs and chocolate and, and things like that. So it help quiet cravings. And so they're actually using it now in addiction medicine for some, some providers are finding it very useful in addiction medicine because again, it's craving that feedback, you know, it's curbing that craving for something bad for you that you know is bad, but you still want it, you know, so it helps really good with that. You know, they're finding other things every day. Improved sleep apnea, better kidney function, better cardiovascular function. I mean, it's, it's just running a gamut. But big things, especially for people trying to lose weight, they're going to get full faster, stay full longer, burn their food more efficiently, store less fat, quiet that food noise of cravings.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: I think the biggest exciting thing for me listening to that is the fact that it helps with your insulin resistance because I think so many women have, especially women I feel like, have suffered for so many years because they. Everything they tried never worked because they weren't fixing the metabolic issue.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: Why do you think it's become such big part of modern medicine? Is it that metabolic help or.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: It is. And you know, that's probably all the other good effects that we're seeing, like improvement in your kidney function, improvement in your cardiovascular function, decreased obstructive sleep apnea. All that comes from lowering that insulin resistance and improving your metabolic health.
[00:02:50] Speaker B: Then I think the flip side of that is you still have to eat healthy. You still have to work on a program. It's not take the shot and you're golden.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: Yeah, we have so many people coming in with unreal, unrealistic expectations that it's just a magic shot. And my friend took it and she lost eight pounds and she didn't change a thing.
Well, you have to be in a calorie deficit or you're not going to lose weight, period. If your body burns 1800 calories a day and you're putting in 2000 calories, you're not going to lose weight. In fact, you're probably going to gain weight. The thing it is, is this tool to make it so much easier to be in a calorie deficit because you're not starving. You don't feel like you want to gnaw your arm off or eat everything in sight.
So calorie deficit is key to any weight loss. It just is a tool to make it less painful.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: But I do think there's so many people out there. I had a guy here that I had a meeting with, and his friend's wife was on the shots, and I don't know which one she was taking, but he goes, she eats Mexican food every single day, and she just dropping weight like crazy. Well, it's those kind of people that actually run it for the people that struggle anyway, because it's. It is a diet. You still have to eat right?
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Right. You still have to eat right. And yes, she may be eating Mexican food every day, and she may have always ate Mexican, but I guarantee you she's eating a quarter of the Mexican food she was eating. Right? And, you know, if all you care about is the number on the scale, then, yeah, you're going to go ahead and eat Mexican food every day. But if what you're trying to do is be metabolically healthier, then, yes, you need to change some dietary habits.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: I think that's the best news, is that it actually, if you really focus on the right stuff, it actually sets you up for when you're not on the shop because you've started eating healthy and you've got a program in place.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: You started eating less, you've started concentrating on getting your protein before. Before you eat anything else in your Diet. So yeah, it does help you build healthy habits while you're doing them.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: So I want to talk about the people buying them online because that seems to be a big thing. I saw something recently that they've got. All those people got a letter from the FDA saying stop doing that because they're not legal.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: So talk about that a little bit.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: Well, a lot of the peptides, including the GLP1 weight loss shots that are out there online, there's. There's a couple issues with them. One, you don't know where they're made, you don't know what they're really made of. You don't know what kind of quality quality control is in place. Are they, you know, every batch being sent out for independent testing to make sure it's the right potency, it's pure, it's sterile because you're injecting this into your bloodstream. And so those are a big part of the issues is not knowing the sterility, the potency, the purity of it. The other thing is these online providers to send you a vial and let you figure out what to do with it. Well, that's not really healthy. You know, if your friend, say, has lost 80 pounds taken tirzepatide mongero zepbound at 12 and a half milligrams a week, you might just decide, I'm going to take 12 and a half milligrams a week. That is like six times the starting dose. And you're very likely to either end up with a bowel blockage or intractable nausea and vomiting team. Because it's way too big a dose, way too fast. You know, the whole goal is that you take this minimum, the smallest dose that you need for the results that you need.
You know, the other problem with that is, let's say if you have no idea what, what you're losing. You know, one of the big negative connotations with the weight loss shots is that people are losing so much lean muscle mass and not losing fat. Well, that comes because you're not getting any dietary counseling. You don't have clue how many grams of protein your body needs a day. And so it does happen. So a lot of people get what they call OIC phase, OIC hair loss. All of that is not the meds. It's the fact that you're getting inadequate protein stores the majority of those side effects and you're losing muscle mass, you're not losing fat. So if you're not getting a true body composition analysis and you're not getting dietary about how many grams of protein you need. And if you don't have somebody following you saying, gosh, yes, you lost 10 pounds, but it was all, all muscle mass and you didn't drop any fat, we need to dial back your dose, then you know, you're just making yourself more unhealthy.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: I think the scary thing about that too is you've got so many influencers out there pushing those peptides that are coming from who knows where that they even say on there for research purposes only, not for human consumption.
And then they're pushing those saying, well, they have to say that. And it's scary to me the number of people that are buying them because it's less expensive.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: Yeah, but they're putting who knows what.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: Who knows what in their bodies. Yeah, you've mentioned this a tiny bit, but everyone talks about weight loss. But what other benefits do you see from the GLP? 1 therapy, like heart issues and.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: Yeah, just see an improved cardiovascular health. Like I said, people have obstructive sleep apnea. I. It's most likely the fact that they've lost weight, not just the shot itself that's causing improvement in sleep apnea. Same when you lower your insulin resistance, your kidney. Kidneys don't have to work so hard. So it's really great for people with renal insufficiency, kidney insufficiency, they're finding that it is very helpful. And then as I said before, they're starting to use it some in addiction medicine to quiet that noise of wanting that alcohol or that drug or whatever.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: I had someone that was an addict that had recovered for many, many years. But she said that in one of her therapy things with her counselor said if you start craving alcohol, you're actually craving the sugar from the alcohol and eat a candy and that will crave that desire for alcohol. So it makes sense that that would actually crave it is going to help with all of that.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: Yeah, a lot of things, you know, it's, it's, it's a dopamine response. If your body has taught itself positive feedback. I feel better, I'm having a lousy day. I eat a candy bar, I take a drink, I feel better. And so you start craving that more and more. So if you can quiet that little thing in your head to quit saying that, then it definitely does help. And sometimes you can substitute one thing the other. Of course, if you eat 10 candy bars a day, that's not great.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: You're not going to lose weight.
[00:09:15] Speaker B: That's true. And you've talked about. Why is medical supervision so important when we start? So you talk about the scale that you guys have, because that really does make a difference.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: So we have a stichu. It's a body composition scale. It not only tells you, you know, what your weight is, but how many pounds of that is fat versus how many pounds is lean muscle. And then calculates what your body fat percentage is. It also calcul your basal metabolic rate, which is how many calories your particular body burns if you were just laid in a bed all day at rest.
And so with that, armed with that information, we can tell you how many grams of protein you need a day, how, how many calories you should be eating a day, and then give you some dietary tips to go along with that. You know, that's really important. It also measures you from neck to calf, and it tracks your measurements and things over time. So we can see what percentage of body fat you've dropped, how many pounds of fat you've dropped, how many inches you've dropped right in your belly versus your high hip, your low hip, your calf. So we can watch all of that and track your progress and put those first measurement, last measurement up side by side and then make adjustments in your care based on what we're seeing.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: I love the that it gives you an outline of your body from your original size. And to watch that as it goes gets smaller and smaller and smaller as you lose weight. Yeah, that's got to be motivating.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: It does a 3D picture picture of yourself, which no one likes because it's very unflattering. You can see every roll and wrinkle and dent. But then it also does a silhouette. And then as you go along, it starts putting new silhouettes inside the old silhouette. And so it's really fun to see see them side by side.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: That first scale picture is shocking. It's ugly because you see yourself so differently in the mirror. And then when it's right there in black and white, you're like, oh, my gosh.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. It's really funny. I tell people all the time, it's probably too much information, but the first time I got on it, I did not realize higher one breast was than the other. But you can really see all of.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: That, which is funny because you don't see it in person. Yeah, but it shows so. Shows so much.
[00:11:27] Speaker A: It really does. You got to prepare yourself for that. First time somebody has the belly button hernia, you can see it like, I don't see it in their Clothes. But you can see it on that scan. It really crazy. Shows everything. Yeah.
[00:11:39] Speaker B: But it's so motivational, though, when you see that, when you, you know, see the before and after and watching that size go down.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: Yeah, it is very motivating.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: Specific areas, too. Well, where do you see the GLP1 therapy going in the future?
[00:11:54] Speaker A: I think it's going to become widespread mainstream medicine. I think in the next few years you're going to see more insurance carriers covering it and more, you know, less having to pay cash out of pocket for it. I think the cost eventually will come down, especially as they're developing newer, better, improved versions every day.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: And the good news is they can get it from you without insurance and pay cash.
[00:12:21] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's much less expensive than if you went into your primary care and your insurance didn't cover it. And you were buying the brand name versus a compounded version.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: Right.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: And it's the same product, same, same exact active ingredient. Usually when compound, we'll add some other ingredients, things like fat burners or B12, metabolism boosters, some things that help with side effects and help make it more effective. Plus we can be much more customizable to your dose when we compound versus, you know, the brand names, they just have four set doses and you have to go from one to another. You can't go halfway in between if.
[00:13:00] Speaker B: That'S all you need, especially if you have side effects. That would be really tough.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:04] Speaker B: That your only option is that dose.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: Regardless of how you feel.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: You said it's a peptide. And obviously peptides are becoming more and more popular. How do you. How do you. How does the GLP1s fit into that bigger picture of all the peptides?
[00:13:17] Speaker A: So peptides all are just short chains of amino acids that your body produce naturally.
Insulin's the first peptide that we've identified. You know, it's been around, I don't know, 80 years now, but people think of it as a drug. They don't think of it as a peptide, but it is a peptide because it's naturally produced in your pancreas. Your body has a use for it. And just in the last five years or so, we're starting to be able to identify more simple chains of amino acids, be able to replicate them, be able to figure out how much is the right amount for your body and then know what they're doing and be able to compound them and use them, too.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: I think the great thing about peptides and even the GLP1s is it really focuses in on the issue?
[00:14:08] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: And you don't have side effects outside of fixing the problem?
[00:14:12] Speaker A: Yeah, very few side effects with peptides because again, your body's making them anyway. And we're just figuring out, like you said, they each have their specific things that they do, some kind of overlap each other. But like, you know, if you're looking for building muscle, burning fat, you might do this peptide. If you're losing, wanted to lose weight, lower your insulin resistance, might use this peptide. If you're having a lot of achy joints or you've had a soft tissue or even a, a fracture of a bone, we use this peptide to heal faster. So there, there are a lot of different peptides there some out there for anxiety. They're kind of a natural form of an antianxiety. There's some that help for people that chronically can't sleep. So a lot safer, a lot fewer side effects, a lot less risk of addiction and things with the peptides.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: If someone's considering GLP1 therapy, what is the smartest first step they should take?
[00:15:05] Speaker A: I should get a consultation with a very knowledgeable provider of those you don't want.
And not to bash. There's some great primary care physicians out there that know a lot about it and are great and helpful, but there's a lot of them that really don't know and they don't have the proper tools to monitor you. And, you know, again, making sure you're losing the right kind of weight, you're losing fat and not muscle. So make a consult with a reputable provider, get all your questions answered, know what the side effects are, because there are side effects to them. Most of them can be mitigated, but you need to be prepared for it. Know what potential side effects are and how to overcome those.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: And then what is what happens when someone stops taking it?
[00:15:53] Speaker A: So your could, your insulin resistance could definitely go back up so that you're not burning your food as efficiently. You know, the ideal is we get you down to your goal weight, we have lowered your insulin resistance. The lower your weight is, the closer it is to an ideal body weight, the more fuel efficient your body is.
Hopefully you've had some months of building new habits where you're eating better, eating your protein first, avoiding, you know, so many carbs, getting plenty of water, things like that, so that we can get you off the meds and you not gain all the weight right back. You know, honestly, for me, what I've seen is my people that tried to do it with no dietary changes whatsoever. Your Friend that ate Mexican food every day. She really didn't change anything except the amount she was eating. Once that slow digestion goes away, with the meds worn off, they're gonna go back to eating what they've always ate. And those are the people that are gonna regain all their weight and then some versus my people that have really concentrated on smaller meals, more frequent meals, focusing on protein, focusing on getting their water. They tend to do very well coming off the meds or going down to what we call a micro dose, which is the smallest or half of the small dose, smallest dose just to help keep the food noise quiet.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: And then I hear so many people microdosing for. Not because they need to lose weight, because they really don't need to lose weight and they don't want to lose weight, but for all the other benefits that it provides.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: Yeah, it does have some anti inflammatory benefits. So people with autoimmune disorders are finding it very good to micro dose. I'm seeing people that have a lot of anxiety, depression, they're, they're again working on that dopamine center in their brain. They feel like they don't need this, the antidepressants, anti anxiety meds, nearly as much. So they're doing microdoses. My people have lost all their weight and just want to keep it off, are doing really well on microdosing. And even, you know, I've had a few that just needed to lose ten pounds but they'd done everything and they couldn't get it off. And just micro dosing has done great for them too.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: Well. And I think you feel better on it anyway, all over just. I do. Because of the inflammation. Probably.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: Think it helps you sleep better. I think there's so many other benefits to it.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah.
[00:18:19] Speaker B: Besides the weight loss.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: A lot of people see, like you said, psychological mental benefits to it as well. Like you said, people got some people that just craved alcohol and they, it's really quiet in their alcohol cravings. So there may be a lot of reasons for microdosing, which is another reason. And you know, you can't microdose, unfortunately the brand name, they just, they don't.
[00:18:39] Speaker B: Have it set up that way.
[00:18:40] Speaker A: They don't have it set up that way.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Well, and I think the thing I've learned from you so much with the shots and just in general being healthy is that the diets that we've all known all of our lives as women and it seems like women just are always on a diet because we just, it takes us so much longer to lose weight. We really didn't understand our bodies and how weight loss works and what causes weight loss and weight gain. And so just the fact that it does take protein. There's so many other factors besides just eating lettuce.
We all lived on when I was the culprit of that for years. Which kills your metabolism.
[00:19:16] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:19:16] Speaker B: There's so much more that I've learned just from you that that's the benefit of coming to someone like you because of the knowledge about more than just taking the shot.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: Yeah, anybody can just go jam a needle once a week but if you're not doing anything else, you're, you might lose a little weight. You're not going to lose your potential and you're going to gain it back as soon as you stop the shot. So you've got to change habits.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: Well, and the protein for everything as, as we age is even more important just for aging too. And longevity and the muscle mass and.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: Yeah, muscle's the currency of good aging. If you want to be rich as far as your physical health when you age, you need muscle mass, you need to be lifting, you need to be focusing on your protein otherw otherwise you are going to lose all your muscle mass. And so yeah, we for years put women on cabbage diets and soup diets and just eat salad and that's not the answer at all. You can.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: And now knowing that it's bigger than that, it's like, man, we've wasted so many years and did some damage to our bodies. I'm sure we did metabolism wise and otherwise from eating like that. I think the other thing that I love about you guys is that you not only are you experts on weight loss, but you're also experts on all the other peptides. And so you can add other peptides to help some of the other issues going along with that particular person based on the blood work that you get.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Back and yeah, whether it's, you know, for some people, I would say I've no, I've heard more in men. They're very unhappy. They lose strength. If they're big workout guys and start the GLP1s they're like, I just can't lift anything at the gym anymore. So we can put a different peptide that helps retain muscle mass, helps you recover quicker. That might be an answer. You're extremely insulin resistant but not quite diabetic. Don't need to be on a full blown diabetic regimen, but maybe we add a peptide like MOT c to help further lower your insulin resistance to Help you help the GLP one shot work better at a lower dose.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: So when they come see you, you do draw blood and you do all the testing.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: And then you sometimes put them on supplements too, that they're lacking.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: We do. So we'll, we'll do a full panel, a complete blood count, a complete metabolic panel, full thyroid panel, not just a tsh. I just did an armchair consult at my hairdresser today because my hairdresser's like, she's losing all her hair. Would you tell her? Well, my doctor checked my TSH and said it was normal. And I'm like, that's not enough.
You know, so we talk, we talked about that. So we're going to check vitamin B12 level, vitamin D level, we're going to check your hormones, we're going to check a full thyroid panel, TSH, thyroid antibodies, free T3, free T4, all of those things.
So, you know, it, it isn't a one size fits all. We may need to boost your thyroid because you're not going to lose weight if your thyroid hypofunctioning. We may need to add more vitamin D. We may need to add B12. We may, you know, need to adjust for hormones.
Again, all those things we discuss with you. And it's your choice whether you wish to do it or not, but we really want to look at all those things. And then, of course, a family history of medullary thyroid cancer or mens 2 is a complete contraindication for the GLP1. So we have to, we have to make sure you don't have any indication of those things.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: I think that when I first started coming to you before you had your. This clinic, first thing you put me on was vitamin D. Yeah. And I didn't take any vitamins up to that point. That's just not something I always felt like I ate healthy enough, I didn't need vitamins.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:09] Speaker B: And then when you get that blood work back and you're actually deficient in some of them, you're like, what? I mean, I was so shocked by that. But now ever since then, I take it, you know, religiously. And it's also started a whole regimen of supplements that I take.
[00:23:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: Never would have touched before. So I think there's so much more to then just taking the shot. And I feel like so many people just go to their primary care, they get the injections and then they go and they're on their own.
[00:23:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:33] Speaker B: So I think there's such a guideline that needs to happen along with that. And you guys do such a really great job of that.
[00:23:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I definitely think you need to be under a professional's care that has a lot of experience with it and not somebody who's just going to write you a script and send you on your way.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: And you guys have had a ton of success with people that have lost. I mean, you're an example. And then you've had so many patients that have lost so much weight.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I've got quite a few that are. Well, I've got one gentleman over 150 pounds now. I've got several in the 60, 70, 80 pounds. And we're in maintenance, you know, dosing now and have been for a year. So you can get the weight off, keep it off and do very well, but it's got to be a whole program and not just jabbing yourself once a week.
You can reach us at 918-574-2376. KineticClinic.net is our website, and then we're also on Facebook and Instagram.
