23 Comments

This is so great! Kathleen, when it comes to rda's, what would you prioritize, the 1.6 per kg protein or hitting your rda's? I find it difficult to hit the magnesium the most. Milk is the one that gets me everything. Can you recommend any lower protein foods that help hit rda's? I am implementing potatoes at dinner. Thanks so much for this great post!

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Hi Samantha! Did you see my recent note that shows the cronometer screenshots getting 100%+ RDAs at ~1500Cals?

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Yes I did thanks. That was really helpful! After further thought hitting rda's isn't at hard as getting more calories without upping the protein.

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Hi Kathleen. Thank you so much for these helpful guidelines. Very interesting stuff. I really appreciate your perspective on these matters.

Just a question, regarding the "Try to have distinct meals vs. grazing because of stomach acid recovery, the migrating motor complex, etc. This means eating every 3-4hrs" recommendations, what about drinking between meals?

At work I sorta sip on low fat milk through my shift, and at home I have coffees with some coconut oil and full cream milk between meals, or sometimes some cream in the coffee. Sometimes I also have a fruit juice (OJ or grape juice) between meals. Is this habit then potentially unhelpful for my gut as regards the migrating motor complex from your informed perspective?

I have been trying to drink less water because I think beforehand I was just drinking way too much water which I have come to understand is unhelpful for my body, but is drinking plain or sparkling water then better between meals?

Thanks so much again for everything, I am really enjoying delving into your work. All the best from Germany,

Graham.

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Hi Graham,

Thank you for your comment!

If you’re objectively doing well drinking between meals, I see no need to change that.

If you suspect things could be better, I’m always a fan of experimentation, so you could do a couple of trials. For example, drinking the liquids together more as a meal - could cause GI distress depending on if you have a threshold effect with certain foods and, of course, the need to urinate. Another trial would be to decrease the fluids you drink and increase the foods you eat each meal. I always recommend making small changes, only one at a time, to see what is affecting what.

I usually recommend drinking water based on your thirst mechanism and the color of your urine. If you’re consuming a lot of milk and juice, you might not need a lot of water.

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That's brilliant Kathleen. Thanks so much for the thoughts. I am doing fairly well with how things are going, but I might play with my fluid intake and see if I come by any improvements. Thanks.

PS: I'm a biokineticist and rugby physical preparation coach, and so I also appreciate your obvious understanding of some of the bioomechanical and training principles, including PRI, etc. Also with your background in physics, your informed perspective is certainly very interesting and helpful.

Have a great rest of your week!

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Thank you for this. I caught up with the Strong Sisters Podcast and everything you said resonated so much. I so appreciate all the effort and information you give. I picked up you aren't working 1:1 with clients at the moment, but if you do in the future I would love to know a bit more about this. Thanks again, Josephine

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Hi Josephine, please message me, and I’ll see if I can help!

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Kathleen you’re amazing! Dig the objective data you share such as the calorie recommendations. Intuitive eating has failed many of us because of skewed hunger signals leading to over under eating. Do you track calories do you have a fave app? Can you share your daily steps? I’m just a. Data nerd 🤓 and a navy vet too. 🥂 cheers!

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100% on the hunger signals, etc.! I usually recommend people track for some time at first.

I like cronometer for tracking - use the nccdb listing when possible.

Thanks for your service!

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This was wonderful, Kathleen. You are a blessing. I do have a question, what are your thoughts about supplementing with a high quality prenatal while pregnant and/or breastfeeding? I’m currently 3 months postpartum and exclusively breastfeeding and I often wonder if it is adding value but am nervous to stop for fear of becoming deficient in something. Thank you

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Thank you, Jenn!

Prenatals/ multis are usually difficult for multiple reasons -

1. The form may not be what you need and might make you worse (e.g., methylcobalamin vs. adenosylcobalamin vs. hydroxycobalamin).

2. The dose, frequency of that dose, and/or absorption path might not be what’s best for you. For example, many have first-pass liver issues. Or the excess that’s not absorbed goes to the microbiome to deal with, which can cause problems.

3. Many do not do well with certain supplements (e.g., Ashwagandha), and it’s hard to parse out what is causing a negative response. Or the other things in the supplement are causing positive responses, so the net is positive, but this negative could still be a problem over time.

4. I’m a proponent of drop dosing, so the transporters, cells, microbiome, etc., see a smaller amount of these things more frequently. Yes, storage, etc., apply, but I’ve found this to be more successful - especially for those sensitive to supplementation.

There are probably more, but those are what come to my mind currently.

If you’re objectively doing well with what you’re taking, then I see no reason to necessarily stop. I would consider trying the drop dose method and see if you notice any more improvement - you will probably need to start with 1/5 a capsule when doing so.

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My favourite Substack prescription. This particular entry I will have many clients reading too.

Wonderful, Kathleen, thank you.

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Thank you Alan! I hope they find it helpful :).

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In a world of nonsensical noise, word salad + straight up deception, truly thank you for imparting your wisdom + experience Kathleen 🙏🏼

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Thank you Sammy! Please keep checking back as I update it :).

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May I ask where I can read about the 45-47 x kg body weight when determining a person’s calorie intake? That goes along what I have been saying to people but I would like so resources to back it up.

Thanks!!

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Kathleen, I so appreciate your sharing this information from your research. I contacted you about potentially getting some individualized guidance and at first it went to spam, and fear my response went there too. Would love to hear back from you again and see if we could set something up

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"clear malabsorption signs via labs (e.g., MCV, ALP, GGT, etc.) etc.

Can you explain how these are signs of malabsorption?

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"Some do best with macros split evenly in each meal. Others do best with only carb, then only fat and protein meals. If you have metabolic issues, that typically means you have high - free fatty acids, glucose, fructose, lactate, ketones, amino acids, etc. in your serum. If that is you, you might do better with separate macro meals"

More on this would be gold 🤩🤓🙏

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"Movement is crucial for life. When we stop moving, it seems to signal to the body we are nearing an imminent end. Do everything possible to keep moving, even if its eyelids, fingers, etc. "

I feel like once people get hospitalised, their chance of dying increase massively (regardless of how serious the reason for the hospitalisation is).

That would explain part of it, right?

Bedridden = death coming.

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Hi Kathleen, I’ve been enjoying your podcast episodes with Strong Sisters and your substack articles. Is there a topical B1 you like? I’m having a hard time finding anything. I also messaged you on Instagram about your 1:1 offerings, but I know dm’s from new people often go unseen in a buried folder. Thanks for all your insight and knowledge, it’s so refreshing in contrast to the insta “holistic health” influencer hellscape 🙃

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Hi Kathleen, are you working one on one with people at all, how can I go about contacting you? Your work resonates so deeply, I'm having serious health issues and would love to chat with you if there's any way!

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