Ever wondered why your weight loss hits a wall after six months? Join us for a conversation with Dr. Matthew Landry, a dietitian who shifted his career from aspiring physician to passionate advocate for preventative health and nutrition. Dr. Landry's journey is both inspiring and informative, as he shares his research on low-income, Hispanic school-age children and an intriguing study with identical twins on different diets. By shedding light on his dedication to tackling college food insecurity, we uncover the realities faced by students and the impactful initiatives in place to support them.
Weight loss plateaus are a common and frustrating experience, but what really causes them, and how can we move past them? We explore the psychological and physiological factors at play, aided by recent research findings. Dr. Landry offers practical strategies, such as dietary self-monitoring and social support, to help maintain motivation and set realistic expectations. The discussion also explores the benefits of maintaining weight at a plateau before attempting new approaches for sustainable weight loss, emphasizing long-term health over quick fixes.
GLP-1 medications are making waves in the realm of weight loss, but they aren’t a magic bullet. Dr. Landry highlights the essential role of nutrition professionals in guiding patients through these changes to avoid nutrient deficiencies. We also address the pervasive issue of food insecurity among college students, especially in California universities, and the comprehensive support systems being implemented to combat this challenge. Finally, we celebrate non-scale victories, those crucial health improvements that go beyond mere numbers, such as enhanced energy levels and reduced joint pain, reinforcing the profound impacts of even modest weight loss.
Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to this podcast and share with a friend. If you would like to know more about my services, please message at fueledbyleo@gmail.com
Ever wondered why your weight loss hits a wall after six months? Join us for a conversation with Dr. Matthew Landry, a dietitian who shifted his career from aspiring physician to passionate advocate for preventative health and nutrition. Dr. Landry's journey is both inspiring and informative, as he shares his research on low-income, Hispanic school-age children and an intriguing study with identical twins on different diets. By shedding light on his dedication to tackling college food insecurity, we uncover the realities faced by students and the impactful initiatives in place to support them.
Weight loss plateaus are a common and frustrating experience, but what really causes them, and how can we move past them? We explore the psychological and physiological factors at play, aided by recent research findings. Dr. Landry offers practical strategies, such as dietary self-monitoring and social support, to help maintain motivation and set realistic expectations. The discussion also explores the benefits of maintaining weight at a plateau before attempting new approaches for sustainable weight loss, emphasizing long-term health over quick fixes.
GLP-1 medications are making waves in the realm of weight loss, but they aren’t a magic bullet. Dr. Landry highlights the essential role of nutrition professionals in guiding patients through these changes to avoid nutrient deficiencies. We also address the pervasive issue of food insecurity among college students, especially in California universities, and the comprehensive support systems being implemented to combat this challenge. Finally, we celebrate non-scale victories, those crucial health improvements that go beyond mere numbers, such as enhanced energy levels and reduced joint pain, reinforcing the profound impacts of even modest weight loss.
Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to this podcast and share with a friend. If you would like to know more about my services, please message at fueledbyleo@gmail.com
Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode in the Simple Nutrition Insights Podcast. I am your host, leonila Campos, and today I have a special guest, dr Matthew Landry. He is also a fellow dietitian, and we're going to talk about weight loss and sustainable ways of losing weight. Dr Landry has his Bachelor's of Nutrition and Food Science from Louisiana State University and his PhD in Nutritional Science from the University of Texas at Austin. He has a lot of honors and awards, and if you've seen the documentary, I know we'll go more into that in a moment as well, but we'll focus on today's topic, and so welcome Dr Landry to the podcast.
Speaker 2:
Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, absolutely so. Just with other fellow dietitians, right? I'd like to ask, like, what got you into dietetics? What made you decide to go into the nutrition field?
Speaker 2:
Sure, I kind of stumbled on it in a lot of ways when I was in high school, thinking about what I wanted to go to college for dietitian wasn't even something on my radar.
Speaker 2:
But luckily, a recruiter came to my high school and talked about going into nutrition as a way to become a physician, which was my initial kind of career path. But very quickly on in undergrad I realized that a lot of what being a physician is is treating and managing diseases and I want to get to folks before they ever had a chronic disease like diabetes or heart disease, whatever it may be, and I wanted to help prevent that. So while my pre-med classes were focusing and training me to treat and manage diseases, my nutrition classes were really focused on that preventative aspect. Sure, they still had the MNT, all of that kind of aspect, but I really liked the preventative aspect of it. So when it came to a pivotal time of like, do I take a GRE and go to grad school, maybe, or do I take the MCAT and go to med school? I decided I'll stick out with nutrition. This is really where my passion is and it's been a great decision since then.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, amazing, we are just looking at those two things. Right, of course we need both, but I'm curious to know, like if there was a hesitation, because maybe obviously your parents I'm sure they were, you know, already ready, getting ready to like, hey, we're gonna have a doctor. I mean, you are a doctor, but like a medical doctor, did that change?
Speaker 2:
there were certainly some moments where I went back and forth, back and forth, but I think it really was some just experiences that I had in undergrad, one of them being that I did an undergrad research experience just to, you know, understand that side, and I also really fell in love with that. So I was not only just kind of giving up on being a physician but going on to nutrition and in research kind of area all at the same times. It was a lot of decisions and a lot of like weighing pros and cons of things. But I think that's just a big part of sometimes undergrad, where you have to make those decisions and kind of just go with your gut sometimes of what brings you the most joy, the most excitement.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, absolutely, and what's going to be your career essentially Right and so, yeah, you mentioned that a little bit, but how has that career been of becoming a doctor, right, like getting your PhD? How has that journey been for you?
Speaker 2:
and it really started when I was in graduate school. I focused my research very much on the public health side of things. I worked with the low-income, primarily Hispanic school-age children in Central Texas, really focusing on food access and availability. And then I kind of shifted from there during my post-doctorate, when I was at Stanford, to focus more on kind of dietary clinical trials and now as a researcher I combine both of those and that's what I think is really fun about research is that you can pivot every time when you find a new little area that you're really interested in and sometimes combine interest. So I really love the public health side of really making sure that everyone has equitable access to nutritious foods and then also trying to help folks decide what is the best foods that we should be eating and promoting and things like that.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's a huge question, right, because definitely, as dietitians, we know all about nutrition and you, as a researcher, right, I'm sure you've found so many, you know, you've created so many studies, you've done so many research studies, and so sometimes just that basic question, right, like what is the best nutrition for me? And like what is it, what are the best foods for me? Right, there, is there one food, like a super food, right, or one food that I should always eat? I do get those questions often, yeah, but I also love that you were able to like just your journey right as a researcher and becoming getting your doctorate right, what are some of, like, the most outstanding research studies that you have done?
Speaker 2:
That's a tough question. Probably one of my favorite ones is probably the most recent one, where we had identical twins. We put one twin on a vegan diet, one twin on a liverist diet and then followed them for eight weeks. In general, we know that a vegan diet has some health benefits associated with it, but what the cool part was was having identical twins and so many of my studies. I have to say that a limitation is that we are not able to control for some genetic factors, environmental factors, and for the first time we had a sample where we could start controlling for some of that. So in some senses, that was a really fun and exciting study to be part of.
Speaker 2:
I think another kind of tangent area that I really like and that I a really fun and exciting study to be part of. I think another kind of tangent area that I really like and that I'm really passionate about is just college food insecurity as well. As a professor working at the university surrounded by college students constantly, I see sometimes that they struggle with access to foods and, as a result, their academic performance suffers as well. So I think the most sometimes gratifying work that I do is actually in that space, because I know that it's going to have a tangible kind of benefit on so many college students that again you know I'm surrounded by day to day.
Speaker 1:
Right, yeah, absolutely. And if you haven't seen the documentary right, the docuseries on the study, the twin study, you should go and check it out. It has a lot of research components and just understanding overall, right, I love that there are more documentaries like that out there that are based on research, which is great, great. But also, as you mentioned, right, being a professor and just seeing that food insecurity in college students and how that affects their academic performance, because we know from other research studies too, right, like just school-age children that don't have breakfast. One of the reasons why, you know, free breakfast and free lunch has been a huge change we can debate on, you know, students eating it or not, but it's there, right, and it provides the fuel that kids need for their brain development and academic performance. We also need it as adults, right, if we are college students, we still need fuel, and so I think that is another area right of research and like, how can we help those students? I know there are food pantries right in the schools and so that really helps too.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, awesome. So now let's talk about, maybe, your latest research. Right that it focuses on weight loss and it focuses on, like, the sustainability of it? Right? Maybe a little background as to like why that specific topic, although it's huge, right, but why specifically that area?
Speaker 2:
Sure. So within a lot of my recent research we put folks on diet A versus diet B and to see some kind of benefit for some health outcome. And I think in reality the media kind of pits those diets head to head and makes them very different from one another. But I think you could take just about any diet diet A versus diet B, whatever it is and at the end of the day we generally get the same weight loss when we follow it over time. One might be a little bit quicker, but at six months or so we generally see the same results.
Speaker 2:
One thing that we also know in long-term studies is that right around six months, no matter what diet they're on, that weight is just not going to be as easily lost. A lot of times we actually see a plateau in weight where the weight doesn't change at all or might even increase a little bit, despite someone doing that same amount of dieting, that same amount of exercise. And so part of our recent study was understanding what really happens at that six-month time point, that regardless of what study we're looking at, whatever it is, and again, regardless of what diet they're looking at, whatever it is, and again, regardless of what diet they're following. It's that similar kind of physiological effect. Now we came at it from more of a psychological aspect that, okay, maybe you're doing a diet for six months and at that point you're slowly seeing your weight those same efforts not be as successful for weight loss, your weight those same efforts not be as successful for weight loss.
Speaker 2:
What if maybe we switched you to a completely different diet and you were getting new foods as part of that and maybe that helps increase your motivation for weight loss again? And then we would follow you for another six months. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, we realized that that didn't even help, and so that's what we ended up publishing. In some ways, you would say, oh, that's not really all that exciting results. Your study failed, but it actually opened up, in some ways, some new avenues and some new explanations to say, hey, maybe we need to approach that six-month time point in a completely different way. In this regard, our study still adds to the literature in helping us understand what happens physiologically during this period of time.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, amazing, and I think that's such a good point right, like at that six month mark, like what happens. And with research right, when you really see it scientifically right, it's not failure, like you're finding answers right, it's like another way to maybe another door opens and like now let's find a reason for that right, and so that's. I think that's the amazing part about just studies and research. I think that's the amazing part about just studies and research.
Speaker 1:
But yeah, specifically, I almost feel like with weight loss right, because it's a topic that is so talked about and so many people have issues with weight or weight management or, like you mentioned, they follow a plan and something happens in six months and things don't go the same way.
Speaker 1:
And even for some you know some clients that they've said you know I follow these before and, like you know, it worked for me and now I'm following the same thing and it's like not working for me at all and like I don't know what's happening, I don't know if, like, and then they start to have all these things like is it my my body's getting old or like I'm just not my metabolism, like all these things like obviously they're trying to find the answer right. So I'm definitely curious to see, right as you do, more research like what, like what happens, right as it's on as to like what, why do people plateau right at that, um, that time, but with, maybe, with your knowledge and just research that you have done, anything that has helped, like maybe, with that plateau, anything that has maybe just improved the overall weight loss or the sustainability of the weight aspects.
Speaker 2:
You know that all of us are taught as dietitians to be really successful. Those things like dietary self-monitoring, getting someone to log down, you know the foods that they're consuming throughout the day, having good social support and that good environment all around you to help support that and make those good decisions All those things are always still important. But what I think our study now kind of says is that maybe we should be telling patients kind of what happens during this period, like you're going to start off really successful, that's going to continue, and then eventually we're going to get to a point where you're going to do all those same things and it's not going to. You know you're not going to see a change on the scale, and that's okay. And I think we have to help them understand what's happening physiologically, that as we get older we do have different kind of set points that our body is adjusting to over time and that's that new weight that it wants to really keep us at. We don't want to gain or lose too much from that, but in some ways we're able to even still adapt past that.
Speaker 2:
What we can tell our patients is what if you got to that low point at six months? And what if we maybe just maintained that weight, that we didn't get discouraged? We just maintained your body weight here and then, once our body is now adjusted to that new set point, maybe then we try a new kind of strategy or some new approach or something like that to help create an even lower set point for you. That, I think, is an area for kind of new and future research, especially with some of the new kind of medications and things like that that we're all kind of having we're seeing now in the marketplace. But I think, to come back to your question again, just helping our patients and our clients really understand what happens with weight loss physiologically and really just help them understand that so that they don't get discouraged, that they don't get, you know, not motivated to continue love that you bring that point because it is so true.
Speaker 1:
right, having those expectations and when you do get to that point, at least you know now, okay, this is, this was supposed to happen. Right, it's okay, we'll just keep at it. Right, and then we'll have a plan. Versus, like, my gosh, you know, I got to this point, I was doing so well, I was seeing changes, and now I'm at this point and like, nothing is happening. Right, and yeah, having that motivation plays a huge role.
Speaker 1:
But also the expectation, right, because instead of like, saying, well, you know, whatever, this is not going to help me, might as well just not do anything and then go back to what we were doing before, which, whatever weight loss we lost, now we're going to gain it. Right, as opposed to like, let's maintain that for a period of time, let's see what happens, right, and then we'll change things, and then we might be able to see more change there. But, yeah, absolutely. I think being super clear and transparent with clients, right, helps them to be like, okay, this is what's going to happen, don't freak out, we're still working together. Right, and you're going to have a plan.
Speaker 1:
I think, in the end, that's what really helps, right, having a plan, having a visual for sure, yeah, awesome. We definitely are going to have to probably do another episode on like the GLP-1 medications, right, and there's so much information out there, because I think that is important. I mean, it goes now essentially kind of in hand with like weight loss and weight management and all that. Any future studies with that now essentially kind of in hell is like weight loss and weight management and all that any any future studies with that.
Speaker 2:
you don't have to say you don't, you can't yeah, um, I personally don't have any kind of um planned kind of studies with that. Um, I do think it's a really exciting kind of area of research. I like to think that no kind of approach to weight loss or weight management by itself is that singular magic kind of thing. You know as much as I love diet and lifestyle and I think we should be promoting a lot of that, that in itself. You know, sometimes it's not the only kind of solution. A lot of times it's a combination of different strategies and approaches. And I think the same thing applies when we come with these new GLP-1 medications that they're going to work to a certain extent but they do still have their limitations, so we're going to have to combine them with some kind of other approach. Maybe it is some diet and lifestyle at a certain point to maybe either help lower the dosage or something like that for a more kind of long-term manageable level. I think that's still just kind of being explored.
Speaker 1:
But absolutely and I think that is definitely important and also right I have a really strong feeling about these medications, not in a negative way, but because they can help, right.
Speaker 1:
They can absolutely help somebody that has struggled with weight for such a long time, um, but it has to be like they have to work with a dietitian, right, a nutritional professional, a nutrition professional, because of all the changes that are happening right, especially if maybe they've never worked with somebody to help with their nutrition or fitness aspect of it.
Speaker 1:
Again, it's not even it may seem like a miracle pill or a magic pill. We still have to be able to change that right, our nutrition, specifically because we know that, as I mean, we eat usually, um, throughout the day, right, even if we're not eating, we still, we can still become deficient in different nutrients, and so I strongly believe that having a dietician on board when these medications are prescribed can have a more positive effect in the patient itself Awesome. So thank you for sharing that Absolutely. And so we talked about the different research studies that you have done, right, I wanted to ask you more about the food insecurity part that you did with younger kids and how that affected their academic performance, right or any other findings that you had when you did that research in Texas.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so the research that I did in Texas really focused on school-age children.
Speaker 2:
So it was really understanding the community environment and understanding how we can better promote food and nutrition access and at that time we were looking at school gardens as being one potential kind of lever to be able to just, number one, improve dietary intake, promote fruit and vegetable consumption, but also be potentially an opportunity to partner with local forums or things like that to improve just general kind of food access.
Speaker 2:
Now, kind of focusing more on college food insecurity, that environment looks a little bit different and I like to really take the approach of what can the university system do or the university or college campus do from kind of a policy or administrative level.
Speaker 2:
Some of that's just helping students be eligible for SNAP if they are Right now we have federal restrictions for SNAP and to receive SNAP benefits if someone's a college student. We know that to be a well-working kind of program that helps someone many times get out of food insecurity and get back on their feet, and it should be the same way for college students If they're really struggling. If they're eligible, they should be able to receive those benefits. The other thing that I do is I work sometimes with administration and just say maybe we need a food pantry or some other resource available on campus or maybe we need to change the hours of dining halls or something like that to better support students who might have jobs off campus or working different hours, or something like that Again, coming at this from multiple different angles to really just make sure that that food environment is as supportive as it can be.
Speaker 1:
Right, yeah, absolutely. I think that is just amazing work, right. Because when we think about college students, right, it's not that you go to bed at nine, right, like you're pretty much up at different times during the day and what is available to eat, right, usually you know vending machines or something's nothing right. And so I think, yeah, having that just that work in itself right is so, like you said, gratifying. But just making those amazing changes and it could be, as you know.
Speaker 1:
I mean, I'm sure simple is not the word but having a food pantry, right, I know I'm in Fresno, so Fresno State has a food pantry across the street and they created it recently. I know a few years ago they created one on campus, and so I think that is just amazing, right, being able to do that and just having that access to food. Oftentimes we don't think about that, right, if we don't have that problem, right, it's not something that comes to mind. Oh, that college student doesn't have anything to eat, right, but I don't know if you have statistics or just information on how much food insecurity is prevalent in college students.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, sometimes we think it's up to about a third. So that's certainly higher than the national average that we think it's like one in 10 individuals. So certainly a pretty significant problem. And you know we're both in California. So I think in many ways we're quite fortunate that all of our college and many of our colleges and universities take this something as something very serious and they've implemented sometimes these food pantries or, in better case, many campuses now have basic needs centers so they realize that, hey, food isn't probably the only thing you're struggling with, but you might also need some housing assistance or assistance with some other kind of basic need. So it's a one-time, one-stop shop to get all of that covered at one time. And I think many other states are kind of looking towards us for that guidance. In many ways we're lucky because our students are probably the best supported across the nation, but that also represents that many other students don't have access to those services and things.
Speaker 1:
Right, yeah, yeah, I didn't think about that, but it's huge, right. Like you said, we are, in that sense, lucky and I can imagine, right, other students and like maybe other states that have it worse, like maybe they have literally no way to get food. Yeah, amazing work. I'm curious to see what else you know, you do now that you're at University of Irvine, because you were at Stanford, right, for how long were you at?
Speaker 2:
Stanford. I was there for three years.
Speaker 1:
Three years, Right. And then that time frame that's when you guys did the twin study, right. And then the results.
Speaker 2:
Right, the twin study, you know, start to finish, even though it was just a an eight week study, probably took us about a year. So there was a lot of planning involved conducting the study. And then you know it takes a while to look at the data, to better understand it and kind of write up even the papers and things like that that come from it. But even you know a year is a pretty short time in some research areas.
Speaker 1:
Right, yeah, I know some studies can take years and years and like then gathering the information, putting it together, writing the paper and all that, yeah, awesome, oh my gosh, this has been really great. Thank you so much for all your insights and information. Any final tips that you want to provide the listeners, more so in relation to, like, weight loss or weight management? Anything else that you would want to share?
Speaker 2:
Sure, right now I don't really do any kind of clinical practice or see patients or clients, but when I did, one of the biggest things that I often emphasize when it came to weight loss is that it's solely not just the number on the scale. Sometimes it's just being able to move your body much easier and not have as much pressure on your joints and feeling better about yourself. Sometimes it's numbers that we don't see. Maybe it's a change in, like our LDL, cholesterol or blood pressure or some other kind of health metric that's changing. Even though the number on the scale might not be changing as much as we would like or something like that, that we can still see some benefits from even just, you know, a 5% kind of weight loss of our body weight or something like that, we can really reduce some weight.
Speaker 2:
So I oftentimes at the very beginning when someone's coming to me and saying I want to lose weight, and I oftentimes at the very beginning when someone's coming to me and saying I want to lose weight and I would say the same thing for anyone thinking you know that they want to go on some weight loss diet or maybe they're considering GLBA ones or something like that is to think of? What would the outcomes? What are the outcomes that you really want to see? And hopefully they're not all that kind of just weight based. What are the other ones that you want to see? And make sure that those are also some realistic goals as well, even with weight loss. Again, that we don't need to see 50 pounds, 100 pounds, whatever weight loss, but sometimes just a small bit of weight can reap some big benefits.
Speaker 1:
Right, yeah, absolutely. I love those tips and the information that you're sharing, because you're absolutely correct, right, and a lot of research studies that I read and that I see that you know, even 5% loss can have a huge impact in just our overall well-being. Seven to 10% loss, right, or like liver health and just overall wellbeing, can really help. But, yeah, emphasizing for sure the non-scale victories, right, because in a lot of the times you know with clients that I work with they, they give me a list. Not oftentimes, weight loss is not number one, right, they might be coming to me for that, but it would be like more energy or have less pain or have less inflammation, right, but interestingly, when they take their weight, that's the first thing that, for them, is shows progress or not progress, right. And so, as professionals, we almost have to bring them back and be like, yes, we might not see it on the scale, but look how much energy you have, you have no more pain, right, your joints are feeling better. I think it helps with that mentorship, right, it helps with that guidance, because now you have this professional that is telling you, yes, we might not see it on the scale, but internally, right, your body is having those benefits. So, yeah, absolutely Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 1:
Those are huge benefits. So, yeah, absolutely Thank you for sharing that. Those are huge for sure, yeah, awesome. Thank you so much, dr Landry. So anything else that you would want to share? Any additional thoughts?
Speaker 2:
I don't think so. Thank you again for having me Really appreciate it no-transcript.