21 Feb 2025

Losing weight isn’t just about cutting calories it’s about getting your metabolism to work for you. When your body relies too much on carbs, it can become resistant to burning fat, making weight loss a struggle. By adjusting your diet to include fewer carbs and focusing on foods that support hormone balance, you can help your body switch to burning fat more efficiently.

It’s not just about food, though. Things like hormone levels, liver health, and digestion all play a role in how your body processes fat. Making small changes, like choosing the right supplements and being mindful of overall health, can make a big difference in long-term weight management.

Highlights of the Podcast

00:05 – Metabolism & Hormones

01:29 – Impact of Diet on Metabolism

03:57 – Metabolic Reset with Keto & GLP-1s

06:08 – Testosterone & Metabolism

07:48 – Liver & Gallbladder Support

10:17 – Fasting & Long-Term Fat Loss

11:48 – Sustaining Metabolic Reset

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:05] All right. So I got the Question of the Day. How do you reset or change or alter your metabolism? There’s a couple different ways. The the number one way is to change your diet. So when you have to actually kind of look at how the body works. The first thing you to understand is your body does not run on calories. I know I said this a lot, but it’s you have to understand, even your metabolic function, you have to understand your body doesn’t run on calories. Your body runs on hormonal function. So when you eat a macro, when you eat sugar, your body increases insulin, which is a hormone.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:41] When you eat a lot of protein and you don’t eat a lot of sugars, your body starts upping the glucagon. Glucagon tells your body to different things and sometimes different things. So, for instance, insulin tells your body to move the sugar out of the blood into the muscle tissue is glycogen into the liver’s glycogen and then store the rest of it. Fat. Glucagon tells your body that it doesn’t have enough sugar in the blood and so it needs to start burning fat as its primary fuel source because it doesn’t have any sugar. And then it needs to make some sugar out of the protein so that your blood can have energy for energy to function on, which is ATP. So when you start understanding those two pieces and the metabolic function of hormones tied to macros, you quickly understand that you have to sort of you have to start working on a macro based diet because that’s how the body actually works.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:01:29] It works off ATP production and chemistry. So here’s here’s kind of the big thing. So if you’ve been running on, which is the standard American diet, everyone in America look at our food pyramid. It’s it’s based on carbohydrates. You know, the bottom is grains. And then, you know, it kind of works its way up, you know, to meats and fats at the top because it’s trying to tell you not to eat those. And so all of our processed food is highly glycemic. So lots and lots of carbohydrates. Now, in those carbohydrates have a giant they turn to sugar really fast, which causes a large insulin spike. So we start talking about insulin resistance. The reason that you get insulin resistance is because you body mass produce a lot of insulin over time and your body quit listening to it. And the reason you produce all this insulin is because of the glycemic or how quickly these foods turn into sugars, which is the glycemic index.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:02:19] And that’s what we talk about when we say high glycemic foods, it’s carbohydrates that turn into sugars really quickly. So, you know, this isn’t if I like broccoli goes really slowly. Donuts go really quickly. Instant oatmeal, super fast. It’s almost as fast as donuts. Instant rice, jasmine rice, really, really fast. The sugar. So that’s kind of how those things play off. Now, here’s the thing. The way the metabolic function actually works is the as you have higher levels of what’s called glycolytic ATP, which is basically glucose because you have higher levels of glucose in the body, your body is producing insulin, insulin suppresses or stops the body’s production of glucagon.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:03:04] So if you’re eating these foods that have sugars in them and you’re getting your body’s running off of sugars, you will get hungry every couple of hours and your body will not burn fat because the insulin that’s being produced is literally blocking the glucagon function. So when we start looking at like a keto diet or a low glycemic diet, what ends up happening is that as our bodies start running out of sugars and it starts going, Hey, look, we don’t have enough sugar to run the whole body, we’re going to start running on fat. It shifts over to a fat based function. That’s where we start seeing a lot of this. These things get healthier. So or change the metabolic function. So when we look at like a like again, the keto diet, you put your carbohydrates way, way low and then when ends up happening is your body goes, we don’t have any sugar to run on. So we will start burning fat as our primary fuel source for the muscles and for the brain and for the gut. Your heart always runs on fat.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:03:57] Your heart’s primary fuel source is LDL cholesterol. We’ll talk about cholesterol over time because it’s fantastic for you. It’s not causing heart attacks. It’s just a lie. Anyway, So what ends up happening is your body starts shifting and reverting fast, its primary fuel source, and it starts using protein to produce the sugar for your blood. So that’s kind of how that shift happens. Now, a lot of times when we have high insulin resistance, what that means is that your fasting insulin is safe, you know, 13, 15, 17, 20 In that diabetic range, what ends up happening is that we can’t shift over to burn fat because there’s still too much insulin always being produced and suppresses the body’s ability to shift over and produce glucagon. So the easiest way to fix that is with GOP warrants.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:04:44] This is why GOP ones have been working so well for a lot of people, this is why we use them to treat diabetes because it’s a great way to break breakthrough insulin resistance issues and kind of move through and force the body into what called a light politick, which where we’re breaking down fat or lipo like you’ve heard of lipoprotein lipo is fat. So like polytech, which is breaking down fat as your primary source for ATP, for fuel source. The reason that this sometimes takes a minute is because just like anything else in your body, if you haven’t been using it for a long time, it’s going to take a minute to figure out how to use it. Like, for instance. You guys like if you’re right handed and you’re 20, 30 years old or 50 or over, you’ve been using your right hand to write for a long time.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:05:31] If you’re like, I was going to pick up the pen on my left hand and right with my left hand. But most people, the time I can’t. It feels weird holding a pen in my left hand. So, like, I haven’t done this in a long, long time. So when you look at the metabolic function, why does it take a month or so to kind of kick over? Well, because your body’s having to learn to do it again. Once it becomes more efficient at it, it starts kicking up and does really, really well. So that’s that’s kind of how those things work. So what you wanting to do is you’re looking at your metabolic function. The way that we do it is the first thing we do is obviously we pull blood and we check all the, you know, where you’re at.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:06:08] But the vast majority of people that we’ve worked with because of stress, because of nutrient deficiencies and all that, are chemicals that are our hormone disrupting regulators like atrazine that’s in your water and glyphosate, all those things. What is happening is that your testosterone levels get low. So we have to replace your testosterone levels. Testosterone is the healing hormone. If you want your metabolic function to come up, you have to heal your body more. Metabolic function is basically a view of how quickly the cells are turning over. So if you’re healing, regenerating, building tissue, that type of thing, your body requires more energy to do that, more ATP to do that. So we raised the testosterone levels back up to get metabolic function to start from that hormonal standpoint. Then you can use GMP ones to override the function of or you already have a bunch of insulin in the blood that would normally inhibit or stop the body’s natural production of glucagon.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:07:05] So we’re going to produce the glucagon. And then when you’re producing glucagon, especially if you haven’t done it in a long time. So this is going to be most of your people who are in the morphs, who are your Mazo and those these people who are, you know, 20, 30, 40 pounds over fat, these people specifically, especially if it’s been like this for a long time, it is like I just let myself go over the past six months or year and I got really fat. You’re probably going to have a big issue with it. But the people who’ve always this has always been a problem for you. This is a really, really big piece of this. So your liver produces bile bio’s, what the body uses to break down fat. And so if your liver hasn’t been doing this for a while, guess what? It’s not going to do a very, very good job of it. So you have to supply in a little extra bile.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:07:48] The other thing is, is that if you have so some of you guys are familiar with MTF are MTF, it means that you can’t produce methylated folic acid c of, you know, it has issues with brain healing and gut healing and stuff like that or fertility stuff. So you’ve got to check that. But there’s another one that creates issues with process of creating methylated B six methyl to B six is highly responsible for keeping bile salts and suspension or actually making proper bile salts. So without methyl to B six, you end up with a lot of gallstones and things like that because gallstones are actually liver stones that are in the gallbladder and they’re liver stones because the bylaws B six and B can’t work from a WD 40 solution down like a rubber cement, gooey balls, those big, gooey balls become gallstones. And that’s the issue that we end up seeing with a lot of issues in the liver from JLP, one’s liver gallbladder.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:08:40] I call this a suicide is oftentimes a direct response of not being able to present a file and see your body just like failing at that. So increase not 3B6 increase. We I use tadka take as my favorite for this liver health plus bile function. So we get those levels up. It’s a little bit different for each person. You’ve got to work with, you know who you’re working with and how it plays and but if you’re going to do the B six thing, do A full spectrum methylated B vitamin because they all work together. But anyway, so that’s how you deal with the liver issues and then the muscle wasting issues. This is again why you’re on testosterone and then we’ll increase. You know, usually I’ll use college. It depends on the person, how much and when or use collagen as a protein source, because what ends up happening, the reason you lose the muscle tissue is because your body has to make sugar for your blood. Your blood can only run on sugar. That’s it. I don’t have any mitochondria.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:09:35] So what ends up happening is your body will take apart your muscle tissues to get the proteins it needs to go through gluconeogenesis, which is the creation of new sugars. Well, the way that you actually fix that is by giving your body the protein it needs so they can actually function. And again, protein needs and to offset this are a little bit different per person. And so it’s one of those things you kind of got to figure out like for individual. The other problem we get into with this is that which is not necessarily a problem when your body shifts to a fat oxidizing state, which is your keto states or any state in which your body is burning fat for its primary fuel source. What is happening is that if you have fat on your body, you don’t get as hungry because your body goes, No, we’re good. Like we have all the fuel we need.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:10:17] You don’t need to eat, you’re fine. So this whole I, you know, I talk to people who got an Kito. Or on Yelp ones. And they’re like, I’m just not as hungry as I used to be. Great. Don’t eat. However, you have metabolic needs that have to be maintained. So method fork, method, be vitamins, omega three fatty acids, D3 know, things like that. And obviously a protein function for a functional protein source with amino acids with it in order to be ready to regenerate and heal and create the sugar for your blood. So if you’re not going to eat your fast, that’s fantastic. That’s fine. I run a 20 to 2. So once a day I’m still building muscle tissue. I’m still burning fat. So it works out really, really well. You just got to structure it properly and then take your your sources of protein throughout the day. And that doesn’t break fast.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:11:07] The things that break fast is anything that raises insulin. And the reason it breaks that fast is because the insulin, glucagon functionality in the pancreas, which we kind of breeze over real quickly earlier. So that’s how that function works. So the way that we do it with these metabolic resets, it’s kind of fun because like people will get off the GOP ones and I’ll talk to them 6 to 8 weeks later and they’re like, Hey, I’m still losing fat. Is is that okay? Or is there something wrong? Know like, no, no, no. That’s what’s supposed to happen is what ends up happening is as you as you start burning fat as your primary fuel source, everybody gets used to that and gets better at it. And you maintain the right diet. Your body will burn fat a much, much, much higher level than it did beforehand.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:11:48] This is how you reset the metabolic function is you get the body to do the thing you want it to do over and over and over again. And it just gets better. It’s called plasticity. And so it’s kind of how the same thing happens with, like I said, writing with your right hand. At first you can’t write with either hand and then you practice and you work. And you work and you work and your your body. Your brain kind of starts figuring out, this is how we do it. And then it literally builds more path and more tissue for that function. And so that’s that’s how that works. So if you’re wanting to reset your metabolic function, then you’ve got to kind of go through that. Now, when we go through this with the job he’s in, the testosterone thing.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:12:23] One of the big things we do, this is one of the most important pieces, is that you have to walk people through how to eat. Because a lot of people will lose weight. It’s mostly muscle, some fat. They’ll lose weight on job ones, on any diet. The problem is, is that when they get off, they gain the fat back at a much higher rate. But they’ve already lost all that muscle tissue. And so they have a harder time losing it the second time. This is also the issue with yo yo dieting. So what you have to do is you got to walk them through and be like, here’s the diet that your body needs. And that’s based off similar type function. If you if you don’t know what fatty function as, it’s basically how your body responds to insulin, glucagon. You know people who can’t can’t to regain weight.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:13:05] Those are amorphous guys in the middle who just change their fuel source are cut their calories back. They lose weight just fine. Those are Mesmer and the guys on the other end where I live is in the morphs and that your body has a very, very high sensitivity to insulin, very low sensitivity with your. So you have to design the diet around for that. It’s not that hard once you walk people through it and you can still have all the foods you want. You should make them differently. Again, this isn’t an anti pizza anti ice cream type of thing. This is a chemistry thing. So as long as the macro set gets set for your tomato type, you can have all these things.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:13:41] Quantity is still a thing, you know, like you can have ice cream. You just can’t have, you know, a gallon of it every other hour. So, you know, it’s one of those things that you’ve got to at least so functionally put together. Right? So that’s how these things work. And so, you know, if you’re looking to reset your metabolism because, you know, you didn’t know or you had, you know, you were 20 or 30 and you just ate like trash because, you know, you did. You could and you’re like, I’m then I’m obviously you wake up, you’re like, What happened? My metabolism is broken. Now I’m just gaining all this fat and I can’t get rid of it. It’s entirely a hormonal thing. It’s glucagon, it’s insulin, it’s testosterone, It’s, you know, grilling leptin. It’s. Those hormones are playing against you. If you don’t understand half the hormones I just listed, that’s by design. This is also how you fix diabetes.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:14:28] And the medical community does not want you healthy. They do not want you to know how to fix diabetes because it’s worth trillions, billions of dollars to them individually per year. And then over the course of time it’s where gyrate spikes because the sicker you are, the more money that pharma and the NIH and the CDC and all those guys make. So again, your local medical doctors are not lying to you. They’re not being bad people. They were lied to. So. They were taught wrong on purpose. So that’s kind of how that sets up. So if you guys are having trouble with that and you guys are trying to figure out how to get that done. That’s kind of the path to walk through. If you understood it and you know how to do it, knock it out. It’ll help tremendously if you didn’t hit us up and we’ll walk you through it.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:15:11] We do this with you all the time. The way that we do it is that we’ll we’ll put all those things in place and then we do every two weeks, we do check ins for the first two months, make sure we get the dosage right. Do not. Also, I’m not a big fan of taking groups as once a week shots. That’s not how your body is used to seeing it. It causes more side effects, more issues, and you usually can’t even get to the highest functional dose by doing that once a week. Again, we gave metabolic and hormonal products to tools to people who didn’t know how to use them, and so we end up with problems. Daily is the disease. What we found is the best option for its most physiologically in-tune.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:15:54] So if you guys are needing help with that, then you get to meet every couple of weeks to make sure that everything’s dialed in, right. And the more important thing is that if your doctors aren’t doing this, they’re missing a big piece of this. GOP ones can block the dopamine or inhibit the dopamine reward system, which is great because you’re like, I don’t have the food cravings. I’m not addicted to alcohol anymore. I don’t have X, Y, Z. They can also steal away the joy of the day because that dopamine reward system is what makes you feel good. When you check the boxes on the things that you’re supposed to do during the day. So if all of a sudden, you know, you’re recognizing that you’re on a job, when you’re recognizing that, you know, the day isn’t as awesome, you don’t have as much joy or whatever, you need to kind of check in with that on the on your levels and that sort of thing, which is, again, one of the reasons we meet for the first two months or so.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:16:45] We meet every two weeks to make sure that those things are good. But if your doctor aren’t doing that, I would highly recommend that you figure out a system in which you can do that on your own to make sure that you’re you’re not walking yourself down a road, that you’re going to end up with a decent amount of depression. So keep that in mind. But they’re as long as they’re used properly and safely, the GOP ones are great. You have to understand metabolic biochemistry and unfortunately, a lot of people don’t. So like the biggest tip for me I tell people is if you’re your provider, your doctor, whoever starts talking to you about a calorie based diet, not a macro based diet, you need to go somewhere else.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:17:24] They don’t understand metabolic biochemistry at all. So I would tell you would be much more dangerous to work with somebody who doesn’t understand metabolic biochemistry when you’re working with very powerful metabolic tools. That’s to me thing. That’s my opinion. You guys can figure it out on your own. So if you guys have any questions, drop in the comments or submit questions at chalmerwellness.com. Thanks for your time.


As always if you have any questions, please send them to [email protected]

Check out Chalmers Pillarsofwellness.com for Wellness updates! And ask me any questions you have at [email protected]. I answer all of them and look forward to hearing from you.

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Dr. Matt Chalmers

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only. Before taking any action based on this information you should first consult with your physician or health care provider. This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions regarding a medical condition, your health, or wellness

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