Why the Calories In/Calories Out Equation Can Fail Women with Jody Dushay, MD (Episode 237)

Hit Play Not Pause

Health & Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Mental Health

4.9 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2025

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How many times have we heard that weight loss and maintenance is simply “calories in, calories out?” Well, the equation may be rooted in thermodynamics, but the reality is biology, history, hormones, and a whole lot more. This week, endocrinologist and Harvard obesity researcher Dr. Jody Dushay breaks down why this concept is far more complex than the numbers on a food label or how many calories our devices tell us we’ve burned. From how your body actually absorbs calories to how (or not) it expends them, we explore how and why weight gain and loss anything but straightforward—especially during menopause, when shifting body composition, gut microbiome changes, altered insulin responses, and evolving hormone levels, create a whole new metabolic landscape. As you’ll see, your body isn’t a calculator—it’s a dynamic, adapting system. We also revisit GLP-1 drugs, which are increasingly popular with midlife women, and where they fit in this whole equation (so to speak).

Jody Dushay, MD, MMSc, is an endocrinologist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is also the founder and director of Well Powered, a comprehensive wellness and weight management program. Dr Dushay has studied the effect of pharmacotherapies and dietary interventions on body weight for years, including a large single-site study examining the effects of a glucagon-like peptide receptor agonist on body weight in obese women without diabetes. As a triathlete, she has qualified for Kona 3 times and came in 2nd in her age group at the 2020 Ironman World Championship in St George. You can learn more about her and her work at wellpowered.org.

Resources:

Dr. Jody Dushay’s research:

Short-term exenatide treatment leads to significant weight loss in a subset of obese women without diabetes

Weight Loss Outcomes Among Early High Responders to Exenatide Treatment: A Randomized, Placebo Controlled Study in Overweight and Obese Women

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to Hit Play, Not Pause, a feisty menopause podcast for active performance-minded women.
0:14.6	I am your host, Celine Yeager. Each week, I bring you advice from athletes, scientists, researchers, and other experts to help you feel and perform you best no matter what your hormones are doing.
0:25.0	This show is a production of Live Feisty Media.
0:30.7	Welcome back, strong feisty women.
0:33.5	I hope you all are well and enjoying your summer if it is summer where I find you and your winter if you're on the other side of the globe from where I sit.
0:42.2	And I have personally been enjoying my summer quite a bit.
0:47.6	And it is really one of my favorite times of year.
0:50.6	I just love being able to get on my bike in the warmth and the daylight at 6 or 6.30 a.m.
0:58.0	and get in a nice ride or maybe a nice run and jump in the pool and still be at my desk writing
1:04.3	and podcasting away by 9 a.m. I just really cherish that. So I hope you are doing well wherever you are too. But I digress.
1:15.5	Let's get into this week's show because this week I am back in the studio talking to Dr. Jody
1:22.8	Doucher, who we had on previously to speak specifically about GLP1 weight loss drugs. And if you missed that one,
1:30.8	I will put a link into the show notes. You can check out that conversation in full.
1:35.3	Jody is the goat for talking all things weight loss because she's an endocrinologist, so she really
1:41.0	understands hormones. That's important, especially for us women, as well as a
1:46.4	weight loss researcher. And she has studied the effect of pharmacotherapies and dietary interventions
1:52.3	on body weight for well over a decade. And she is also the founder and director of well-powered,
1:58.9	a comprehensive wellness and weight management program.
2:02.1	She's a triathlete who has qualified for Kona three times. In short, she just gets it.
2:07.6	And I wanted to bring Jody back on to have a show dedicated to calories in, calories out,
2:14.6	which is what we see and hear anytime someone brings up the struggles that they're
2:19.8	having with their weight. Well, it's just calories in, calories out, so eat less and move more.
	...

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