Muscle Science for Women

Can you be addicted to food? Rachel opens with the research she has been doing since the emotional eating episode. Then the ladies answer two listener questions: whether three, ten-minute blocks spread across a day can build strength, and how to adjust training through heavy cycles, low iron and deep fatigue. This episode is sponsored by Peluva, makers of five-toe, zero-drop, barefoot-style shoes. When you put on a pair of Peluvas, you are getting an automatic foot strengthening effect, a toe spacer effect, and a healing effect from the damage caused by regular shoes. Peluva has sufficient cushioning to use for all manner of everyday movement, fitness and athletic activities, and navigating hard modern surfaces. And they look (surprisingly) good, and are super comfortable. Go ahead and use your specialized athletic shoes, work boots or even high heels when you need to, but the more you wear minimalist shoes when walking around and exercising safely, you can reawaken the natural functionality of the human foot to stand, walk, run, and perform. Visit https://checkout.peluva.com/MUSCLEMAVEN and use the the code MUSCLEMAVEN For 10% off your first pair! CHAPTERS 06:48 Eating disorders, restriction, and what is different here 11:44 Stacked rewards at night and the Dopamine Reset Challenge 17:40 Consistency over extremes 18:54 Hannah's question about short strength sessions through the day 21:12 Rachel on exercise snacks, warming up, and tracking overload 27:48 Tiana's question about heavy cycles, low iron and fatigue 29:06 Ashleigh on grace, and what low iron actually feels like 33:04 Rachel on maintenance, not a deficit, and getting support 40:02 The sports betting ad and the outrage economy PROGRAMS Muscle Science For Women, 12-week strength program: https://rgfit.com/msw Grow Your Glutes, 8 weeks: https://rgfit.com/glutes Strong and Sculpted Shoulders, 8 weeks: https://rgfit.com/shoulders Fit Pregnancy Program: https://rgfit.com/fit-pregnancy Dopamine Reset Challenge, 10 days: https://rgfit.com/offers/BAQj63ya Newsletter: https://substack.com/@musclescienceforwomen Ashleigh VanHouten: https://ashleighvanhouten.com Instagram @themusclemaven: https://www.instagram.com/themusclemaven/ Rachel Gregory: https://rgfit.com Instagram @rachelgregory.cns: https://www.instagram.com/rachelgregory.cns/

In this episode, Rachel and Ashleigh talk about recent struggles with comfort eating, sharing the reality that nearly EVERYONE has experienced at least once: eating in secret, or feeling shame and guilt over their food choices, and eating in a way that doesn't support your goals even when you know you don't really want to. Why do we sometimes eat compulsively even when we tell ourselves we shouldn't, or don't want to? Why do we feel so much shame around "guilty pleasure" eating? Rachel also shares where she has been over the past few months, including another heartbreak/grief cycle, a period of depression, starting a low dose antidepressant, and the body image feelings that come with regaining weight. In addition to sharing some very personal stories, they also offer a range of strategies and tactics for breaking habits that aren't serving you: things like urge surfing, planning, mindfulness and other therapies that can have a big impact. Some big lessons come out of this episode, including the fact that you are not alone in your struggles; externalizing your fears can make them less scary; and there is always work to be done (and why this is a good thing!) Thank you to our sponsor, True Nutrition, where you can customize your own protein! Choose a mix of protein bases, a range of delicious flavors and sweetness level, and boost your protein with adaptogens, collagen, immune support, electrolytes and much more. Ashleigh loves the chocolate fudge brownie with a grassfed New Zealand beef protein base, and Rachel is testing different protein base combos for the ultimate protein ice cream recipe. Save time, effort, and money by combining all your supplement needs into one delicious protein powder. Head to truenutrition.com/MUSCLE and use the code MUSCLE for 20% off your custom mix! Chapters 00:13 What this episode covers instead of fiber 03:44 Listener feedback on the Strong and Sculpted Shoulders program 05:48 Using food to take the edge off 08:36 Why the brain defaults to food under stress 10:16 Shame, guilt, and eating in secret 11:43 Meeting the pattern with compassion instead of shame 15:13 Getting back on track faster instead of never messing up 16:04 Urge surfing and pausing before you react 19:30 Interrupting the pattern and building new pathways 21:16 Setting up your environment and taking a portion instead of the whole bar 24:43 Working with a coach, structure, and tracking as data 26:11 Change takes time, Ashleigh on eating two dinners 28:25 Rachel on the past few months 30:18 Getting lean while depressed 32:41 Starting an antidepressant and what changed 36:27 Body image, postpartum, and pressure in the fitness industry 39:29 Externalizing it and asking for help 41:27 Stigma around antidepressants and weight loss drugs 45:43 What this podcast is for 47:00 The work is not done 48:55 Sponsor break, True Nutrition 51:42 Sign off Takeaways Both hosts say they eat to cope with stress, and both say that knowing the mechanism does not stop them doing it. Rachel frames the goal as getting back faster rather than never slipping, and says that interrupting the pattern even once starts building new pathways you can prove to yourself. Ashleigh's tool is putting time between the urge and the reaction, five or ten minutes, then deciding, so the choice is a made one either way. Rachel's portion approach for clients: take a serving instead of the whole bar, eat it somewhere else, pay attention to it, then step away and pick a different way to cope if the feeling is still there. Rachel says a low dose antidepressant has helped alongside therapy and her own work, and she is careful to say the medication did not cause the weight gain. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vehl-lpMXM8 Programs Muscle Science For Women, 12-week strength program: https://rgfit.com/msw Grow Your Glutes, 8 weeks: https://rgfit.com/glutes Strong and Sculpted Shoulders, 8 weeks: https://rgfit.com/shoulders Fit Pregnancy Program: https://rgfit.com/fit-pregnancy Dopamine Reset Challenge, 10 days: https://rgfit.com/offers/BAQj63ya Newsletter: https://substack.com/@musclescienceforwomen Ashleigh VanHouten: https://ashleighvanhouten.com , Instagram @themusclemaven Rachel Gregory: https://rgfit.com , Instagram @rachelgregory.cns

Rachel and Ashleigh both ran a short fast in the same week, Ashleigh for 36 hours and Rachel for 24, and this conversation is what came out of it. They cover why they each wanted to do it, how Ashleigh cycled the calories from her fasting day across the rest of her week instead of erasing them, and where fasting sits as one tool among many rather than a rule. The first stretch is a coaching conversation about Ashleigh's 12-week cut, how to decide whether to extend a fat loss phase, and why Rachel treats the reverse diet as the part that matters most. Later on, Rachel walks through how she uses a protein sparing modified fast day inside a weekly calorie budget, and both hosts talk about who fasting may not suit. CHAPTERS 00:13 Welcome 02:25 Ashleigh's 12-week cut and how it has actually felt 03:24 Extend the fat loss phase or start reversing out of it 05:47 Why Rachel treats the reverse diet as the part that matters most 07:29 Why hunger often goes up when you start eating more 09:47 Ashleigh's planned diet break, and never having reverse dieted with a coach 12:02 Coming back to structure after a diet break 13:31 Thinking about calories wzeekly and monthly instead of daily 15:48 Have a plan, without turning it into a numbers game 16:37 How the 36-hour fast came about 16:53 Rachel's fasting history and fasting as a tool in the toolbox 19:47 Resilience as Ashleigh's reason for short fasts 21:55 Rachel stopping at 24 hours, and changing the plan without calling it a failure 23:13 Ashleigh's 36 hours, and cycling the calories around the fasting day 27:41 Hunger during the fast, and hunger in a fat loss phase 30:22 Going to bed hungry, protecting sleep, and what Rachel eats before bed 33:26 Calorie cycling, autophagy, and who fasting may not suit 37:18 Getting enough protein inside a restricted eating window 39:17 PSMF explained, and what a PSMF day looks like in a week 44:23 Protein-forward resets, and why there is no one right way 46:15 Adherence as the deciding factor, and trying things for yourself 47:49 Wrap up, and where to send questions TAKEAWAYS • Rachel's approach to extending a fat loss phase is to commit two weeks at a time rather than another four, and to keep going only if sleep, hunger and energy are still holding up. • Rachel says the reverse diet is more important than the end of the diet, because hunger usually goes up as food increases, so the first two to three weeks are where the structure has to hold. • Ashleigh fasted 36 hours and Rachel stopped at 24 because she was subbing for a football game that night and fighting a cold, which both hosts framed as changing the plan for a reason rather than failing it. Ashleigh, already in a deficit, redistributed the fasting day's calories across the rest of the week rather than erasing them, eating more in the days before and after. • Rachel's PSMF day is roughly 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight with the rest filled by fiber and fat to around 1,000 calories, usually placed on a rest day, with the remaining calories spread over the other six days. • Both hosts hedged the whole topic: fasting is a tool with benefits and drawbacks, it may not suit someone with a history of restrictive or disordered eating, someone pregnant or breastfeeding, or someone whose focus is building muscle, and nobody has to do it. PROGRAMS Muscle Science For Women, 12-week strength program: https://rgfit.com/msw Grow Your Glutes, 8 weeks: https://rgfit.com/glutes Strong and Sculpted Shoulders, 8 weeks: https://rgfit.com/shoulders Fit Pregnancy Program: https://rgfit.com/fit-pregnancy Dopamine Reset Challenge, 10 days: https://rgfit.com/offers/BAQj63ya Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/TfdglZPRGqY Newsletter: https://substack.com/@musclescienceforwomen Ashleigh VanHouten: https://ashleighvanhouten.com (Instagram @themusclemaven) Rachel Gregory: https://rgfit.com (Instagram @rachelgregory.cns)

Does it suddenly feel like everyone you know is on a GLP-1 medication? Even people who seem to be using it just to lose those "last ten pounds"? Are you feeling pressure to do the same, frustrated that doing it the "hard way" doesn't seem to be working...or are you just curious about whether a GLP-1 would be helpful for you? In this episode, Rachel and Ashleigh talk about the decision-making process for GLP-1 use, and some things you may want to consider about muscle gain and loss while using GLP-1's. As a reminder, MSW does not intend to judge, prescribe, or diagnose anyone - we are not medical professionals and your decisions are your own. Still, we hope you find this episode helpful and at the very least, gives you a framework for decision-making. Just remember, regardless of the tools you use to lose weight, the only way to get strong and build muscle is the hard way, earning it through intelligent training, but it's also the fun way, and we think it's very worth it. Hey, do you want to join Rachel and Ashleigh somewhere warm and beachy for a healthy, fun, challenging MSW retreat? Fill out this form to give us feedback on your ideal fun fitness retreat! Thank you to our sponsor, True Nutrition, where you can customize your own protein! Choose a mix of protein bases, a range of delicious flavors and sweetness level, and boost your protein with adaptogens, collagen, immune support, electrolytes and much more. Ashleigh loves the chocolate fudge brownie with a grassfed New Zealand beef protein base, and Rachel is testing different protein base combos for the ultimate protein ice cream recipe. Save time, effort, and money by combining all your supplement needs into one delicious protein powder. Head to truenutrition.com/MUSCLE and use the code MUSCLE for 20% off your custom mix! Join the conversation - leave a comment on the podcast, share the episode on social media, or leave a comment, topic idea, or question on the website: https://musclescienceforwomen.com/contact Or send a voice message here and they may play it on the pod! https://www.speakpipe.com/msg/s/468952/1/3h8gyc5cfc71vsbu Check out the MSW Substack here: https://musclescienceforwomen.substack.com Learn about all of the MSW training programs here: https://musclescienceforwomen.com/programs Subscribe to the new YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@musclescienceforwomen

In this short solo episode, Ashleigh offers a free Substack subscription if you review the pod; she answers a listener question about whether or not it's normal to make gains and feel BETTER during pregnancy, and she rates a bunch of fitness trends. Join the conversation - leave a comment on the podcast, share the episode on social media, or leave us a comment, topic idea, or question on our website: https://musclescienceforwomen.com/contact If you'd like to win a free premium subscription to our Substack, simply rate/review our podcast and send us proof/screenshot to our email, [email protected], or send it to us on Instagram. Check out our Substack here: https://musclescienceforwomen.substack.com Learn about all of our training programs here: https://musclescienceforwomen.com/programs Here's a link to the Kion creatine that Ashleigh recommends: https://glnk.io/j6vy/themusclemaven Subscribe to our new YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@musclescienceforwomen

In this episode, Ashleigh offers updates on her month-long Costa Rica residency, the ladies discuss more dopamine management, and they dive deep into AI as it relates to the current state (and future) of health coaching, training, and programming. And yes, they also answer questions about why you might not be seeing the progress you're expecting even though you're doing everything right with your nutrition and training. Do you think AI is good, bad, or somewhere in between? Leave us your thoughts at [email protected], or send us a note on our website here: https://musclescienceforwomen.com/contact Join our Substack here: https://substack.com/@musclescienceforwomen Learn more about our programs here: https://musclescienceforwomen.com Subscribe to our new YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@musclescienceforwomen

Welcome to 2026! In this episode, Rachel and Ashleigh catch up on their holiday breaks, share personal reflections on growth and alignment, and announce an exciting new product launching soon. In This Episode: Rachel shares about her Costa Rica adventure (and travel mishaps) The power of journaling and self-reflection 2026 personal goals and intentions Announcing a new challenge launching soon Why low-effort rewards are harming our focus and progress Breaking phone addiction and being more present How to fall back in love with the process of building muscle If you want to submit a question, offer feedback or just say hi, email [email protected]. Join our Substack here: https://substack.com/@musclescienceforwomen Learn more about our programs here: https://musclescienceforwomen.com Subscribe to our new YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@musclescienceforwomen Resources Mentioned: The Stutz documentary (Netflix) "The Tools" by Phil Stutz Whisper app (talk-to-text journaling)