An interview with Jessica Marcus, MS, RDN, IFNCP

Jessica Marcus is a registered dietitian nutritionist who takes nutrition to the next level, using a functional-medicine lens to find and fix root causes of weight gain – and pairing that with behavior and mindset coaching to help her clients, primarily women 35+, to make lifestyle changes that stick.

Dara, who’s worked with her for years as both a health coach and nutritionist, credits Jessica with helping her uncover extra stores of energy that have been truly game-changing. Read on for Jessica’s tips to get strong and lean, and find out how you can work with Jessica, too.

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Dara: What does it mean to be a functional dietitian?

JESSICA: While a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) provides more general nutritional advice based on standardized guidelines, as a functional RDN, I help people crack their unique health code and get to the root cause of their chronic symptoms using a more holistic and personalized approach. I use cutting edge protocols, labs and tools to find and fix underlying imbalances – both physical and emotional.

Having worked in this field for over 15 years, I’ve developed a really unique approach to weight loss. I combine three (3) things that I feel are really crucial to not only losing weight but sustaining it: nutrition and exercise advice targeted to the female metabolism after age 35, the functional medicine lens and critical thinking to find and fix root causes, and the behavior and mindset coaching to help my clients completely uplevel their habits so that the lifestyle changes stick for life.

When a 53 year old woman comes to me with weight gain and brain fog, I’m not just going to hand her a calorie restricted meal plan to follow. We’ll look at her labs and symptoms (including blood sugar, hormones, and the gut microbiome), the quality of her sleep, the types of workouts she’s doing, and how much she’s relying on food to cope with stress and emotions. I’ll support her with a personalized nutrition plan, meaningful lifestyle goals, supportive supplements, as well as the coaching and accountability to help her stick to her plan. 

Dara: You've developed a very clear niche, specifically helping women 35+. Why have you made that your area of focus?

JESSICA: I specifically chose to work with women over the age of 35 because it’s the time of life when hormone shifts start to indirectly drive weight gain. This time is really misunderstood in the conventional medical world, and many women get gaslighted when they bring up symptoms like weight gain, mood swings, fatigue, and low libido. “You’re just getting older” and “you just need to eat less and exercise more” are common and unhelpful pieces of advice. 

Women CAN feel great through the menopause transition, and they can absolutely lose weight with the right tools and approach. I focus on slow, steady weight loss through meaningful small changes that act to support the metabolism overall so everything gets better – women are able to lose body fat, build lean muscle, and get their energy and confidence back. 

Dara: Why does it feel so hard to maintain a healthy weight, especially once you hit perimenopause?

JESSICA: Because we’re using the wrong advice! Women’s exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist, Stacy Sims, famously says, “Women are not small men.” We need to stop studying men to understand how to take care of women. Women have estrogen receptors on nearly every cell of the body, so what works for a man is usually not going to work for a woman. 

As we enter perimenopause, our estrogen and progesterone levels start to fluctuate wildly and then eventually slide to a very low level. Up until this point, these hormones played a crucial role in stimulating muscle protein synthesis (the building of new muscle) and how we metabolize the foods we eat - especially carbs and sugar. Age-related muscle decline is also a big factor that impacts our metabolic rate.

Combine these physiologic changes with the added stressors most women take on as they enter this stage of life – managing children and grandchildren, careers, homes, and aging parents – and it’s a recipe for metabolic challenges and steady weight gain. But with the right set of tools and a targeted approach, women can reach their health goals and feel fantastic getting there. Never mind aging gracefully, let’s age powerfully!

Dara: What are your top suggestions for getting strong and lean that could apply to anyone (or almost anyone)?

JESSICA: Women need to get away from the mindset of cutting calories and pushing cardio. Sure, you can drop weight quickly by significantly restricting your calories, but if you’re not using an approach you can sustain for good, you will end up right back where you started. And when you drop weight quickly, you drop too much muscle mass. This is the absolute worst thing you can do for your metabolism – even though you might hit your goal weight for a while, you have to then cut your calories pretty drastically to stay there, and you’re so much more likely to gain it all back and then some. 

In my practice, there are two big pillars we focus on: strength and satiety. How much lean muscle you have determines how many calories you burn at rest, and it acts like a sponge to soak up glucose and keep your blood sugar stable. Weight aside, we want to manage blood sugar to manage inflammation in the body. Satiety – or the lack of hunger – is also a huge focus of my work. You simply cannot follow a healthy eating style for very long if you’re hungry all the time!

With my clients, we talk about what to add – hydration, enough high-quality protein, plenty of colorful vegetables and low sugar fruits, fiber-rich foods like avocados, beans and seeds, 8-10k steps/day with a focus on strength training 2-3x/wk. We also address the psychological aspects of eating through mindful and emotional eating tools.

It may not be as sensational, but slow, steady weight loss is much more sustainable than quick fad diets and detoxes. And you’re much more likely to keep the weight off when you’ve taken the time to ingrain the habits and build the systems that eventually become an automatic way of life. 

Dara: Everyone's talking about eating more protein these days — a lot more! Any secrets for getting more protein into your diet...without feeling like eating protein is a second job that you don't have time for? 

JESSICA: Yes! Protein is definitely having its moment in the spotlight right now, and for good reason. Protein helps support muscle tissue repair, which is crucial for building metabolism. It’s necessary for detoxification and helps keep blood sugar more stable throughout the day. It’s also the building block of our neurotransmitters and is crucial for supporting mood and a sense of calm.

Getting enough high quality protein is crucial, because certain protein sources (like most plant-based protein sources) lack leucine, which is considered the rate-limiting amino acid when it comes to building muscle tissue. 

Most animal protein sources are considered high quality in that they contain most or all of the amino acids. Build your meals around the protein source, and try to eat most of it early in the meal to maximize satiety. Some great animal-based lean protein sources include fish and seafood, chicken, turkey, grass-fed beef, Greek yogurt and cottage cheese. Whey protein powder is a great bioavailable protein source for smoothies and shakes. 

For someone who is plant-based, every meal needs to be intentional. Good protein sources include tofu and tempeh, beans and legumes, seeds, and spirulina. I recommend a protein powder supplement based on pea, hemp or pumpkin seeds. You can also consider branched chain amino acids to help you reach your body composition goals. 

For more ideas, you can grab my free 7-day meal plan here.

JESSICA'S OFFER FOR THE AYLA COMMUNITY

Jessica coaches a small number of women 1:1. If you’re serious about your health, she is offering a complimentary 45-min Metabolism Mapping Session as well as a $400 discount exclusively for the Ayla community!

During the session, she’ll help you identify exactly what is in the way of you reaching your health goals and map out what that plan would look like to get you there. If you’re a good fit for her program, she’ll share all the details on the call.

Schedule your session here: https://calendly.com/jessicamarcusrd/meetandgreet