Salad With a Side of Fries Nutrition, Wellness & Weight Loss · Jenn Trepeck

What's Really Required Right Now & In the New Year (feat. Tara Schmidt)

·51 min·3 clips

Tara Schmidt says weight loss is rarely linear and the scale is the worst metric of progress.

1. Salad With a Side of Fries focuses on what is really required right now and in the new year, with Jen Trebek framing 2025 and 2026 as a moment for reflection and planning. 2. Jen introduces Tara Schmidt as a registered dietitian, Mayo Clinic instructor of nutrition in Rochester, Minnesota, and the lead dietitian for the Mayo Clinic diet. 3. The episode asks what people truly need to do for healthier lives, not what social media, friends, or diet culture say they should do. 4. Tara says her 1990s upbringing in diet culture shaped how she understands patients, the industry, and the psychology of food. 5. Jen and Tara connect that background to New Year’s resolutions, “new me” thinking, and the pressure to make weight the center of change. 6. Tara says weight is “your gravitational pull and nothing else,” and she argues that goal weight is usually unnecessary. 7. The discussion separates wanting to change weight from wanting to improve health, with weight treated as a possible secondary outcome. 8. Tara says obesity bias is common in culture and medicine, and she argues that high weight does not automatically mean poor health. 9. The episode then moves into 75 Hard, where Tara objects to the app’s “I failed” language and the rule that restarts people at zero. 10. She compares that rigid framing with real life events like a sick kid, a dog vomiting, or a day packed with meetings. 11. Tara says low-carb eating and macro counting can make sense when there is a clear nutritional reason, such as adequate protein or fat intake. 12. She asks what “low” means, whether the plan is sustainable, and whether it is simply a new form of calorie counting. 13. Tara says weight loss usually ranges from half a pound to two pounds per week, and she describes the pattern as a graph rather than a straight line. 14. Jen adds that a straight-line loss can be a warning sign because it may mean the person has not learned the habits needed to maintain progress. 15. The discussion turns to body composition, BMI, athletes, and the idea that someone can have normal weight obesity or be malnourished in a larger body. 16. Tara then explains GLP-1 medication as one tool in a toolbox, comparable to antihypertensive treatment alongside diet, exercise, and stress management. 17. She says her biggest concern is wider GLP-1 access without dietitian, doctor, or psychologist support, especially when people are not eating enough or strength training. 18. The tone stays conversational and direct, with Jen pushing examples and Tara answering in a clinical but plainspoken style. 19. People interested in evidence-based nutrition, weight loss, and anti-diet framing will get the most from this episode. 20. People looking for quick rules, trendy hacks, or a rigid program may skip it.

As heard by us

A grounded New Year reset that treats macros, body composition, and GLP-1s as practical tools rather than slogans.

The discussion opens on the turn into a new year and keeps its attention on practical wellness instead of slogans. It asks when counting macros actually helps, and lands on a simple answer: when it serves a real need, such as getting enough protein or paying closer attention to…

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Why you'd press play

You want a grounded wellness reset that treats macros and GLP-1s as tools, not magic.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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