The Struggle
It's a common misconception that we get fat because we eat too much and exercise too little—after all, this is what we've been told our whole lives!
So many of us (me included!) have spent years and years starving ourselves and exercising like crazy just trying to get the weight off—weight that seemed to appear for no apparent reason when it all began… We were told we just needed more willpower and to avoid eating too many calories or high-fat foods and that the weight would come off. We did as we were told, yet when we gained even MORE weight, we were chastised by our doctors for not following instructions! However, we KNEW we had done everything possible to lose the weight…
Most of us DID lose weight—sometimes LOTS of weight—until for some strange reason the weight started coming back on even though we hadn't changed our eating or exercise habits! How confusing! What a mystery! No one believed us when we said we weren't doing anything to cause weight gain, yet gaining weight we were! And even more mysteriously, every time we dieted and lost weight, then regained the weight, not only did we gain what we'd lost—we gained EXTRA weight for good measure!
Eventually we either gave up completely or some of us did even more drastic measures, such as bariatric surgery, just trying to get the weight off. Yet for many, even that didn't work. What was wrong with us? Did we have some kind of mental abnormality?! Were we really just weak-willed and lazy like the doctors (and most of society) said we were?
Good News!
If this describes you, then I have some GOOD NEWS for you! You are NOT weak-willed, lazy, or mental! You have just been misinformed by well-meaning physicians, nutritionists, books, etc. Once you learn what I have to share on this site, you will finally understand the "mystery" of why you got fat to begin with and—more importantly—how to get UNfat!!
So what is this "secret"—this answer to the mystery? It makes so much sense once you understand this concept that's totally different from everything you've ever been taught about food, weight, obesity, diabetes, etc. It is NOT eating too many calories or too much fat in your diet that makes you fat—it's a HORMONE! And like one of my favorite doctors says… "Trying to lose weight when your hormones are working against you is like trying to just decide not to have a period this month!" – Dr. Adam Nally, aka @docmuscles You can exercise till you're blue in the face (literally!)—spending every single day at the gym—and the weight is NOT going to come off if you don't stop the hormonal disturbance that is causing the obesity!
The hormone I'm referring to is probably one you've heard of, but you may not know what all it does. It's all about INSULIN! Insulin is a hormone made by the beta cells of the pancreas in response to eating. One of its jobs is to "unlock" the cell doors to allow glucose to enter for energy. It is the hormone that Type I Diabetics quit making, so they must forever inject "exogenous" (from the outside) insulin or they will die! So insulin is a GOOD thing that we can't live without!
So what's the problem then? The problem is when we have TOO MUCH insulin. High insulin levels (hyperinsulinemia) is caused by eating excessive carbohydrates for many years until the body starts getting "resistant" to its effects. This is called "insulin resistance," and I will be posting a LOT more about this topic in future posts! Once we become insulin resistant, it takes more and more insulin to get the glucose moved out of our bloodstream into our cells. Here's the problem… Insulin is a FAT STORAGE HORMONE! That's its job! So the more insulin we make (or take) the more weight we will gain—and it's virtually impossible to lose weight when you're in this state—especially if you inject insulin for Type II Diabetes! To really demonstrate how drastic this problem is, below is a photo that shows a Type I diabetic who kept injecting insulin in the same places over and over…
So our goal is to reduce our insulin levels so we can return to a normal weight. (As a side note, high insulin also does many other harmful things to us, but we'll save that for a later post!)
How do we lower our insulin levels? The first way is to stop eating the foods that cause high insulin secretion—CARBOHYDRATES! Carbohydrates are the worst offenders—especially refined, processed carbs—so these MUST go if we ever hope to get our weight and/or diabetes under control! Protein also triggers insulin release but to a much lesser degree. And guess what food type doesn't trigger insulin at all??!! The very food that we've been instructed for the past 30 years to AVOID—FAT!!
So follow me here… If fat is the one food type that doesn't trigger insulin… and if insulin is what causes fat storage in the body (weight gain)… then we've had it all totally BACKWARDS!! We shouldn't AVOID fat—but rather fat should be the highest if we want good health! In fact, our BRAINS are made up of 80% FAT!! So think about it… We've stopped our kids from eating fat—feeding them low-fat foods, SKIM milk, etc.—yet their brains NEED this fat to function! And just look at the rise in ADD/ADHD since the "fat-free craze" started in the '80s!! Another disease that is on the rise is Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia… We're literally STARVING our brains of the fats they need! More about all this later, but for now just know that we should eat:
Low Carbs – Moderate Protein – High Fat
This is known as "low carb, high fat" or LCHF—also known as "ketogenic"—and this web site will show you how to do just this so you can lose weight and reverse the diseases that are caused by high insulin levels…
I want to leave you for now with a couple of videos that really explain this in more detail! I highly recommend you take the time to view them—as well as the books, podcasts, videos, and related web sites I will be posting in my Resources area. Be sure to subscribe for all that's coming (see form in right column)!
Videos
Why We Get Fat: Adiposity 101 and The Alternative Hypothesis of Obesity (Gary Taubes)
VERY well worth the 1:10 to watch! Also recommend his book called Why We Get Fat
The Calorie Deception (Jason Fung) – A discussion about the cause of obesity and why the focus on calories is so misplaced.
Also recommended is Dr. Fung's book, The Obesity Code
Note: Dr. Fung will occasionally throw out a bad word, so sorry about that! He doesn't do it in every video and not very excessively, and I feel his info is important enough and good enough that I just overlook his "bombs" but I did want to let my visitors know this!