Gary Taubes notes that calories in, calories out as a cause of obesity is an example of failed medical thinking. The whole concept of calories is too simple. If your metabolism is out of whack, how much you eat or exercise is irrelevant.
The best way to really understand the more than 200 years of scientific research and clinical experience on obesity is to read Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. This book is a compendium of detailed research and may be a little too deep for most people. The second best strategy is to read the chapter by chapter review here:
The standard dogma that being overweight or obese is caused by excess calorie consumption and/or inadequate physical activity does not hold up to evidence and observation. Increased rates of obesity in the U.S. over the last 40 years correlate with increased carbohydrate intake and decreased fat intake. Pima indians living in the United States (on a diet high in refined sugars and starches) have rampant obesity, whereas those living in Mexico (eating their traditional diet) do not.
Diet and Exercise Dogma
Take some time to read the summary of each chapter. What you will find is that answers about how to stay slim and healthy have nothing to do with excess calories or inadequate exercise. Mr. Taubes offers what I call the anti-dogma. Go ahead and take a look and see what I mean. Even go to the extreme like I did and get your copy of his book (Amazon has good prices on used copies by now).
Take-Home Lessons
Unfortunately, too many bloggers have taken the main points out of Gary Taubes’ book and twisted them around for their own purposes. The so-called Paleo Diet enthusiasts are a good example. The relationship between diet and health is just not that simple. If you really want to see where the Atikins and Paleo diet people get sidetracked, then go a step further and get a copy of The China Study (also see Amazon). If you don’t make drastic changes in your diet after reading that book, then you’re going to need a lot of luck if you want to enjoy a long and healthy life.
Epilogue
While you are waiting for your copy of the book, here are some ’sound bites’ that highlight the main points (taken from the above linked review):
1. Dietary fat does not cause obesity, heart disease or other chronic diseases.
2. Refined carbohydrates, through insulin secretion, do.
3. Sugars, especially those including fructose, are particularly harmful.
4. Refined carbohydrates are the dietary cause of heart disease and diabetes. They are the most likely (but not only) dietary cases of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and other chronic diseases.
5. Obesity is not caused by overeating or sedentary behavior.
6. Calorie restriction does not cause long-term weight loss, it causes hunger.
7. Fattening and obesity are caused by a hormonal imbalance, which can be driven by diet (e.g. insulin secretion).
8. Insulin is the primary regulator of fat storage.
9. Carbohydrate intake drives insulin, and is therefore proportional to our body composition.
10. Carbohydrates also increase hunger and decrease energy.
Man problems are rampant, if the prevalence of commercials about taking baths outdoors with your honey is any indication. One prominent naturopathic doctor calls this increase in ED, man boobs, etc., as the wimpfication of American males. Belly fat might be the main culprit.
The idea for posting on this topic occurred to me while I was out jogging in the heat this afternoon. Delirium sometimes spurs creativity that way.
The naturopath that I refer to is Dr. William Wong. He blames the overdevelopment of the feminine side of men, so to speak, on soy. Soy products are everywhere, so this is an easy target. He objects to the widespread exposure to a particular phytoestrogen, called genistein, that is made by soybean plants. Never mind that genistein is the active ingredient of a patented natural cancer treatment, which is a rare thing indeed. And forget that phytoestrogens such as genistein are, in fact, not steroids; nor are such molecules in any way chemically related to steroids.
The fear of phytoestrogens from soy is misplaced, anyway. The most potent phyoestrogen of all is produced by hops plants, which means that it is common ingredient in beer. Can you imagine a campaign to eradicate beer because it contains a powerful phytoestrogen that might downgrade your manliness? Nah. I didn’t think so. Soy is a much easier target.
I digress.
The topic of this post is that belly fat is a more likely culprit, because abnormal fat is well known to be an estrogen factory. (Quick note to menopausal women: If you are carrying a substantial amount of unwanted fat around your belly, thighs, upper arms, or backside, then be aware that your estrogen production has most assuredly NOT come to a halt.)
Overproduction of estrogen (more specifically, estradiol) by belly fat puts a strain on your balance of steroid hormones. Although your body synthesizes more than 150 steroid hormones, a drop in levels of the one called progesterone as you age seems to be the most critical. Progesterone acts to oppose the effects of estrogen, thereby negating the onset of estrogen dominance. It also provides material that can be made into testosterone, so less progesterone leads to testosterone deficiency.
And heaven help you if you drink bottled water or eat canned foods. The BPA from plastic bottles and plastic liners in most food cans acts like a foreign estrogen (techie term is xenoestrogen), which makes everything in your body that is already going downhill just degenerate faster.
I’m not going to pop off with some sort of general, arm-waving recommendation to get more steroids into your system. You can, of course, get prescription testosterone shots or patches. That may help. You can more easily do what I do, which is to use a progesterone cream every day, in a formula for manly men. (Women have to use a different formula.)
Pointing out problems is easy, and giving simple-minded recommendations may or may not be effective. What I will say, though, is that all of the hormone imbalance that is associated with belly fat, regardless of whether it is the cause or the effect, can be put back on track when you start restoring your native levels of human growth hormone (HGH).
This is why I included a discussion about how to increase HGH levels as one of the steps in my report, “5 Steps to a Slimmer and Healthier You,” which is free through this blog. And it is why I have found out all the easiest natural ways to boost HGH levels, from dietary changes to supplements, exercise, and even the role of sleep.
The bottom line to finish this post, then, is this: Belly fat is a bigger problem than you might think (sorry for the pun there). It diminishes maleness, among other things. However, as long as you do what it takes to get your HGH levels to where they should be, then belly fat becomes less of a problem, as do all the secondary issues that are associated with it.
That is as far as my heat-stroke delirium can take me for the moment.
The granddaddy of all hormones for regulating aging is human growth hormone (HGH). Loss of HGH over time also leads to a decreased ability to burn off food calories as you get older. The result is fat gain.
The Catch-22 of this scenario is that it also works in the other direction. Fat gain suppresses HGH levels, which accelerates aging. It almost seems like you are trapped on a closed loop. Less HGH leads to more fat. More fat leads to less HGH. And the consequence is that you age faster and faster as you gain fat and lose HGH.
The relationship between HGH and overweight was first described in a research article in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism in 1991. The scientists behind this study pointed out that, on average, for men aged 21 to 71 with a normal body mass index, the production rate of HGH decreased by 14 percent with each decade of life. In comparison, each unit of Body Mass Index (BMI) reduced the daily HGH secretion rate by 6 percent.
This means that the drop in HGH secretion rate with an increase in BMI from 21 to 28 corresponds to the average drop going from age 21 to age 45. In other words, all adult men whose BMI classifies them as obese (i.e., 27 units and above) have HGH levels that correspond to men who are at least 20 years older. This leads to high-speed aging and the increasing prevalence of age-related diseases in younger people.
Women are not off the hook just because this study included only men in the experimental group. Indeed, fluctuation levels of estrogen and other steroid hormones in women during monthly cycles and menopause may amplify the consequences of HGH loss. One such consequence is faster fat gain.
The Four Best Solutions
Belly fat loss would, of course, be the most important strategy for enhancing HGH levels and thereby additional fat loss. Even though this sounds logical, the failure rate for long-term fat loss is too high to just willy-nilly direct you to do so, wish you luck, and send you on your way.
Fortunately, the close connection between belly fat and HGH levels opens up the possibility of restoring hormone levels first, which then would lead to fat loss. This can, indeed, be accomplished as follows:
Solution 1. The most direct way to increase HGH levels is to receive HGH replacement therapy. This solution, however, requires medical treatment with a prescription drug. It is also very expensive and generally not covered by health insurance. If you can take advantage of this solution, however, you do not have to do anything else for fat loss.
Solution 2. This and the following two solutions entail the natural enhancement of HGH levels that your body already produces over a 24 hour period. One of the normal spikes in HGH levels comes at about two hours after you get to sleep at night. You can enhance this spike by taking certain amino acid supplements before bedtime. These act as what are called HGH secretagogues, which refers to their ability to induce your pituitary gland to release more HGH. The two most important supplementsl amino acids are L-arginine (2-3 grams) and L-lysine (1 gram).
Other amino acids that enhance nighttime HGH levels include L-glutamine and L-tryptophan. (The latter may also be replaced with 5-hydroxytryptophan, or 5HTP.) Most supplement companies offer products that are formulated specifically as HGH secretagogues, so the right amino acids are easy to find at most nutrition stores.
Solution 3. A high-intensity weight-lifting workout will cause a spike in HGH levels. You can boost this effect with HGH secretagogues, especially L-arginine and L-lysine. In addition, L-glycine will enhance the results of your HGH-boosting workout. Most supplement formulas do not include this particular amino acid, even though good research backs up its use for enhancing exercise.
You can get the best results for boosting HGH through a high intensity workout by taking amino acid secretagogues on an empty stomach, about 1-1.5 hours before your workout.
Solution 4. The most ignored and overlooked strategy for enhancing HGH secretion is related to when you eat. Normally your HGH levels will start to pick up at about 2 hours after meal, increasing to a peak amount at about 4 to 5 hours after eating. At first HGH works with insulin to help metabolize food into muscle building. Once the insulin is almost gone, HGH works solely to mobilize fat for burning as fuel.
The effect of HGH on fat loss is at its greatest more than 4 hours after a meal. Stimulating this HGH spike means that you have to space your meals at least 5 hours apart.
Now here is the absolute best way to boost your post-meal HGH surge: fasting. The mini-fast after 4 hours is helpful. However, fasting from dinner to breakfast the next morning, spacing them at least 12 hours apart (no between-meal snacking!), is much more effective for burning fat because of the overnight fasting.
Recently scientists have been studying the effects of more extensive fasting that is done once or twice per week. They call it intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting has become so important for weight loss, anti-aging, and many aspects of health that any internet search for this phrase will yield tens of thousands of pages.
Accelerating Belly Fat Loss
The best scientific results and the most supportive testimonials on intermittent fasting involve a 24 to 34 hour fasting period once or twice per week. One of the truly appealing aspects of this approach is that it removes a lot of worry about what to eat on non-fasting days, because the beneficial effects of a single fasting period are so powerful. This does not mean that intermittent fasting gives you free license to eat junk food. However, it does mean that you can lose fat, reverse and slow down the onslaught of aging, and enjoy great health and fitness just by using this simple strategy to boost recovery of your own HGH to youthful levels.
Although the concept of intermittent fasting seems simple, you have to really know what you are doing to get optimum benefits from it. Fortunately for you (and me), I have found a resource that provides all you need to know. You can see more details about this resource on a special page that I have for this purpose, here:
Fasting for weight loss hit the headlines recently, based on some scientific research that has nearly nothing to do with the topic. News media really blew it this time. The research involved a group of people who do not even remotely represent you or anyone else who wants to lose weight. The science behind this report is fine, although the yellow journalism stinks.
Weight loss news reports can sometimes just be a load of crap!
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Studies: Burn More Fat on Empty Stomach
This is a great title for a news article headline, don’t you think? Unfortunately, the media failed to cite the original work. After some digging I found it on Pubmed. The research focused on world class cyclists, and the results showed that ultra high intensity training with low muscle glycogen led to burning more fat. This, of course, is common sense.
How do you get to a level of low muscle glycogen? Since this is the form of carbohydrate stored in muscle, the only way to go low is by not eating. Of course, this is complicated by the fact that liver also stores glycogen, and that not eating may also lead to muscle loss. No matter to the journalists. The whole idea that research on world class cyclists could apply to you an me is ridiculous from the get-go. Might as well compare us with lab rats.
Of course, if you do ultra high intensity training and are a world class cyclist, then this research may be good news for you.
The Real Story Behind Fasting for Weight Loss
Meal spacing leads to all kinds of hormone changes involving insulin, growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor-1, and leptin, among others. The pattern of release of these hormones after a meal follows a prescribed response to food and its digestion over time. The most effective fat loss period, due to these patterns, is the 12 or so hours between dinner and breakfast the next day. This is your daily fasting for maximum benefit for weight loss.
Extended fasting all by itself can boost the daily dinner-to-breakfast fasting results. What I mean by extended fasting is no more than 24 hours. The 3-day or 8-day fasts that some people love to do are too extreme.
Weight Loss With Fasting
Fasting specifically directs your body to go after fat, once stored glycogen becomes unavailable. However, there are certain strategies that you must follow for fasting – before, during, and after – to make sure that fat loss is the target and not muscle loss.
Brad Pilon is the world’s leading expert on how to do this right. Fortunately, he has put together a manual for all of us normal people (not world class athletes) to get rid of belly fat through proper fasting. He calls his program Eat Stop Eat, which is cute and clever and to the point. I have linked an icon above to the page where he explains it better than I can. It is also here:
Unlike the stupid media reports that pushed my buttons on this topic, Brad’s ideas are spot on. Go ahead and read what he has to say and you will see what I mean.
Coconut oil weightloss is an increasingly hot topic. The mixture of fats in coconut oil, called medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), speeds up metabolism of your own excess fat. Coconut oil dieting is even backed by some serious scientific research. Here is some of the latest information on coconut oil weight loss.
Coconut oil has been found to aid the body in destroying dozens of harmful viruses, supports the immune system, improves chronic fatigue, boosts energy and will even help you lose excess body fat. Dr. Mary G. Enig, one of the world’s …
This rise in temperature indicates higher metabolic activity caused by better thyroid functioning, revealing how coconut oil helps your thyroid and boosts your metabolism More in the book Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Sally Fallon and Dr. Mary …
Bonnie90505 on September 6, 2009 at 6:40 am. I love coconut oil for weigh loss as a benefit and also so many others as you mention, good job spreading the word. hotandfitbabe on October 10, 2009 at 12:31 am. Don’t Be fat any longer ! …
The opposite, coconut oil helps boost your metabolism and thus help lose weight. Stonewalljackson7 on November 4, 2009 at 5:12 pm. I use a lot of coconut flour for the fiber. any other benefits? germanicelt on November 27, 2009 at 1:47 pm. I take my coconut oil with some raw cocoa powder … The body does not recognize xylitol as anything useful and treats it as a pathogen (stores it in FAT to keep it away from internal organs) – same goes for all artificial sweeteners. …
The best diet to lose weight fast may already be in your kitchen. Your individual results may demand a different strategy than someone else. Here is some information that will help you decide what is best for you.
Are you upset about your stomach and want to lose the belly fat? Then you should pay more attention to what you eat. This excess fat around the belly is.
Your diet program should contain diary products, but make sure that you consume low fat and skimmed milk. In addition, check the foods you consume so as to eliminate the foods containing sugar. Those who want to get rid of belly fat, …
Publish Date: 06/05/2010 10:51
Food for thought on the best diets to lose weight fast,
The best diets to lose weight fast absolutely must have the proper balance between omega 3 and omega 6 oils. You are heading the wrong direction if you are eating foods made from grains or using common cooking oils. Here is how to get back in balance and lose weight faster.
Visit the tinyurl.com to get your FREE sample meal plans and nutrition report. Click here to get started: tinyurl.com And get access to our popular “Nutritionist Tells All” Newsletter Watch as Isabel explains how eating foods high in Omega 3’s can he…
This is just a beginning. When you consume the right fats in the right proportions, everything that you do to lose weight will be faster, easier, and more effective.
Sometimes it is inspirational to just see how an every day non-celebrity has succeeded at losing weight. Take a look at this weight loss video to see what I mean.
I show my transition from 170lbs to 130lbs. kiannaluv.com Weight Loss Basics kiannaluv.com Do you have a WEIGHT LOSS QUESTION FOR ME? Post it here! tinyurl.com And it will be answered in a post like the ones below YOUR Weight loss questions answered …
New research points to some old advice on the importance of calcium for weight management. Research at North Carolina State University shows that cells that are supposed to become bone cells will instead become fat cells when calcium levels are deficient.
Very interesting. And it confirms the role of getting plenty of effective calcium into your system for proper metabolism of all kinds, not just for bones.
The easiest way to lose fat naturally has nothing to do with diet or exercise. It is a lot simpler than that. It is so simple that it is silly. In fact, you do not even have to buy anything to do it. Here is the surprise.
This photo says it all. Read on to see what I mean.
Key Enzyme For How To Lose Stomach Fat
When you want to know how to lose stomach fat, your best friend (or maybe your worst enemy) is an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase (LPL). Its role is to cleave fats from lipoproteins (i.e., proteins that have fat attached to them) known as LDL cholesterol and VLDL cholesterol.
One form of LPL works in fat cells and is activated by insulin. Another form of LPL works in muscle cells and is not activated by insulin. What this means is that when you are well-fed (we all are) and sedentary, more fat will go into your fat cells than into your muscle cells because of where your LPL is working (fat cells) and not working (muscle cells). This explains why eating plenty of food and being inactive makes you fat. No surprise there.
The key, then, is to activate LPL in muscle cells. The good news is that you can do this without exercise. Indeed, for most people, exercise will not be as effective as doing one simple thing: stand up more often.
The Missing Fat Loss Secret Is Simply To Stand Up
Yes, muscle building exercise will raise the levels of LPL and enable muscle cells to take in and burn more fat for energy. However, no amount of exercise will overcome the side effects what most people do, that is, sitting down all day. Only standing up more often will overcome the side effects of sitting down too much.
The important point to grasp here is that being inactive does not have the same effect as sitting down all day. Sitting down too long is much worse.
Likewise, exercise does not have the same effect as standing up. Standing up specifically directs the activation of LPL in muscles that we use for supporting our posture when we are standing up. We do not use them while sitting down, and we do not exercise them when we work out.
Some of the research behind this explanation is astounding. For example, when you sit, the activity of LPL drops more than 90 percent in the muscles that help us stand up. Within 2 hours this shows up as a 20 percent decrease in healthy HDL cholesterol.
Surprising Health Benefits Of Standing
Lean people stand up, on average, for about 2 hours longer than their counterparts. The sitting crowd, on the other hand, has more obesity, more hypertension, higher blood triglycerides, lower blood HDL cholesterol, and higher blood pressure. Finally, older people who move around instead of sitting have half the death rate of their sitting peers.
How else can you benefit from standing more often? Is it not enough to be leaner, have lower triglyceride levels, better blood HDL cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and a longer life? In the immortal words of every late night infomercial, Wait, there’s more!
No more ‘long-distance flight fat ankle’ syndrome. If you sit all day and your ankles swell up, you can retain so much fluid that you can gain 4-5 pounds in one day. Seriously. If you see a puzzling weight gain from one all day sit-down to the next, even if your ankles do not swell up, you are retaining too much fluid.
The explanation for this is that you need enough fluid to keep blood flow going. When everything slows down due to too much sitting, any food you eat will just add to the sludge. Your blood flow becomes more like ketchup than freely flowing blood. Your body’s only defense is to hang onto water to keep things moving.
Good New, Bad News
After reading all the above, the good news and bad news is that you have to stand more. This is good news because it is easy to do, and theoretically you should not have to buy any special equipment to do so. (Maybe you will need a stand-up desk, like I do.) The bad news is that you really must do something out of your normal daily activities. And it may seem strenuous at first.
Fortunately, humans to be upright. This means that the muscles that you have for standing up are already there for you. All you have to do to get them in order is stand up more. In fact, once you get them working the way they are supposed to, it won’t be so difficult to stand up more every day.
Now go do it, and you will be pleasantly surprised how another daily (standing) activity gets better … i.e., the one where you stand on the bathroom scale. The number will start to go down.
The best way to really understand the more than 200 years of scientific research and clinical experience on obesity is to read Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. This book is a compendium of detailed research and may be a little too deep for most people. The second best strategy is to read the chapter by chapter review here:
The granddaddy of all hormones for regulating aging is human growth hormone (HGH). Loss of HGH over time also leads to a decreased ability to burn off food calories as you get older. The result is fat gain.
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