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Well, this is another one of those weight loss articles that tries to say "calories in, calories out" and then laughs at the research that refutes that. I'm re
by Delmania 8y ago
Well, this is another one of those weight loss articles that tries to say "calories in, calories out" and then laughs at the research that refutes that. I'm referring to this:
>There’s a lot of “science” that say low insulin levels in the fasted state lead to more fat burning.
That "science" he smirks at is the research primarily of Dr. Jason Fung, who specializes in diabetes and obesity. He wrote a book called the obesity code that advocates for intermittent fasting. I think I'll take the word of a man who has spent hours researching and analyzing over the snarky comments of some software engineer.
Some more examples:
> If you’re in a caloric deficit this will happen anyways.
That's not true. I could eat a reduced caloric deficit of bread every day and still not burn fat. The basis of intermittent fasting and the ketogenic diet is to force your body to break fat for energy as opposed to carbs. They take different approaches, but the end result is the same - to lower the amount of insulin. Keto is bit more restrictive in food because so much of the carbs in out food is sugar.
So, why did achieve results? Easy:
> I naturally started eating healthy foods because I could eat more of them. If you eat a chocolate bar, you will still be hungry. For the same amount of calories, you could eat a few bowls of vegetables and be full. That said, the best part about this overall approach is that you can still eat whatever you want – just count the calories.
There's a wide difference between how your body reacts to 100 calories of chocolate bars (sugar) and 100 calories of broccoli (fiber).
This is more junk science and using anecdotal data as opposed to research and science. If you want to lose weight, what you eat is just as important as how much you eat. End of story; caloric restriction alone isn't enough. However, this article is also incredibly short sighted. Losing weight is very much like getting married. People focus on the event and not the afterwards. You can't modify your diet, hit your target weight, and then stop. You need to keep going; fighting obesity is life long battle. I believe the majority of people who lose weight will regain that weight within 7 years. There's horror stories from the biggest loser.
My story, by the way, is that when I got married, I was 280 lbs. One night, I remember coming home from my in-laws house and deciding I was tired of being fat. I changed my diet. I cut out chips and soda at lunch and put in carrots and water. I stopped eating white bread and pasta in favor of whole grain foods. I cut the number of nights I had dessert to 1 to 2 a week. I picked up regular exercise. I tracked and measured my food. It worked. At my lowest, I was ~170 lbs. It's gone back up to 203 right now, but that's because I'm currently focusing on strength training. I will say that eating less is not enough. You have to pick the right food. As a friend of mine once wisely said, you simply cannot outwork a crappy diet.
- martin-adams 8y agoI recently read The Obesity Code and it has completely shifted my understanding of weight gain. The bit that got me was diabetic patients being given insulin, which has a known symptom of weight gain - the very thing contributing to type 2 diabetes. So the same calorie diet and the same amount burned can behave differently at storing fat because of a small pill. This for me flies in the face of calories in/calories out. A pill, or insulin can really screw that up.
- Delmania 8y agoThat book changed my view as well. The section that got to me was the part where he refuted "calories in, calories out". Most machines have some sort of regulator that detects when power is low and will adjust accordingly; my laptop, for example, will reduce the brightness of the screen. On the human side, if a factory manager hears there will be reduced power, he doesn't keep going at full steam, he shuts off none vital operations. I think most of us would agree the human body is a complex machine that with a myriad of regulation mechanism. If it detects lower caloric intact, it's not going to go one as if nothing changed. It's going to adapt to preserve energy.
- martin-adams 8y agoYes, I really enjoyed that analogy. It's important to bear in mind that analogies don't prove things, they are just illustrations. What I particularly liked is how he did a very good job at backing it up with different studies that support it. As I was listening to the book, pretty much all the questions I had he answered in a very methodical way. I've started trying intermittent fasting and low carb/high fat so far I'm amazed at how much energy I have. Still early days and I have a few old habits to kick. But it's definitely going in the right direction.
- mlrtime 8y agoYou said a lot of things but in the end you ate less calories than you "burned". That is all it takes.