Emerging Insight into How We Pack on the Pounds
There is an unfortunate lack of knowledge in our healthcare and wellness communities regarding the root causes behind an individual's trend toward obesity and how it can be reversed. Many recommendations from medical providers and fitness professionals continue to emphasize a non-evidence-based theory of calories in versus calories out, which is why many of us struggle to unpack the pounds despite our best efforts. It is very frustrating and disheartening to attempt to “be healthy” and control one's weight, given corporate marketing of processed food and our government subsidies of corn, soy, and sugar — the very ingredients that contribute to increased body-fat composition worldwide.
Despite emerging science regarding weight loss through improved cellular metabolism, those struggling with obesity and their doctors often turn to pharmacology as an answer. Will these weight loss drugs truly provide us with a risk-free way of maintaining a healthy weight? Is our health actually improved and disease risk lowered? Or is the number on the scale the only change?
By understanding how our body takes in energy and then uses it, we can start to make lasting changes in our health. Our bodies are resilient. Our muscles can adapt in one workout. Our liver can begin to regenerate within 24 hours. Our insulin sensitivity for blood sugar can begin to show positive changes in 7 to 10 days. When embarking on a journey to better your health and lose those extra pounds, consider educating yourself about how your body uses food for fuel. Weight, body image, and restriction should not be the focus, but rather things that will naturally happen along the way.
Comprehension beyond a calorie
A calorie is a measure of heat energy; with regard to food, a calorie is the energy content of food. The number of calories is not as important as the type of calories. Calories from carbohydrates, protein, and fat are all absorbed, processed, and used differently by the body. Consider these examples from Dr. Lustig’s book Metabolical: The Truth About Processed Food and How it Poisons People and the Planet: 1
When we eat 160 calories of almonds, the fiber prevents early absorption allowing 30 of the calories to be consumed by the bacteria in our intestines, not by our body.
Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats use caloric energy in order to be broken down; this is referred to as the thermic effect of food. In order for the body to break down proteins and put them to use, it takes 3x more energy than when we eat a carbohydrate. When we eat protein, we are burning calories, so calories are not stored. Because protein and fats are also widely used throughout our body and we are often not consuming enough of either. Our muscles, bones, cell membranes, neurons, hormones - all make good use of the protein and fat (trans fat excluded) that we eat.
Due to the “low-fat era” of misinformation and marketing, many of my clients believe that we only store excess fat from fatty foods. However, the majority of stored fat comes from excess glucose and fructose via products with added sugars, cereals/oatmeal, flours (pastas and breads - yes, even those made with sprouted grains, nuts, beans/lentils), carbohydrates, and trans fats. These calories are stored because the body believes we are eating for the long winter months of scarcity — which in our world of plenty, never comes. Many of us can have meals or groceries delivered through an app, and we can have seasonal fruits and veggies year round. However our body is still adapted for the stone age.
The reverse process of cleaning out the storage is more complicated than “burn more calories than we eat”: fat-burning is cellular death producing toxic by-products that the body has to eliminate, or worse, find a new place to store. Our body fat is storage for excess hormones — specifically estrogen (yes, even in men) — heavy metals, histamine/antibodies, and latent viruses, to name a few. So, when we start to lose weight by breaking down fat cells, these molecules are released into the bloodstream as well. No wonder we end up feeling tired and sick, which may jeopardize our weight-loss efforts. The body has six detox pathways for safely eliminating waste. Poor health leads to malfunctions in these pathways and can also obstruct our ability to shed excess pounds through fat loss. It is important to find a professional who understands the relationship between detoxification and weight loss if that is your goal.
We are meant to move! NEAT is invaluable
NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) is the best use of the glucose that we eat and can assist with preventing insulin resistance. 3 As society has become more industrialized — robots vacuuming our floors, dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, and elevators taking us to the next level — we are moving significantly less. Many of us sit for most of the day behind a desk for work and then we come home stressed and sit on the couch. It turns out that low-stress movements like taking out the garbage, walking to the drinking fountain, cleaning our homes are really important to our health and utilization of the food we eat.
Research has also supported that simply moving for as little as 3 minutes of every 30 throughout the day produces significant health benefits that rival the typically recommended 30 minutes a day of moderately intense exercise. 4
Hormone Balance is Essential
Finally, the concept of calories consumed and calories burned is trivial compared to an individual's hormonal balance. For this reason, we can not all expect to follow the same plan for weight loss. Our hormones also do not function independently: cortisol, testosterone, estrogen, and thyroid hormones contribute to energy consumption and utilization just as much as insulin. As an example, testosterone is a key player for regulating fat and glucose metabolism, however, testosterone has been found to have opposing effects in men and women. 5 Leptin is a lesser known hormone released from white fat cells and signals the brain to adjust appetite based on fat stores. 2 Cortisol (stress hormone) and insulin levels will impact leptin and its ability to inform the brain that enough energy is stored in fat, elevating hunger cues. The interplay of hormones is indispensable for encouraging fat loss and improving health.
It is important that we do not underestimate the impact carrying extra pounds has on our lives; it affects our ability to move, our cardiovascular function, and the integrity of our muscle, joints, and nervous tissue. Solid evidence is mounting about the toxicity of sugar, which has filled our plate since the advent of processed food. Many still do not understand the link between their bowl of oatmeal with blueberries in the morning and weight gain, or how school lunches are full of sugar and directly contributing to our national epidemic of childhood obesity. Most Americans tragically do not understand the direct connection between eating fast food even one time a week and poor health. The quality of the food we are eating, the type of calories we are consuming, and the frequency of movement that we get in a day all matter to our health.
Resources:
Lustig, Robert. Metabolical: the Truth About Processed Food and How it Poisons People and the Planet. 2021
Lustig, Robert. Fat Chance: the Hidden Truth About Sugar, Obestity, and Disease. 2013
Levine, J. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2002 Dec (pub med)
Matthew N Ahmadi, Mark Hamer, Jason M R Gill, Marie Murphy, James P Sanders, Aiden Doherty, Emmanuel Stamatakis. Brief bouts of device-measured intermittent lifestyle physical activity and its association with major adverse cardiovascular events and mortality in people who do not exercise: a prospective cohort study. The Lancet Public Health, 2023; 8 (10): e800 DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(23)00183-4
Lutz SZ, Wagner R, Fritsche L, Peter A, Rettig I, Willmann C, Fehlert E, Martus P, Todenhöfer T, Stefan N, Fritsche A, Häring HU, Heni M. Sex-Specific Associations of Testosterone With Metabolic Traits. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2019 Mar 13;10:90. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2019.00090. PMID: 30930846; PMCID: PMC6425082.
