It’s not just cut and dried. You would think if you ate less and exercised more, you could take off those few (or maybe not so few) extra pounds. It’s the law of thermodynamics. You eat a calorie, you burn a calorie, and your weight stays the same. You eat a little less and move a little more (or just eat less), and you should be able to lose the weight. This formula is the conventional belief today. But, if it was this simple, why are three quarters of our population overweight? I know many individuals who eat very little—much less than I eat, for example—who are much heavier than I am. You may also know people who eat less than expected and yet still struggle with their weight.
Let me explain.
More and more people are beginning to understand that the simple formula of “calories in / calories out” just doesn’t work. There are several issues that can affect one’s ability to lose weight; for example, we must consider our endocrine system, food sensitivities, and bacterial and fungal overgrowths in our large and small intestines, just to mention a few. We should also consider how our body processes different macronutrients: how does our body process a carbohydrate versus a protein or a fat?
Fats, contrary to the dictates of conventional wisdom, are the preferred fuel source for our heart and muscles, and even our brain. The heart loves a good, healthy saturated fat like butter, coconut oil, or even lard. (Please, no hydrogenated fats, which are linked to heart disease). There is one very important thing to remember when consuming animal fat: always choose fats from pastured or grass-fed animals. Grass-fed animals offer a very high quality protein and fat high in fat-soluble vitamins A, D3, E and very important K2. In comparison, the fat of animals raised on grain does not offer healthy fat or protein for consumption and is devoid of K2. The grain changes the fat in animals to a softer fat, more like a polyunsaturated fat, which happens because polyunsaturated oils come from grains like corn, which is what is fed to cows in feedlots. Polyunsaturated oil is over-consumed today in the average diet, and polyunsaturated vegetable oils like corn oil and soybean oil are linked to arterial inflammation and many of our other modern diseases today. Grass-fed beef is a very healthy alternative. Several years ago, an article in the New Yorker was published stating that there was no scientific link between heart disease and grass-fed beef. There have been many more studies since then that support the healthy benefits of pastured animals (for more information, you can read Eat Fat Lose Fat by Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon). Though it may be hard to believe, grass-fed beef has almost the same heart-healthy omega 3 fatty acid profiles as wild-caught salmon.
If you choose to consume high levels of healthy fatty acids, moderate amounts of healthy protein, moderate amounts of healthy carbohydrates, and very little or no amount of refined carbohydrates (see my list of healthy carbohydrates), then you can completely change your metabolism, which leads to weight loss. Your body will do what it is designed to do, which is to burn fat for fuel (ketosis). If your body is using fat as its primary fuel source, then you are burning the fat that is consumed in your diet and also in the fat stores in your body, which includes what’s on your hips, thighs, and belly. However, if you are consuming lots of refined carbohydrates (remember, a carbohydrate is sugar), then your body will burn the sugar as the preferred fuel source, even though it is not a better energy source. Sugar is so damaging to your body that your body’s inherent wisdom will take measures to move the sugar out of our bloodstream and into the cells as fast as possible with assistance from the hormone insulin. When you are using sugar as your primary fuel, you are not burning fat, and the fat you have stored stays stored, so you don’t lose weight. The normal level of sugar, glucose, in the bloodstream is very low: less than one quarter of a teaspoon. One can of Coke contains 12 teaspoons of sugar. So to compare healthy normal blood sugar levels with how much sugar is consumed in an average diet today, a high-refined-sugar and carbohydrate-rich diet puts tremendous amounts of sugar into the bloodstream, and tremendous amounts of stress on your body. This stress is the cause of many health problems today.
Once glucose has been moved from the bloodstream and into the cells via insulin, the cells will use glucose as fuel for the mitochondria—the furnaces in cells that create energy. If there is more glucose than the mitochondria can use, then some of the excess glucose is moved into the liver and muscle tissue and stored as glycogen, a fuel that can be accessed in times of emergency fuel need. Any glucose that is left over is converted into triglycerides and moved into adipose tissue and stored as fat. And this is where we have a problem. This fat storage would be good if you were caught in a famine, but it’s not healthy if you are living in America today and your choices for food include too many carbohydrates, and more carbohydrates.
I understand that all this is really hard for some people to understand, but nevertheless it has to be considered if we are to move out of this place and time in America when being overweight is more commonplace than being of normal weight, not to mention all the modern diseases of today like type II diabetes and heart disease that come with being overweight. We have been taught that we should make grains—a type of carbohydrate—the largest part of our diet, but doing so is a bad idea due to the high sugar content of grains. Additionally, if an individual is very carbohydrate-sensitive, then even the sugar in fruit (which is generally considered a healthy carbohydrate) can be problematic. The sugar in fruit can be enough for some sensitive individuals to keep from burning fat as fuel. If a piece of fruit can cause this problem, just imagine what something like a bagel (very high in carbohydrates) can do to derail your fat-burning potential. You should be burning fat, and not sugar, as your primary fuel. When you reach ketosis (a state in which fat fragments are burned for energy), and fat is the primary fuel you use to create energy, you lose weight and gain an abundance of energy and clarity of thought. The brain fog lifts, and life gets better!
Finally, our bodies need protein, yet many of us are protein-deficient, especially if we have embraced a vegetarian or vegan diet as I did for almost a decade and a half. Complete and quality proteins come only from animals that were raised appropriately. Protein is made up of amino acids, which are the building blocks of life. Protein plays a building role in the body, building many different tissues, including ligaments, muscles, and organs, among other things. You may be able to get a complete protein from legumes and nuts if combined, but once again, to get enough protein for the good health of your body, you will also need to consume a large amount of starch, which is still a carbohydrate (and remember that a carbohydrate is a sugar). The starch will raise your blood sugar, and that will raise your insulin levels. High insulin levels will cause you to store fat because insulin is the fat-storing hormone.
Cutting down or even cutting out carbohydrates can be a very difficult thing for people to do, especially when our society is so accustomed to a grain-based diet. Carbohydrates can be very addicting. Wheat is known to have morphine-like compounds in it that affect the rewards center of the brain. However, carbohydrate addiction needs to be addressed if we are to achieve our goal of having great health and a body that works well and takes care of us. A well-balanced diet of healthy fats, healthy proteins, and healthy carbohydrates can help us achieve this goal. To understanding the definition of “healthy”, see my Low Carbohydrate Food List.
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