🤯 Isn’t it mind-blowing that billions of people struggle with obesity and being overweight, yet no other species on this planet has trouble maintaining an ideal weight in the wild? 🐻❄️🐘🐢 It seems so basic, yet despite an endless stream of advice, the problem just keeps getting worse. 😰
📈 The development of obesity has been explosive, to say the least. In the 1800s, it was virtually unknown. 💨 A century later, we had started getting some sugar and processed foods, but they weren’t staples yet. 🍭🍔 By 1960, they became staples, and we saw an explosive increase. Every year, every decade, we witnessed a dramatic rise. 📈📈📈 Then, it was getting so bad that in 1980, we started getting our first example of expert advice – the USDA published their guidelines, feeling we needed some guidance. 📚
🍽️ The Flawed Guidelines 🍽️
💡 Every five years, the USDA has published the guidelines again and again, but they haven’t really changed much and don’t appear to have helped much either. 🤷♂️
🙅♂️ Usually, the attitude toward people with obesity and overweight is that they’re guilty as charged. The common belief is that the only problem is that they’re taking in more calories than they’re burning, eating too much, and not exercising enough. 🍕🛋️ “Just eat less and move more,” they say. 🗣️
😔 As if that wasn’t enough, we really have to rub in the guilt and refer to the seven deadly sins – gluttony (lack of self-control, eating for pleasure) and sloth (laziness, lack of diligence and effort). 😩 The solution, they claim, is temperance (moderation and restraint) and diligence (determination and effort). 💪
🤥 But what if this advice is flawed or even completely wrong? What if we’re blaming the wrong person? 🤷♀️ What if the advice is so wrong that we should turn it around and put the advice on trial? 👨⚖️
🔎 Examining the Evidence 🔎
🧐 Let’s take a closer look at the official guidelines and recommendations. They say to maintain an ideal weight, eat a variety of foods, avoid fat and cholesterol (especially saturated fats), increase starch and fiber, reduce processed and added sugar to less than 10% of calories (about 50 grams a day), reduce sodium, and drink alcohol in moderation. 📝
🤔 But is this really the path to weight loss and a healthy lifestyle? What if the problem lies not in the individual’s willpower or effort, but in the very advice we’ve been given? 🤯
📖 The Law Book of Human Physiology 📖
🧠 To understand how the human body truly works, we need to refer to the “Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology.” It’s been the standard since 1956, and every reputable institution of learning uses this book or similar ones to teach human physiology. 📚
💡 Arthur C. Guyton, a legend in the field, wrote the first eight editions all by himself. He explained complex concepts in a way that made sense, and I found this book to be the best I ever came across. I read it cover to cover, multiple times, because I really wanted to understand how the body works. 🙌
🔍 So, how does the information in this book compare to the expert advice about health and weight loss? Does it look like the experts have actually read and understood the principles discussed in this book? 🤔
🔑 Insulin: The Key to Understanding Weight Loss 🔑
📝 Guyton’s book focuses heavily on the role of insulin in weight gain and fat storage. It states that all excess carbohydrates that cannot be stored as glycogen are converted to fat under the stimulus of insulin and then stored as fat. 🍞➡️🍯➡️🍔
💉 Insulin has a massive impact on storage in the body. Whenever we eat a high-carb diet or meal, there is a rapid insulin spike, promoting the conversion of carbs into fat, which then gets stored in the fat tissue. 📈
⛽ Muscles use fat for fuel most of the time, except during moderate to high-intensity exercise when they become more insulin-sensitive and start using more glucose. However, high-carb meals create big insulin spikes, pushing glucose into the muscles and preventing fat burning. 🚴♀️🏃♂️
🔒 Insulin also inhibits the breakdown of fat by turning off lipase, an enzyme that breaks down fat. All aspects of fat burning are stopped or prevented by insulin. 🔐
🍽️ Ironically, the official guidelines recommended by the USDA, Mayo Clinic, and other health organizations suggest eating a diet high in carbohydrates, which directly contradicts Guyton’s findings on insulin and weight gain. 🤷♂️
🧠 The Insulin-Hunger Connection 🧠
📚 According to Guyton, insulin also affects hunger levels. It reduces an enzyme in the liver that is supposed to turn glycogen into glucose. When insulin is high, there is less fuel available from carbohydrates, and since insulin also turns off lipase (the enzyme that breaks down fat), the body cannot access its stored energy from fat either. 🔋
💡 So, when insulin is high, you can’t access your stored energy from carbs or fat. This makes you hungry because your body thinks it’s starving and needs to find new food sources. 🍗🍕
😩 And then, you’re being called a glutton and slothful because you can’t control your appetite or motivate yourself to exercise, when in reality, it’s your hormones (insulin) controlling your behavior and preventing fat burning. 🤯
🎯 One Size Doesn’t Fit All 🎯
💡 The ultimate fail is assuming that what works for one person will work for another when it comes to weight loss. When you have stubborn weight, insulin resistance, or a genetic predisposition, the rules change completely. 🧬
🙅♂️ One person could eat 50 grams of carbs, and it would be too much for their body, while another could eat 500 and be fine (at least for many years). The diet and lifestyle that maintain health for one person may not reverse the condition for another. 🍽️
💪 For those with stubborn weight or insulin resistance, a different approach is needed – one that addresses the underlying hormonal imbalances and metabolic issues, rather than just focusing on calorie counting or willpower. 🔬
🌟 Understanding how the body works and recognizing individual differences is key to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight in a sustainable way. A one-size-fits-all approach is doomed to fail. 💯
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