Chapter 1 - Exported.docx

We sincerely hope that this chapter changes everything in your mind-and in the industry's-when it comes to dieting. Once you understand the core message here, you'll never see dieting the same way again ... ever. THE SHOCKING TRUTHS ABOUT CALORIES AND METABOLISM Calories and metabolism are by far...

We sincerely hope that this chapter changes everything in your mind-and in the industry's-when it comes to dieting. Once you understand the core message here, you'll never see dieting the same way again ... ever. THE SHOCKING TRUTHS ABOUT CALORIES AND METABOLISM Calories and metabolism are by far the most obsessed-over words and concepts in the world of dieting. In this chap­ ter, we're going to reveal the surprising truths about calories and metabolism based on science and some shocking experiments. More important, we're going to give you some new breakthrough strategies that you need to focus on to achieve short-term and long-term success. In this chapter, you'll learn: The actual reason why 97 percent of dieters regain most of their weight in the long run, and how to become part of the elite top 3 percent who consistently keep weight off without sacrifices or compromises. How to maximize the calories you burn and start consistently achieving your aesthetic goals without going overboard or jeopardizing your health and wellness. How emotional eating can interfere with your dieting goals-and the key to unlocking the underlying emotions and/or traumas so you can defeat overeating and unhealthy eating habits for good. Why formulating your own personal strategy to combat your genetics is critical for achieving life­ long victory with your health, performance, and aesthetic goals. Discover the undeniable evidence for how to attain true, successful, long-term weight loss, and how three critical tools allow you to lose body fat permanently and safely (without making you go through the yo-yo diet insanity). Three cautionary tales of the common mistakes people make that destroy their metabolism, and how to ensure that your body feels safe throughout your weight loss journey. Let's start with the bottom line. The real reason we struggle with our weight and keeping it off is one thing: genetics. And we're not talking about the "I have bad genetics" narrative. First, we still have the same fundamental genetic programming that kept our ancestors alive in tough times. Our ancient, hard-wired biological nature has not adapted to today's challenges. Our modern sedentary lifestyles, combined with readily available, cheap, hyper-palatable calorie-loaded foods, have led us to an obesity pandemic. Second, the real reason that weight loss is so challenging is because starvation survival mechanisms are built into your DNA. Your body has one core primary objective: to survive. Diagram: the essence of obesity vs. the perception of obesity The human body has evolved over millions of years to maximize its chances of survival. Understanding this undeniable fact and creating smart strategies around biological reality is the key to lifelong victory. Let's take a time machine back to the caveman days. There aren't any convenience stores or fast-food restaurants around. Food has to be hunted or gathered. There are no fruits or vegetables to pick during the long, hard winter months. You might go days or weeks without any food. To maximize the odds of survival, the body has created many self-defense mechanisms. And these mechanisms are why people fail with their weight loss objectives in the long term. Ignoring this and activating these starvation survival mechanisms is the formula for guaranteed continuous failure. The male body will start shutting down and potentially die at around 3 percent body fat. Imagine a 150-pound caveman named Carl with 10 percent body fat. This means he has about 7 percent body fat he can lose before he's in serious trouble. The math is: 7 percent of 150 pounds equals 10.5 pounds of fat. This means he has around 35,750 "survival calories" left (3,500 calories per pound of fat multiplied by 10.5 pounds of fat). Assuming Carl is burning 2,500 calories a day as he walks for hours to gather or hunt food, he has about 14 days left of survival, which is not very long in the winter months. It might take him a few weeks to find and kill another animal. Looking at it from this perspective, Carl's situation seems pretty dire. Fortunately for Carl, his body evolved to protect him in this situation. It will lower his metabolism to burn fewer calories. At 1,250 calories burned per day, Carl the Caveman could survive for double the amount of time. But the "bad" news for dieters is, we still possess these starvation survival mechanisms. Here's a short list of the starvation survival strategies the body activates in extended calorie deprivation: Lowers leptin Lowers testosterone Lowers thyroid function Lowers non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) Increases ghrelin (which increases hunger) Prompts shrunken fat cells to store more fat Increases the number of fat cells Burns lean muscle mass It's almost like a Star Trek episode wherein the Starship Enterprise starts shutting down nonessential systems to pre­ serve its energy. The body works the same way. We'll delve deeper into the effects of these processes later in the chapter. WE DIDN'T EVOLVE TO HANDLE DONUTS, DINERS, OR DIETS The fundamental weight loss challenge, as we've noted, is that we still have the same genetic programming as Carl the Caveman. Nowadays, we are surrounded by limitless food options that are engineered for overeating 24/7. We can literally push a button in an app and get almost anything our taste buds desire. These hyper-palatable foods are seasoned with hyper-intense flavorings, high-fructose corn syrup, salt, and fat. Food companies engineer their products for specific combinations of sweet, salty, fatty, and pleasurable mouth­ feel to hijack your brain's reward mechanisms. And master marketers know how to present it to you and create cravings in your mind. FOOD IS LIKE HEROIN? Studies show that the same area of the brain that is activated with heroin and other drugs is also activated with certain types of food, making those foods just as addictive as heroin.1 Salt, sugar, and fat increase our likelihood of survival, but in prehistoric days they weren't as easy to come by. Therefore, we naturally find these foods delicious, and when we eat them, our brains flood with dopamine, the reward neurotransmitter.2 A study found that 94 percent of rats would choose a sweetener over cocaine, suggesting that the sweet taste is intensely rewarding and addictive.3 Sugary foods also trigger the release of serotonin, the calm, happy, and antidepressant neurotransmitter.4 Worse yet, the fructose in high-fructose corn syrup can reduce your satiety response,5so you can finish a tub of ice cream without feeling full. Certain foods can trigger a huge insulin response, which can trigger a blood sugar crash. You will then feel hun­ gry and irritable as you reach for more sugary foods to bring your blood sugar back up.6 Sugary foods and beverages that are without fiber or proteins can spike your insulin, but so can dairy proteins that are high in branched-chain amino acids.7• 8 Like drugs, these foods can downregulate your dopamine receptors so that you need more of the same foods to hit the same high. Also, once you try to quit eating them, you may experience some withdrawal symptoms. Most diets tend to work as a good short-term antidote to some of the problems above by making you eat less, creating a temporary caloric deficit. However, your innate survival desires and the desire to fit in will cause you to eat more. Imagine if Carl the Caveman found a donut shop next to his cave-to maximize his chances of survival, he would eat until he was sick. The Hunger is a self-defense mechanism that encourages you to eat more and regain lost body fat. Your body doesn't care about looking good on Instagram; it cares about survival. We believe The Hunger is driven either by chronically elevated ghrelin (the hunger hormone) or elevated levels of the peptide NPY in the brain. Many fitness competitors have reported this experience. If you decide to do an aggressive weight loss program and activate your body's starvation survival mechanisms, your odds of success are close to zero. And we aren't different from you. After Wade dieted for 11 months and pushed his body fat down near its genetic limit, it fought back, and Wade regained 42 pounds in the following weeks (read the entire story later in this chapter). These were huge learning lessons for Matt and Wade. Their bodies fought back to make them eat more and maximize their odds of survival. Since that time, we've dived into the research, and the evidence for long-term weight success is undeniable: we need to make the body feel safe throughout the journey. Cutting-edge weight loss coaches have developed new strategies to help deal with this hardwiring. They include refeeds, diet breaks, and reverse dieting. These are three critical tools for people wanting to lose body fat perma­ nently and safely-without going through the yo-yo diet insanity. We will discuss these later in the book. HOW THEY SET UP THE BIGGEST LOSERS FOR EPIC LOSSES The popular TV show The Biggest Loser placed morbidly obese participants on a diet of 1,200 calories per day and a regimen of six intense 90-minute workouts each week. Of course, everyone lost a tremendous amount of weight and fat. They looked like major successes; however, they were unknowingly set up to fail. Afterward, the participants went back to their normal lives without understanding the starvation survival mecha­ nisms that set them up to regain their weight. A 2016 follow-up study measured the basal metabolic rate (BMR), body composition, and weight of 14 of the participants six years after season eight of the show.9 The participants had regained 70 percent of the weight they'd lost. Their average BMR had dropped from 2,607 calories preshow to 1,996 postshow. At the six-year follow-up, their average BMR had dropped to 1,903, and they'd regained about half of the lean mass they'd lost, so more of the regained weight was fat. As the participants regained the fat, their leptin increased. However, their BMR remained significantly suppressed. Their metabolism burned 700 fewer calories a day, which is a lot less. So, the short-term "lose weight at any cost" approach of The Biggest Loser TV show came at the expense of the participants' long-term success. This is a good example of what's wrong with the dieting world. THE TERRIFYING PRICE OF METABOLIC DESTRUCTION: LESSONS FROM THE MINNESOTA STARVATION EXPERIMENT Toward the end of World War II, the famous nutrition physiologist Ancel Keys conducted the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. Its purpose was to better understand the effects of famine on human physiology and ways to rehab people from wartime famine states. The study enrolled 36 men with good mental and physical health. They went through 12 weeks of eating 3,200-calorie diets before six months of semi-starvation at 1,560 calories, split into two meals per day. In the subsequent 12 weeks, the participants were divided into four groups, each fed at different levels of restricted refeeding calories. Then, in the final eight weeks, the participants were allowed to eat as much as they wanted as the researchers recorded and monitored food intake. The men in the study lived in a controlled environment, were assigned work tasks, and had to walk 22 miles each week. Over the starvation period, participants lost 20 to 26 percent of their initial bodyweight. They experienced decreases in sex drive, cognitive function, strength, vitality, body temperature, respiration, and heart rate. Interestingly, they also became apathetic and developed mental health problems such as depression and hyste­ ria. They became obsessed with food and started to collect and exchange recipes, which they hadn't done before. They also developed disordered eating patterns. Some of the men started self-mutilating, and one of them even cut off three of his fingers during the rehab phase. During the refeeding phase, the men experienced an insatiable hunger that lasted for months no matter how much they ate. They consumed, on average, over 5,000 calories a day, and some ate over 11,500 calories. The starva­ tion survival effects were in full swing. In 2003, 19 of the 36 participants who were still alive were interviewed about the experiment. They admitted that they still had some lingering fear of starvation and food obsession decades after the study had ended. In other words, they had been traumatized by starvation. Although this study occurred in 1945, countless physique competitors and dieters still trigger the same responses with their diet and exercise programs. They push their metabolism too far, triggering the wrath of the body's starva­ tion survival mechanisms. The damages are typically much more severe than weight regain. PAINFUL LESSONS FROM ELITE BODYBUILDERS We've both personally experienced metabolism backlash-Wade with his Mr. Universe show prep, and Matt as he dieted for his wedding. Wade's coach, Scott Abel, also overstretched his metabolic slingshot as a physique competitor before observing the effect thousands of times with his clients and followers. Scott's book Understanding Metabolism helped us understand the fundamental nature of metabolism. We owe massive kudos to Scott for sharing his genius with the world. According to Scott, physique competitors go through even more severe starvation and intense training, and for longer, than participants in the Minnesota experiment did. If the body reaches such a low body fat too fast, this can trigger the starvation survival effects. Stories like this are hardly unique to bodybuilding. Every year, tens of millions of people embark on 12-week transformations only to later regain all their weight and then some. Afterward, they spend months or years in shame, feeling like failures before returning to the dieting bandwagon. Then they repeat the same tumultuous pro­ cess, only to further damage their metabolism and do it all over again. And many just give up completely. The health effects of such extreme dieting and show prep can be even more catastrophic for women. Their men­ strual cycles are more sensitive to caloric restrictions. Women are genetically designed to carry more body fat than men; they also suffer more from body image issues and disordered eating, which can make them more obsessed with their physical imperfections. In Scott Abel's book Understanding Metabolism, he shares numerous pictures of female physique competitors. The women started off around 140 pounds before the show and dieted down to 100 pounds for the show before ballooning to over 200 pounds afterward. Then they went into more extreme dieting, used drugs, and did excessive cardio for their next shows. The damage to their bodies, mental health, and relationships often led to psychological traumas. When your body goes into energy-preservation mode, it shuts off the reproductive axis, which can cause irregular menstrual cycles or stop them altogether, and cause infertility.10 Low estrogen in women and low testosterone in men can reduce bone density.n The physical demand of intense training in caloric deficit can overstress the body, driving nutrient deficiencies, and it may trigger chronic illnesses in people who have a genetic predisposition-as happened to Molly Galbraith. Usually, when original body fat levels are restored, leptin goes up and ghrelin goes down. However, for people who push their metabolism to the breaking point, such as these physique competitors, their ghrelin and NPY levels (more on this later in the chapter) may stay elevated for months or years. They often experience an insatiable appetite that eventually breaks their willpower and leads to weight gain. We're not saying that it's impossible to get into great shape without metabolic destruction. However, very few people should enter physique competitions. Scott Abel believes that about 5 percent of the population has the genet­ ics to get lean enough for a bodybuilding show without destroying metabolism. He often talks prospective clients out of competing if they are in it for the wrong reasons. The other 95 percent of you can still get into fantastic shape, and this book has the strategies you need. You just won't be "peeled and shredded," as we say it in the bodybuilding world, with low, single-digit body fat (and most peo­ ple don't even find it visually appealing). These stories should serve as cautionary tales. The message is simple: you must ensure that your body feels safe throughout your weight loss journey, or it will fight back, because survival is its #1 objective. The good news is that once you understand how to hack and optimize metabolic adaptation and avoid the starva­ tion survival mechanisms, you can get into your dream shape without suffering negative health consequences. This is what we do with our private VIP clients. WHY 97 PERCENT FAIL WITH THEIR LONG-TERM WEIGHT LOSS Your body is an adaptation machine. The less you eat, the more your body reduces the energy it expends. And, the more you exercise, the more efficient the body becomes at that exercise (especially cardio). Thus, you will burn fewer calories as you repeat the same activities. Cut your calories too far and too fast, and your body will activate its starvation survival mechanisms. These star­ vation survival effects are the reasons most dieters eventually regain the weight (like The Biggest Loser participants). Statistically, dieters regain over half of their lost weight within two years, and more than 80 percent within five years.12 Without an understanding of proper dieting and metabolism rebuilding, it's nearly impossible to maintain long-term results. METABOLIC ADAPTATION: THE STARVATION SURVIVAL EFFECTS Metabolic adaptation is your body's starvation survival mechanisms kicking in. This natural adaptation kept our ancient ancestors alive in times of famine. It's also what creates weight loss plateaus and drives weight regain. Our physiology evolved for survival as hunter-gatherers when food was scarce. When the body undergoes meta­ bolic adaptation, the following processes happen: Leptin Drops Leptin is a hormone released by your fat cells; it sends signals to an area in the brain called the hypothalamus. It regulates food intake (by making you feel satiated) and energy expenditure. When you lose fat, your fat cells release less leptin. Your hypothalamus is the command center for sex hormones, cortisol, thyroid, and hunger hormones. Lowered leptin dials down sex and thyroid hormones while turning up your stress response and hunger hormones. Testosterone Goes Down Many extreme dieters suffer from low testosterone and other hormone imbalances that lead to low sex drive and a major drop in anabolism (which lowers metabolism even further).13· 14 It's not unusual for the natural testosterone in men to drop 70 to 80 percent during extreme dieting phases.15 Anabolism is when your body is in a resourceful state for growth. When you're anabolic, it's easier to build and protect your precious lean muscle tissue. It's one of the most powerful layers of the Optimized Metabolism System (see Chapter 7). Thyroid Activity Lowers Basal metabolic rate plummets as active thyroid hormone (T3) decreases.16 A person can eat the same things and exercise the same way but still regain weight, because now baseline calorie expenditure has decreased. They may feel colder and more lethargic. Movement (NEAT) Slows Down One of the most interesting discoveries in the last few years has been that most people with "faster" metabolism burn more calories via non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). This activity accounts for the calories people burn all day long as they live their lives: with restless legs, being animated with their arms, blinking, facial expressions, etc. One of the starvation survival effects is that your body slows down your NEAT. Most people aren't aware of it either. They just move less. Their body is preserving energy.17• 18 Hunger Hormones Increase Your body wants to store fat to prepare for future starvation periods by making you hungrier. Ghrelin-the opposite hormone to leptin-rises, so you will find that it takes monumental effort to resist the hunger and cravings that arise if you trigger the survival mechanisms. We call ghrelin the unbeatable hormone because eventually everyone succumbs to it. (Even Michael Jordan, who competed at around 3 percent body fat, famously said he wanted nothing more in retirement than to play golf and grow a pot belly.) Being hungry drains willpower. Ghrelin increases impulsivity and reward behavior.19 It sensitizes neurons to dopamine.20 As a result, you'll be more likely to consume hyper-palatable comfort foods and sugar just to get that potent dopamine hit. Fighting those impulses and cravings for these foods can drain a tremendous amount of willpower. An interesting experiment compared underweight, anorexic women to healthy women. Subjects were asked to choose between taking $20 immediately or $80 in 14 days. Both the anorexic and healthy women with higher ghrelin were more likely to choose the immediate $20 rather than to wait to get the $80.21 In other words, ghrelin drives shortsighted decisions, which is how most people blow their diets. Key insight: ghrelin and hunger must be managed in order to succeed. More of the Hungry (Shrunken) Fat Cells Compared to people who have always been the same size, previously fat people burn fewer calories and accumulate fat more easily. Weight loss shrinks fat cells, but the fat cells are still there, primed to store more fat and produce less overall leptin. In contrast, people who have always been at the same size have fewer fat cells, which are fuller and stable, and are less inclined to store more fat.22 The Number of Fat Cells Increases This is one of the most shocking recent discoveries. It was believed for decades that the only time the body created new fat cells was during phases of extended weight gain. The theory was that once existing fat cells were filled, new ones were created. It turns out that one way that the body fights back during deep weight loss cycles is to create more fat cells. Why? Because fat cells send signals to the brain and body. More fat cells mean more signals, maximizing odds of survival. Bidirectional communication exists between adipocytes (fat cells) and other tissues.23 For example, fat cells produce peptides that can drive insulin resistance. The body produces fat cell precursors (preadipocytes) that can easily develop into fat cells once a calorie surplus becomes available.24• 25 As soon as you start to eat more food, these cells quickly mature into small fat cells. This is the body priming itself for a weight rebound. With more small fat cells along with the other fat cells that you have just shrunken by losing weight, your body fat set point shifts as your fat cells-both new and old-strive to be as big as they were before all the weight loss.26 Your brain also produces other hunger-stimulating signals, including neuropeptide Y (NPY). NPY is the most potent appetite-stimulating hormone known, sending signals of constant hunger. Researchers have discovered that NPY is what stimulates the replication of fat cell precursors that evolve into fat cells. Researcher Yaiping Yang says, "This may lead to a vicious cycle where NPY produced in the brain causes you to eat more and therefore gain more fat around your middle, and then that fat produces more NYP hormone which leads to even more fat cells."27 This is believed to be one of the main reasons why many people gain more weight than they lost. They have more fat cells than they did before they started their weight loss journey. Fat loss stresses out the fat cells, which can cause them to trigger preadipocytes to develop into more new, small fat cells.28 Loss of Lean Muscle One of the body's self-defense mechanisms is to get rid of lean muscle. Why? Because lean muscle burns more energy. On average, for most dieters, 25 percent of the weight they lose is lean muscle tissue.29 This is bad in many ways: Your metabolism drops even further (muscle burns more calories). You'll feel worse (being catabolic doesn't feel good). Catabolism is when your body is breaking down. You're losing valuable lean muscle tissue. You feel physically weak. It can increase the amount of "weight" you need to lose to reach your goal. It can harm your aesthetics (meaning you won't look as good). This appearance is also known as "the skinny-fat look." The aggressiveness of weight loss also impacts the loss of muscle. In one experiment, aggressive dieters lost more than double the amount of muscle than the less aggressive group.311 It's worth noting that the best results have come from high-protein diets, which only had 11 percent lean muscle loss. This is why protein is the king macro when it comes to dieting (and muscle building). That's why we built several versions of Protein Breakthrough (including plant-based and keto versions) to help you with your weight loss journey. SUMMARY If you feel a bit unsettled by this chapter, then we did our job. If you feel lost and confused about what the solution is, don't worry. We've got you. The book will give you all the strategies you need to maximize your odds of success and win the Ultimate Nutrition Diet game. We noted that 97 percent of people fail in their weight loss attempts because starvation survival mechanisms are built into our DNA. The extended calorie deprivation that most people undergo to lose weight activates many self-defense mecha­ nisms, and it's the reason many people fail with their weight loss objectives in the long term. Here's a list of the star­ vation survival effects the body activates: Lower leptin: Your fat cells release less of this hormone, which results in more hunger, more stress, less energy spent, and reduced thyroid and sex hormones. Lower testosterone: Natural testosterone can drop 70 to 80 percent during extreme dieting, which leads to lower sex drive and a huge drop in anabolism (muscle building) and slower metabolism. Lower thyroid function: Baseline calorie expenditure decreases, resulting in weight regain even while consuming the same calories and exercising. You'll feel cold and sluggish. Lower NEAT: To preserve more energy, your body moves less without you even noticing this change, resulting in fewer calories burned. Increased ghrelin (which increases hunger): This is the opposite hormone to leptin (the satiety hormone). Your cravings go up and you feel hungry all the time. It eventually breaks your willpower. This is your body attempting to store fat for future calorie-deprivation periods. Shrunken fat cells that store more fat: During weight loss, fat cells don't disappear; they simply shrink. And then they respond by producing less leptin and storing more fat. More fat cells: Your body fights back and prepares for survival by creating more fat cell precursors. And as soon as there's a surplus of calories, these mature and store fat. Loss of lean muscle mass: Lean muscle burns more energy, so the body destroys muscle to reduce energy expenditure. This results in a slower metabolism, negatively impacting the way you look. And it can lead to emotional issues. For most dieters, 25 percent of weight loss is lean muscle tissue. These starvation survival effects are why progress slows down or completely stops. Extreme dieting and exces­ sive exercise lead to metabolic destruction. And after the weight loss, the weight is regained. Metabolic adaptation is our body's starvation survival mechanisms kicking in. It's what has kept humanity alive for thousands of years, but it's also why weight loss attempts fail. When our body undergoes metabolic adap­ tation, the less we eat, the less energy the body will spend. The more we exercise, the more efficient it will become and burn fewer calories. The breakthrough strategy to achieve short- and long-term success is to make the body feel safe throughout the jour­ ney with refeeds, diet breaks, and reverse dieting. With these three tools, you can safely lose body fat permanently and avoid the yo-yo effect.