Chapter 2 - Exported.docx

• • • This chapter is going to shatter some key diet myths and open your mind to some shocking facts about weight loss­ andwhy every diet works (in the short term). In this chapter you will learn: Only a few, coveted diets truly work for weight loss, right? Wrong! Learn the secret behind why ever...

• • • This chapter is going to shatter some key diet myths and open your mind to some shocking facts about weight loss­ andwhy every diet works (in the short term). In this chapter you will learn: Only a few, coveted diets truly work for weight loss, right? Wrong! Learn the secret behind why every diet works for weight loss, at least for a short time. Some foods are evil, right? Wrong! Learn why it's critical for you to remove junk food from your vocabulary. Why focusing only on lowering your calories can lead to devastating results if not done properly. You can lose weight even by just eating Twinkies, Oreos, and Cheez-Its? We'll reveal more in this chapter. WHY EVERY DIET WORKS Let's start with some fundamentals. There is one simple reason why every diet works. Nutritional Truth Bomb #1: Every Diet with a Caloric Deficit Works Every diet works because the laws of thermodynamics are immutable. Weight loss happens when you burn more cal­ ories than you eat. Obesity and the associated modern lifestyle diseases are a result of overconsumption. If "calories in" are less than "calories out," you will lose weight-at least in the short term. There are two camps when it comes to "calories in, calories out" (CICO). The first camp preaches CICO as if that's all anyone needs to know to succeed with their diets. CICO has been marketed as "the" solution for decades; yet the majority of people are getting fatter. Focusing on CICO exclusively has epically failed the masses. The second camp fights with the CICO camp. It wants to believe in magic. There has to be an ethereal weight loss factor somewhere: insulin, glucagon, hormones, ketones ... something! This fight is nonsensical (as most diet wars are), because they're both correct. CICO is an immutable law, and yes, many variables impact calorie expenditure (such as hormones, anabolism, etc.). We will cover those in depth in Chapter 7, The Optimized Metabolism. A New Metabolic Model As you see in the diagram below, there are several layers to "calories out." This book dives deep into a variety of ways that you can increase your calorie expenditure, because just focusing on lowering your calories can lead to devas­ tating results if not done properly. A few scientists and biohackers have done some extreme experiments to showcase the truth of CICO. We're not advocating any of the below activities. We're only sharing them to highlight the simple fact that when it comes to losing weight, every diet works. Here are a few fascinating examples: The Twinkie Diet Experiment Mark Haub, an overweight nutrition professor at Kansas State University, tried the Twinkie Diet experiment. He ate only junk foods-Twinkies, Oreos, and Cheez-Its-for 10 weeks. The only catch was that he limited his calories to 1,800 calories a day, which was a significant caloric restriction for him. At the end of his experiment, he had lost 27 pounds. His "bad" cholesterol (LDL) and triglycerides also went down significantly. The Twinkie Diet showed that caloric restriction is more important than food itself for weight loss in the short term. The McDonald's Snake Diet The Super Size Me documentary may have you thinking that fast foods like McDonald's will kill you. In the docu­ mentary, Morgan Spurlock ate 5,000 calories of McDonald's for 30 days. He gained 24 pounds, increased his choles­ terol to 230 mg/dL, and developed fatty liver and sexual dysfunction. Cole Robinson, a powerlifter and personal trainer, discovered that he felt great on alternate-day fasting and one meal a day. According to him, when he went from six meals a day to this fasting regimen, his training recovery accel­ erated and strength went up, even at the same macronutrient (protein, fat, and carbohydrate) content and caloric intake (around 3,000 calories per day). He then decided to experiment with eating only McDonald's on a fasting regimen for 30 days. Again, he made sure to have the same macronutrient composition and calories as before. Keep in mind, however, that he did this diet in a relatively healthy way. He ate a lot of salads and skipped the fries and soda. He also continued to work out and might have expended more calories by working out harder. At the end of 30 days, Robinson had gained bone density and lost a negligible amount of muscle mass while staying lean at 11 percent body fat. His inflammatory marker proteins (hs-CRP) even went down. Robinson's story shows that junk food causes obesity if, and only if, you overeat it. It also shows that many health problems come from a surplus of calories. This leads to a critical point: there are no "evil" foods. It's important to stop demonizing foods. Demonizing dietary choices leads to guilt and can lead to more serious psychological conditions. An unhealthy psychological relationship with "junk foods" creates stressful experiences when you eat them. It often leads to a binge and diet cycle driven by guilt, shame, and remorse. A core goal of writing this book is that we want to help you remove all guilt and shame associated with eating, including enjoying junk food. Even the term junk should probably be eliminated from our vocabulary. Are there foods that are healthier than others? Of course. However, if you want to enjoy a burger, a slice of pizza, an ice cream, or a cronut once in a while, you can, as long as it works within your overall dietary strategy. Even if you "fall off the wagon" and indulge, it's crucial to avoid beating yourself up. There is an entire dietary group dedicated to this approach called If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM), and many peo­ ple report great success with it. You'll find more on this in Chapter 25. Again, let's be clear: we are not advocating that you follow the Twinkie Diet or the McDonald's Snake Diet. These are just great examples of the point we're trying to make about weight loss here: we can't escape the laws of thermodynamics-that calories consumed minus calories burned equals weight gain or weight loss. However, most CICO zealots aren't being very helpful by focusing on the physics of weight loss. People need a lot more than that to succeed. And we're going to give you everything you need to succeed. Nutritional Truth Bomb #2: Every Diet Is a Short-Term Antidote to the Standard American Diet Going from the standard American diet (or the SAD, as it's affectionately known) to any other structured diet usually means an instant massive reduction in calories. Europe and North America consumed the most calories last year at 3,540 per day.' This is way beyond most people's calorie-burning capacity and thus why many are gaining weight. Aside from its humongous portions, the standard American diet sets people up for overeating and obesity with: Hyper-palatable (sweet, salty, and fatty) foods that are engineered for overeating and comfort eating2 Hunger-generating foods3 Limitless food options around the clock4 Mindless eating5 Foods that are too high in toxins6 Foods that are too low in some nutrients (such as omega-3 fats, vitamins, and minerals)7 Promotion of fat-storing gut bacteria8 Food engineered to activate serotonin and dopamine, which can create strong, hard-to-break food addictions9•1'' Nutritional Truth Bomb #3: New Diets Fix Deficiencies Almost every diet is high in certain nutrients and low in micronutrients. For example, keto is naturally low in vita­ min C but can be very high in other vitamins and minerals. Vegetarians and vegans have potential amino acid deficiencies, plus vitamin and mineral deficiencies such as those in vitamin B121 vitamin A, and iron. When people go on a new diet, they typically shift to a new and extreme way of eating. As an example, it's not uncommon for a vegan to experience an amino acid deficiency, feel bad, and then switch over to a keto or carnivore diet. Then they feel awesome because they now feed their body the aminos it has craved, experiencing an improve­ ment in energy, overall well-being, and health. But, as they stay on the new keto diet, they may develop a new set of nutrient deficiencies, and that's when their bodies might develop cravings and a drive to stop the diet. Such deficiencies and toxicities usually take a few months to show up experientially. It can show up much earlier in blood tests and other biomarkers; however, it can take longer for people to start feeling ill. When devising a nutritional strategy, it is important to test for and address your deficiencies. Your genetics also have a massive impact on this factor. If your body has certain genetic mutations (virtually everyone has a variety of nutrigenomic mutations), then you can be susceptible to certain deficiencies and toxicities. We strongly suggest you do our Nutritional Genetic test to learn incred­ ibly valuable things about yourself. Go to: www.BIOptimizers.com/book/genes. Nowadays, thanks to state-of-the-art tests such as SpectraCell, bloodwork, and genetic and microbiome testing, you can easily identify suboptimal nutrient levels. The key is to intelligently design your diet to patch those deficiencies, plus use the right supplements. By doing that, you can make virtually every diet work long term. Other Factors for Why Every Diet Works They usually increase protein, which increases "calories out" in two ways: the thermic effect of food intake, plus anabolism (muscle increase). Plus, protein increases satiety, which makes it easier to stay in a calorie deficit. They give people structure (vs. just eating what they "feel like"). They give people new hope, bringing a temporary boost in motivation and drive. SUMMARY Every diet works, as long as you're in a calorie deficit. So, what matters is to find one that works for you psychologically to maximize your odds of success. That's why this book explores the pros and cons of every fundamental diet-so you can choose the best one for you. Yes, "calories in, calories out" is a fundamental truth about how weight changes; however, the best approach is to focus on increasing "calories out" (and not just with exercise). To succeed, we need to understand much more than just the basic physics of weight loss. There are no evil foods. Let's stop beating ourselves up with shame, guilt, and fear when it comes to enjoying certain foods once in a while. Most health consequences from "junk food" come from simply overeating calories. Modern lifestyle diseases and obesity are a result of overconsumption. The standard American diet (SAD) leads to overeating and obesity with hyper-palatable foods (sweet, salty, and fatty), hunger-generating food, limitless food options, mindless eating, high toxins, low nutrients, more fat-storing gut bacteria, and food engineered to create hard-to-break addictions. Virtually every diet is a massive improvement compared to the standard American diet. Increased protein helps with weight loss by increasing anabolism, which burns more calories, lowers net calorie intake, and increases satiety. For these reasons, it's one of the main reasons that diets are improvements on the SAD. New diets create hope, which boosts motivation and drive. In the next chapter, we explore something even more valuable: why every diet fails.