In this article I want to talk about why intermittent fasting and low carbohydrate diets work. Whereas counting calories doesn’t work. The problem with the calorie model, calories in – calories out, it doesn’t consider the changes to your BMR Basal Metabolic Rate. Or, consider that not all calories are created equal or how different macronutrients – carbohydrates, proteins, and fats have very different effects on your metabolic health.
Let’s first look at the metabolic rate. Here’s what happens. If you normally consume 2000 calories per day. To lose weight you need to be in a deficit each day of about 550 calories. Over time however, because our body’s are marvellous at adapting, we stop losing weight, our metabolism slows, and our BMR is reduced. This is not what we want. We simply can’t continue to lower the amount of calories we consume.
Next, let’s consider 300 calories of oreos v’s 300 calories of broccoli. Equal calories but vastly different effects on the body. Eating oreos which are highly processed, contain an excess of sugar, salt, and trans fats, spike insulin, your fat storage hormone. When this happens the body will not release fat, only store it. Broccoli on the other hand is low glycemic and has shown to normalise elevated blood sugars when eaten over a long period of time. Now, that’s food as medicine!
I’m sure you remember the show, the Biggest Loser. And like them we have been told for years to eat less and exercise more, but this just doesn’t work. If it did, we would all be walking around in healthy body’s, but that’s not the case.
According to The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2 in 3 adults were overweight or obese in 2017-18 and increasing. With obesity also comes chronic diseases like high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease.
On low calories diets you might do alright for some time but eventually, your weight loss will plateau and weight comes back on.
We all know this because everybodies tried a low-fat, calorie reduced diet. Your metabolism starts to slow down and this is what happened to the metabolism of all these contestants on the Biggest Loser.
What I think is sad is that people have been given this really horrific advice to eat less and move more and then when they fail we blame them for carrying extra body fat. People are victimised for being overweight or obese.You’re told you should have more willpower.
It’s important to understand what happens when you eat. When you eat insulin goes up. Most foods almost all foods have a mixture of macronutrients fat, carbohydrates and protein. Insulin is a hormone that tells the body to store fat and when your blood sugar levels go up, your insulin levels also rise and your body holds on to fat.
When you stop eating and your glycogen stores are depleted, you start burning body fat. The body is just doing its job.
You don’t eat when you’re fasting so fasting is merely the absence of eating. Your insulin levels fall and that’s a signal to start drawing some of that energy out of the stored body fat – again using stored glycogen then body fat.
Think of glycogen as energy stored in you in your fridge which is easy to access. You can put food in easily and you can take food out easily. It’s just food energy and your excess body fat is more like your freezer. So you can store more of it, but it’s hard to get to. It’s hard to get out, it’s hard to put in so you generally prefer to use your refrigerator – sugar burning.
You have two storage forms of energy, one easy to use and one not so easy to use. The refrigerator has a limited capacity so when you have excess food you have no choice but to put it in your freezer.
The reason that the calorie model doesn’t work is that all the calories that go into your body are considered the same. And when it comes to taking out energy it all comes out of the same pool. If you follow this incorrect model, you will notice that if you simply reduce the calories going in you’ll reduce your weight. And if you increase the calories out you’ll increase the rate of weight loss expenditure.
A better model is that there are two places in the body where you can store food. You’ve got your fridge and you’ve got your freezer. Your calories go into your fridge, calories go from the fridge because that’s the easiest place it goes. But there’s a third thing that you have to consider, and that is how much food goes back and forth between the freezer and the fridge because that’s what we’re really interested in.
The question is, what’s controlling this because that’s really the key and it turns out that it is the fat storage hormone insulin. It stops you from accessing fat storage, that’s its job.
If you eat a large meal your insulin level along with your blood sugar level will rise. Particular if you consumed a carbohydrate rich meal. Your body will naturally store excess energy and if not used this excess arrives in your fat cells.
And if you have consistent high levels of insulin the freezer is locked.
So what happens now when you start reducing your calories and you can’t get at what you have stored in the freezer?
In the Women’s Health Initiative which was a fifty thousand person study they reduced calories by approximately 350 per day for seven years. They estimated that people would lose 13 kilograms per year so in seven years they should have lost 95 kilograms.
Of course that didn’t happen. How much did they lose? Not even a kilogram.
What happened was, if you aren’t affecting insulin levels the fat stores stay locked.
What’s important is the compartmentalization of energy. That’s what we’re talking about, not the total energy. But where does it go? That’s what we want to know. If you eat and you just burn it off we are not worried. But if you eat and all of it goes into fat now, that’s a concern.
Let’s look at what happens during fasting. Firstly your body will use glycogen stores before it taps into fat stores. So before attempting fasting as a weight loss tool, you need to move towards low-carbohydrate living for at least 2-3 weeks in preparation for fasting. This way you use your glycogen stores quicker and tap into fat stores sooner.
Fat oxidation commences and now you’re burning fat for energy. That’s perfect, that’s exactly what we want to do.
But what happened to protein? Are you burning muscle? No, just slightly at the very beginning of a fast, and it then drops because you are tapping into your fat stores. Protein is not a storage form of energy. You do need a certain amount of protein to maintain your lean mass. And when you come out of a fast you can re-feed with protein and good fats.
The reason that I talk about fasting and low carbohydrate diets is that what it does very effectively and probably more effectively than any other intervention for weight loss and metabolic health is it empties out glycogen stores, reduces insulin levels and messages your body to unlock fat stores.
I want you to think of obesity and being overweight as a hormonal response. And when you turn your efforts towards metabolic health with a low-carb diet & and fasting protocol you can realise weight loss and move towards better health.
Step 1 – Low-carb living. This is simple. And a way of eating that you are able to maintain. Eating whole-foods, meat, chicken, fish, eats, some full-fat dairy, vegetables, and some fruit (berries).
Step 2 – Avoid cereal, bread, rice, pasta and any highly processed foods like cakes, cookies and products found in packets and boxes with barcodes. Avoid takeaway foods.
Step 3 – Fasting. First eat low-carb for at least 2-3 weeks in preparation of fasting and build up to regular fasts. Start with moving breakfast back 1-2 hours over a week or two then try a longer fast like 16:8 Fasting 16 hours with an 8 hour eating window. This could look like dinner at 6 pm and break your fast at 10 am. A warning though, during your eating window is to eat until satisfied, not full to get the best effect from your fasting efforts.
Step 4 – Break your fast with protein, good fats, and veggies or salad. This could be 2 eggs, ¼ of an avocado, and spinach for example.
Disclaimer: Please check with your Medical Practitioner before trying a new diet as it may affect your medicine dosage.