Be Bold, Try Anything!

As I listen to different ideas from experts on how to lose weight, even to me it becomes confusing. Consistently however, I realize that most people stumble on finding out what works for them. We are all so different metabolically, physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially. What works for one person may not work for another.

Having said that, we need to know what causes us to gain weight. We need to dig ourselves out of the old paradigm of calories. Then we can find out what we need to do to effect change.

It is all about hormones, and the hormones that cause us to gain weight. Why is it that 10% of the population are thin no matter what they eat, while the other 10% are very overweight, yet not eating that much?

Essentially we have three nutrient receptors that if they perceive nutrients coming in, they are stimulated to store them.

The most powerful one is insulin. Yes, it may try to regulate glucose, but it essentially is a fat storage hormone. Sugar that is not required for energy is shuttled to the liver and converted to fat for storage. Simplistically then, it's all about reducing our insulin. If insulin is down, our metabolic pathway is shifted to fat burning (our own fat—the fat we want to lose!). You may try a lower calorie diet, but if those calories bump up insulin, weight loss may not occur. Similarly, if you have frequent meals and snacks, you are constantly pushing up insulin to deal with nutrients and fat metabolism slows.

Always be thinking about insulin. How might you bring your insulin down to force your body to utilize those extra stores of fat? Well, one way is to reduce carbohydrates (these are just sugars). Some people such as those who are insulin resistant, type 2 diabetics may need to bring these foods down very low. Carbohydrates are a non-essential macronutrient, but they are fast and convenient and we have been told for decades to have a lot of these. Wrong.

There is a method referred to as time restricted eating, where food is eaten during a specific time period, with little to none eaten after 4.30 or 5pm to allow insulin to diminish and fat burning to occur.

Intermittent fasting is another tool. The word fasting somehow implies deprivation, but it has been done for centuries by many religions. Most people who fast, whether 12, 24 or 36 hours or longer, feel energized and clear headed. Insulin now is very low and you have pushed the body into fat burning. Remember, it's intermittent. Avoid this unless you are under doctor supervision if you are on diabetic or cardiac drugs.

Or, use all three. Most of us stick to the same eating pattern, day after day, week after week, and we get discouraged or frustrated. Maybe one day, have a big lunch, and a very tiny early supper and then don't eat again till breakfast or lunch the next day. Possibly look at time restricted eating, where for a few days, your window of eating is 6 or 8 hours, say from 10am to 4pm and nothing to eat (please have fluids and extra salt), till 10am the next day.

Change it up. Find ways that work for you. Or if you have had a travel week or vacation, and you took in too much food and drink, then maybe for two weeks you do alternate day fasting to bring your insulin levels down.

If there was one thing I could ask of myself and everyone, it is to finish all food and snacks early in the evening. Even small amounts of food later may be enough to affect insulin and secretion of growth hormone that may sabotage weight loss efforts.

Stress, sleep, activity, medications and medical conditions all impede progress, so we must be willing to work on all aspects of ourselves and our daily lives. Change won't occur without effort, and if that change isn't happening, we must try something different or try to understand the metabolic pathways impeding progress.

Be willing to change! Never give up trying to find what works for you.

Dr. B