What Makes Us Fat

1. What Makes Us Fat 3 Arguments for Weight Gain

2. 3 Theories • 1) Dr. George Bray: Calories in versus calories out. • 2) Gary Taubes: It’s sugar, stupid. • 3) Dr. David Kessler: Foods are made to be addictive.

3. Theory 1: Calories In Calories Out • Dr. George Bray: People gain weight when they eat more calories then they burn. • Example: Weight Watchers • 3500 calories = 1 pound • To lose 1 pound, you need to expend 3500 more calories than you consume. • Consume 2,000 calories per day. • Expend 2,500 calories per day. • Caloric deficit: -500 • -500 x 7 days = -3,500 = -1 pound

4. Critics of calories in calories out • This method of weight management has been used for the past 30 years and obesity continues to be on the rise. • Calories are not created the same. 1000 calories of healthy food is not the same as 1000 calories of junk food. • It’s difficult to sustain counting calories.

5. Theory 2: It’s sugar, stupid! • Gary Taubes • Carbohydrates regulate insulin  Insulin regulates fat accumulation. • Example: Atkins Diet

6. Step 1: You think about eating • You find yourself hungry or bored, your mind wanders and habit kicks in. You start to think about food with carbohydrates.

7. Step 2: Your body begins to secrete insulin • Our mere thoughts of food create chemical reactions in our bodies. Your body begins to secrete insulin.

8. Step 3: Insulin stops fat burning • Insulin sends out signals telling your body that it has arrived and it’s now okay to store those fatty acids and not burn them as energy.

9. Step 4: Hunger sets in • The brain region linked with appetite are activated and you become hungry.

10. Step 5: You start eating • Consider your options and prepare your food. It’s time to wolf some food down.

11. Step 6: You secrete more Insulin • The pancreas starts pumping out a lot more insulin. How much? That depends on what kind of food you eat. If you’re eating low-glycemic foods, insulin levels stay low.

12. Step 7: Digested Carbs = Glucose • Your newly digested carbohydrates are converted into glucose as they enter your bloodstream. Glucose is known as “blood sugar” and “dextrose”. As glucose flows in your bloodstream, it becomes available to every cell in your body.

13. Step 8: Blood sugar level rise • Low-glycemic carbs are digested much more slowly, cause glucose to enter your bloodstream at a rate of only 2 calories per minute. Sugary, high-glycemic foods are instantly digested at a much greater rate of 30 calories per minute.

14. Step 9: More insulin is secreted • Eating some bad carbs? More and more insulin is secreted and creates an over-abundance in your bloodstream.

15. Step 10: Triglycerides form • With high insulin levels, it is physiologically impossible for your body to burn fat. The fat from your food stays in your fat cells as triglycerides.

16. Step 11: Fat cells grow • The current fat stays in place and the overdose of insulin means more fat is added. The cycle continues for each high-glycemic meal you eat throughout the day.

17. Step 12: You get fatter • Nuff’ said!

18. Bottom line • So what makes us fat? • Getting fat is a result of high-insulin levels, which promotes the flow of fatty acids into your fat cells. • How do we lose fat? • Anything that breaks down our triglycerides (exercise and good nutrition) will allow fat to be used for energy, thus burning the fat from our bodies.

19. Insulin  Fat accumulation • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXkkRa33zhA

20. Critics of carbs  insulin  fat storage • Most people can’t stay on a low-carb diet. People generally miss the carbs they used to eat. • If carbs are to blame, why do some Asian cultures who eat a lot of carbs, especially rice, do not have an obesity epidemic.

21. Theory 3: Foods are made to be addictive • Dr. David Kessler • Chronic exposure to highly palatable foods changes our brains, conditioning us to seek continued stimulation. Over time a powerful drive for sugar, fat and salt competes with our conscious capacity to say no. • "What we've done is taken fat, sugar, and salt, and layered and loaded them into our food, put them on every corner, made them socially acceptable to eat at any time, and added advertising. We're living in a food carnival.”

22. Solution: “Food Rehab” • A set of food rules to live by. • 1. Figure out your cues. Food cues, situational cues, all of them. • 2. Refuse everything you can’t control. • 3. Create an alternate plan with a specific behaviour to adopt in place of what normally would be conditioned hypereating. • 4. Limit your exposure. • 5. Remember the stakes. When faced with a situation that may involve conditioned overeating ensure that your visualization takes you all the way through to the inevitable end of the eating episode where you acknowledge that following momentary pleasure may come the pain of guilt or depression or the simple fact of it being counterproductive to your health. • 6. Reframe things in terms of you vs. them. Kessler calls this active resistance. Recognize that Big Food is out to get you and try to see food in those terms. • 7. Thought stopping. Try to stop your food related thoughts dead in their tracks. • 8. Add negative associations to your normal cues. • 9. Talk down the urge. Approach it with rationale thoughts. “Eating this will only satisfy me momentarily”, “If I eat this I’ll demonstrate that I can’t break free”.

23. Critics of “Food Rehab” • Blind, overt, rule based restriction and deprivation as a means to treat conditioned hyper-eating is not sustainable. • Managing nutrition and weight today requires skillpower, not willpower. There's no amount of thought stopping or blind restriction that's going to change the fact that food is indeed pleasurable to consume.

24. Final Questions • Which of the theories do you agree with? • Would a combination of these theories work?