We see losing body fat as positive, because we hate the way we look naked and we know the long term health effects of excess body fat. But, the body doesn't look that far ahead. It only looks seasonally. It's just trying to survive the next winter, not trying to survive till it's 100 years old. This is why losing weight is so difficult, but gaining weight can become easier, especially with time.
The body is inclined to learn how to gain fat, but doesn't care so much about losing it. It loses fat only when its forced to. This is why all diets use some form of starvation (force) and why they all fail (results cannot be sustained). Why? Because tyranny is always doomed to failure.
Diets that use starvation to induce fat loss, are guaranteed to fail. This is because starvation has been the main evolutionary driver, for the body, to learn how to keep fat on, not off. The body is very good at adapting to starvation. This is why losing fat using starvation protocols only helps the body become more efficient at gaining it.
2. Why is it that the older you get, the fatter you become?
It's an unfortunate truth.
Getting older means insulin begins to put its focus on growing your fat mass, rather than on something much more useful like growing your muscle mass. This is because protein synthesis slows down with age and insulin is no longer invited to the muscles pool party. But, fat cells also like to party and insulin is always invited to those events. Now insulin has a new BFF - your fat mass. This is all fun, reality show drama for them, but disease for you, as the only reality show you end up in is "My 600 Lb. Life".
This is why it's so vital to prioritize protein, especially as you become older. This gives your insulin something more useful to do than to build more fat mass. You also have to do everything you can to preserve your blood glucose regulation as everything else occurs downstream from it.
3. Low carbohydrate diets are never recommended, because they make no money.
Many people believe that low carb diets are not promoted, because they don't make money. Really? Check the internet.
There are plenty of low carb programs, coaches, conventions, conferences, festivals, cruises, junk food, supplements, books, paywalls, merchandise, Patreon accounts and gurus who beg to differ, as they are raking in millions. Even conventional doctors are throwing in their stethoscopes to cash by setting up their own private "low carb" clinics.
There is plenty of money to be made from low carb. In general, there's so much money in weight loss that there is plenty to go around. No one in the weight loss business is going to be destitute any time soon.
4. All obesity is caused by high insulin levels.
All obesity is caused by blood glucose abnormalities. which interfere in proper insulin function. This is irrespective of insulin levels but hyperinsulinemia can be a common marker. Downstream from this, there are a slew of abnormalities that continue to perpetuate obesity on their own.
4. All obesity is caused by high insulin levels.
All obesity is caused by blood glucose abnormalities. which interfere in proper insulin function. This is irrespective of insulin levels but hyperinsulinemia can be a common marker. Downstream from this, there are a slew of abnormalities that continue to perpetuate obesity on their own.
Insulin is variable amongst individuals. When studies have tested the insulin levels in a group of people, both obese and not, the results have been inconsistent. Obese people did not uniformly have high insulin levels and lean people did not have uniformly low insulin levels. This is precisely why the 'Insulin Hypothesis' is considered incomplete. Though we know that insulin plays an important role in obesity and metabolic dysfunction, most likely a primary role, it is unclear exactly how this occurs for each individual person. What we do know, is that abnormalities in proper blood glucose homeostasis is at the forefront.
The inconsistencies are because insulin levels are not indicative of insulin function. Though levels can be measured, and they tell part of the story, function is more difficult to determine and does not always correlate with levels. The differences in the insulin sensitivity of various tissues, in the body, causes complexity for pinpointing a universal abnormality that applies to everyone equally, as everyone's insulin resistance is unique. The level of insulin that results in insulin resistance varies between tissues and individuals.
For people who are very insulin sensitive, at the fat mass, weight gain can continue to occur, even with insulin levels below hyperinsulinemic values. This is a dysfunction of the fat mass, itself, caused by chronically higher than tolerable insulin levels. Notice that I did not use the term "higher than normal", because normal, as far as insulin is concerned, is very subjective.
Just like we have an individual fat threshold, we also have an individual insulin threshold. Some people are much more sensitive to the effects of insulin than others. This is not surprising, as insulin was never designed to be static. It fluctuates and changes with metabolic adaptation. All of the tissues of your body must respond to these changes accordingly. For example, your fat mass must become more insulin sensitive during seasons of weight gain and other tissues must become resistant in order to spare energy for that fat mass. Other tissues, like bone and muscle must become insulin sensitive during growth, so fat mass becomes more resistant in order to spare that energy for this growth. The insulin required to halt catabolism is different from the insulin required for facilitating glucose into cells, etc. All tissues require different levels of insulin, at different times and develop resistance differently and at different rates in different people.
This is why there is no one fix for metabolic dysfunction, regardless of what you read online.
5. A high metabolic rate will always keep you lean.
Metabolic rate is an important part of metabolic function and it is mostly affected by the macronutrient composition on your plate, but it can be misleading, especially in the context of metabolic dysfunction. For this reason, you do not want to become overly concerned with your metabolic rate, as it is very difficult to precisely measure and it's not indicative of the whole story.
Because of a larger body mass, you would think that obese people have a higher metabolic rate. But, this is only true for some, not all. Many obese people, actually have very slow metabolic rates. This slower metabolic rate, in the context of obesity, is usually due to genetics and/or a metabolism that is prone to thrift (leptin dysregulation). Basically, metabolism has slowed to a crawl, in these people, from a history of improper blood glucose control caused by bad diets, crash dieting and/or chronic caloric deficits.
Having a "slow metabolism" and being obese is something we have all heard of before and most assume that it's the cause of obesity. So, why are the obese with high metabolic rates also fat?
Metabolic rate is dependent on context. Since we aren't simple calorimeters, with a linear relationship between available energy and energy burned, a "faster metabolism" does not always equate to leanness, since extra energy can be applied to all sorts of different tasks, at the discretion of your neuroendocrine system. Some of those tasks are ones that you may not want, like the preservation and growth of fat mass, for example. So, a higher metabolic rate, in the context of obesity, simply means more energy is being put into making more fat mass. If it wasn't, then you would be lean, not fat and getting fatter.
You must address your metabolic function in order to improve your energy flux, so you can get the most out of your metabolic rate.
6. Increasing human growth hormone is always positive.
Just like with metabolic rate, described above, context is everything.
People with human growth hormone deficiency have positive effects when they are administered growth hormone. Their muscle mass increases and they have some decline in their abdominal fat. Because of these benefits, it was assumed that if diabetics are administered growth hormone, they will also have these positive outcomes, as metabolic syndrome/diabetes causes a deficiency in human growth hormone, due to insulin resistance of the pituitary.
Well, it didn't happen. The obese who were administered growth hormone saw no difference in their body fat composition and some even grew more fat mass. Does this surprise anyone? It shouldn't.
Human growth hormone is a growth hormone, after all, and it stimulates insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). If there is one thing that the obese do not need, is more hormones that cause growth, since the only thing they grow well, is their insulin sensitive fat mass. There is a reason the pituitary becomes insulin resistant, in the obese. It's trying to stop more growth.
So, increasing the growth hormone of the obese will not make them lean or look like a bodybuilder; not even remotely. In fact, stimulating human growth hormone causes even more fat mass growth, especially in the context of a low protein and excess fat diet, like the fad "keto" diets being followed online or the people who are practicing extended fasting.
The inconsistencies are because insulin levels are not indicative of insulin function. Though levels can be measured, and they tell part of the story, function is more difficult to determine and does not always correlate with levels. The differences in the insulin sensitivity of various tissues, in the body, causes complexity for pinpointing a universal abnormality that applies to everyone equally, as everyone's insulin resistance is unique. The level of insulin that results in insulin resistance varies between tissues and individuals.
For people who are very insulin sensitive, at the fat mass, weight gain can continue to occur, even with insulin levels below hyperinsulinemic values. This is a dysfunction of the fat mass, itself, caused by chronically higher than tolerable insulin levels. Notice that I did not use the term "higher than normal", because normal, as far as insulin is concerned, is very subjective.
Just like we have an individual fat threshold, we also have an individual insulin threshold. Some people are much more sensitive to the effects of insulin than others. This is not surprising, as insulin was never designed to be static. It fluctuates and changes with metabolic adaptation. All of the tissues of your body must respond to these changes accordingly. For example, your fat mass must become more insulin sensitive during seasons of weight gain and other tissues must become resistant in order to spare energy for that fat mass. Other tissues, like bone and muscle must become insulin sensitive during growth, so fat mass becomes more resistant in order to spare that energy for this growth. The insulin required to halt catabolism is different from the insulin required for facilitating glucose into cells, etc. All tissues require different levels of insulin, at different times and develop resistance differently and at different rates in different people.
This is why there is no one fix for metabolic dysfunction, regardless of what you read online.
5. A high metabolic rate will always keep you lean.
Metabolic rate is an important part of metabolic function and it is mostly affected by the macronutrient composition on your plate, but it can be misleading, especially in the context of metabolic dysfunction. For this reason, you do not want to become overly concerned with your metabolic rate, as it is very difficult to precisely measure and it's not indicative of the whole story.
Because of a larger body mass, you would think that obese people have a higher metabolic rate. But, this is only true for some, not all. Many obese people, actually have very slow metabolic rates. This slower metabolic rate, in the context of obesity, is usually due to genetics and/or a metabolism that is prone to thrift (leptin dysregulation). Basically, metabolism has slowed to a crawl, in these people, from a history of improper blood glucose control caused by bad diets, crash dieting and/or chronic caloric deficits.
Having a "slow metabolism" and being obese is something we have all heard of before and most assume that it's the cause of obesity. So, why are the obese with high metabolic rates also fat?
Metabolic rate is dependent on context. Since we aren't simple calorimeters, with a linear relationship between available energy and energy burned, a "faster metabolism" does not always equate to leanness, since extra energy can be applied to all sorts of different tasks, at the discretion of your neuroendocrine system. Some of those tasks are ones that you may not want, like the preservation and growth of fat mass, for example. So, a higher metabolic rate, in the context of obesity, simply means more energy is being put into making more fat mass. If it wasn't, then you would be lean, not fat and getting fatter.
You must address your metabolic function in order to improve your energy flux, so you can get the most out of your metabolic rate.
6. Increasing human growth hormone is always positive.
Just like with metabolic rate, described above, context is everything.
People with human growth hormone deficiency have positive effects when they are administered growth hormone. Their muscle mass increases and they have some decline in their abdominal fat. Because of these benefits, it was assumed that if diabetics are administered growth hormone, they will also have these positive outcomes, as metabolic syndrome/diabetes causes a deficiency in human growth hormone, due to insulin resistance of the pituitary.
Well, it didn't happen. The obese who were administered growth hormone saw no difference in their body fat composition and some even grew more fat mass. Does this surprise anyone? It shouldn't.
Human growth hormone is a growth hormone, after all, and it stimulates insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). If there is one thing that the obese do not need, is more hormones that cause growth, since the only thing they grow well, is their insulin sensitive fat mass. There is a reason the pituitary becomes insulin resistant, in the obese. It's trying to stop more growth.
So, increasing the growth hormone of the obese will not make them lean or look like a bodybuilder; not even remotely. In fact, stimulating human growth hormone causes even more fat mass growth, especially in the context of a low protein and excess fat diet, like the fad "keto" diets being followed online or the people who are practicing extended fasting.
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