Carbonated drinks have been shown to stimulate ghrelin release and increase appetite. The exact mechanism for this is unknown, but consuming carbonated water, even without the artificial sweeteners or any flavor, increases body fat as if the drink contained sugar. Research is focused on the pressure caused by carbonated drinks against the stomach wall. Of course, the consensus falls back on calories and how an increase in appetite makes you eat more overall. On this blog, I don't focus on this nonsense.
Even if you don't succumb to the increase in appetite, body fat will still increase. For this reason, I don't pay attention to what the carbon does to the stomach, but what it does to hormones overall.
Ghrelin, like all other hormones does not work in a vacuum. It is part of a complicated feedback loop that effects all hormones. So, carbon causes an increase in body fat, not because it rises ghrelin in isolation and makes you eat more, but because it causes an overall obesogenic hormonal profile that effects other hormones as well, causing everything you eat, irrespective of calories, to be stored as fat.
Stop eating and drinking novelties. There are no carbonated drinks in nature. There is only water. Water is 0 calories, 0 taste and 0 carbonation. Carbonated drinks are "party foods". Stop eating like you're at an endless birthday party.
2. Is there a profound way of affecting leptin?
Though leptin is most commonly manipulated through nutrient availability, such as eating more frequently, the effect is temporary. Leptin is a slave to insulin and though nutrient availability can boost it in the short term, insulin over sensitivity of the fat cells, will halt leptin's benefits in the long term. After all, insulin action on fat cells is what keeps fat trapped inside and forces more to come in.
Therefore, leptin is more profoundly affected, in the long term, by exercise.
Exercise "bypasses" insulin action on the fat cells, as it now mainly focuses on the building of muscle, rather than "locking down" your fat stores. You need those fat stores for energy if you are doing the right kind of exercise. This allows leptin to go into action.
You know the old adage of "If you don't use it, you lose it"? Well, your fat mass's signal to the brain is no exception to this rule. If you never burn enough fat stores, leptin simply under expresses its signal to the brain, and the brain will no longer "see" how much fat you have. Exercise helps force a reconnection.
You need to have a purposeful exercise routine, that you follow consistently on a daily basis. Walking through the mall, while shopping, is not going to cut it. You need to go out for a walk that is moderately intense and of long duration. Taking short strolls frequently, through out the day, is just not enough to achieve this proper signaling.
3. If low carbohydrate diets work, there wouldn't be all these different iterations of them that include additional protocols like "fasting" and "keto".
In 1972 the Old Testament of low carbohydrate dieting was written by Robert Atkins. In 2007 the New Testament was written by Gary Taubes. Both books, together, form the 'Low Carbohydrate Bible' and from this Bible sprung the 12 Tribes of Bull Sh-t. These tribes took what was in these books, modified it to their own liking and agendas, and created their own cults.
All of these cults believe in the 'Carbohydrate/Insulin Hypothesis' (CIH) to some degree. Basically, this hypothesis states that carbohydrate causes "hyperinsulinemia" and that eventually leads to weight gain and diabetes. That is incomplete and incorrect. We know this because:
- Carbohydrate isn't the only macronutrient that affects insulin levels.
- Carbohydrate is the main staple of certain cultures and produces no diabetes in them.
- Some overweight/obese people do not have significantly high insulin levels, therefore no "hyperinsulinemia". The same is true of some lean people who have high insulin levels with no obesity.
- Blood glucose dysregulation is the metric that tracks linearly with obesity, more so than insulin and blood glucose is affected by many things other than just diet.
So, basically the reason there are so many variations to low carb is because people want to find a message that preaches what they want to hear and they toss out what they don't. Usually, what they want to hear are outlandish promises, watered down information and a way to make money. What they don't want to hear is what promises nothing, is super complicated and can't be monetized.
4. The 'Fat Loss Blueprint Program' is much more thorough and complete than other "weight loss programs" on the market.
Ah, yes. Though the 'Fat Loss Blueprint Program' has not been that popular, it is slowly making its rounds in the diet sphere. Well, you know how I feel about "diet programs". They won't tell you anything that you don't already know or haven't tried before. This is a known fact and why diet programs are so profitable. People just can't stop coming back to them because they can't stop being fat. Diet programs are sort of like funeral homes - inevitable and always in demand.
The 'Fat Loss Blueprint Program' is the brainchild of Alex Leaf, a nutrition expert, researcher and teacher of nutrition at the University of Western States. So, what does this obesity resistant "athlete", with the Barbie doll model wife, have to say about the obese? Nothing you haven't heard before. But he does package it in a new modern gift box that makes it appear like a shiny new present. Unfortunately, you won't be surprised, once opened. It's the same tie you get every year but in a different color.
The good thing about Leaf is that he's not a zealot. Well, sort of not a zealot, which is very refreshing. He actually understands that obesity is much more complex than just "insulin and carbohydrates", so in that sense, he has a better understanding of the problem. After that though, nothing new is brought to the table. Leaf is a true believer of the Stephen Guyenet camp. They aren't quite a cult, but yes, they are totally a cult.
Guyenet wrote a book called 'The Hungry Brain', which makes the claim that the modern food environment "overrides the body's evolutionary circuits", in the brain, and causes "inappropriate levels of hunger", while reducing satiety. All which, of course, facilitate "overeating". In other words, this is a very fancy way of saying - calories in/calories out (CICO). In Guyenet's defense though, he has a good knowledge of leptin and its role in obesity, which is oftentimes overlooked by others. That's not surprising though, as his PHD is in neuroscience and he has done extensive studies in the "neuroscience of obesity".
It sounds so impressive! But what does it all mean?
Well, remember that what's impressive on paper, does not always translate to practice and as we can see, none of this has helped anyone lose one pound, so it technically means that obesity is still on the rise and nothing discovered, so far, has helped curb it. Obesity is still, as of this post, a "disease" with no known cure.
But, some of the good things which Leaf believes in, and modeled this program after, are the personal fat threshold theory, energy toxicity, the effects of circadian rhythms, acknowledgement of body composition and eating habits, awareness of fat cell dysfunction, etc. This is much more thorough than the failed 'Carbohydrate/Insulin Hypothesis', which no one believes in anymore, since it's been thoroughly debunked numerous times over.
Taking all of this into consideration, Leaf came up with the 'Fat Loss Blueprint Program'. Essentially an expensive, 18 lesson program, which takes you around the world and drops you off in the same location that you were picked up in - calories in/calories out. That's right. A series of complicated lessons that go right back to the root of all diet programs - food availability. This complicated flip flop dancing routine still hasn't helped you lose a pound, whether true or not. Nobody even cares.
But wait one second! How can this be possible if we already have numerous, countless, hundreds of diet programs available that use the same calories in/calories out foundation?
Well, of course, Leaf will vouch that this program is totally different because it takes into account all of the things (mentioned above), that have been overlooked by all the other calorie centered programs in existence, which is what really sabotaged your weight loss. But wait, there's more...
Um, I don't think so.
What sabotaged your weight loss was the under expression of leptin, which is the norm when under chronic caloric restriction, particularly deficits. I am pretty sure Guyenet knows this, very well, and has still not been able to come up with a magic pill, that will prevent it from happening. But, at least, he's still working on it. I salute him for his efforts. Whenever he's not going after Taubes, he is diligently working on leptin, the brain, palatability and how to keep people from reaching for that doughnut. I can probably come up with a solution faster than he can. It's called handcuffs. Wake me up when he wins the Nobel Prize though. While we wait for that, you can pay up to use the 'Fat Loss Blueprint Program' from his minion Leaf.
Of course, you can acquire everything you need for free, from just reading through this blog and personalizing your own program for yourself. But if you have the cash and want to try out yet another program, that promises the world and delivers nothing, go ahead and open your wallet to this one.
5. "Too much exercise" can damage the kidneys and aggravate cortisol, which can waste your muscle.
This is correct, but "too much exercise" is very subjective. In other words, for this to be a factor, you have to be doing one hell of a work out, chronically. This would not be of concern for the majority of the people on this blog.
For example, training athletes can experience rhabdomyolysis (skeleton muscle breakdown), a condition in which muscle mass breaks down rapidly and spills its contents into the blood stream. Myoglobin is a protein that is contained within muscle cells, and if enough is spilled into the blood stream, it can lead to kidney failure. This condition is caused by very intense, consistent, strenuous exercise, with little to no recovery time, of which I am sure no one on this blog does or is even remotely capable of.
What the people, on this blog, would be more at risk of is an exaggerated stress response from exercise, mainly through an over expression of cortisol.
Cortisol is catabolic to muscle and will cause loss of lean muscle mass if exercise is too strenuous. Again, "strenuous" is subjective. Because the majority of people, on this blog, have metabolic syndrome and this causes an exaggerated stress response, we emphasize walking routines, a bit of body weight exercise, etc. We do not recommend high intensity interval training (HIIT), unless it's a milder, beginner's version. We also don't recommend extensive weight training or hot Yoga or anything of this nature. In other words, our emphasis is for long duration, steady state exercise of low to moderate intensity and nothing more. This is also why consuming the right protein is vital for the prevention of muscle loss from exercise.
6. It is not scientifically correct that extended fasting will not result in the loss of lean body mass.
Normally, muscle is never lost before fat, unless there is starvation. This is why calorically restricted diets and fasting protocols for weight loss fail. The person ends up losing lean muscle mass, rather than fat. If you lose lean muscle mass, rather than fat, then you end up fatter by volume, when all is said and done. Being fatter only puts you at risk for becoming even fatter, furthering the deterioration of your blood glucose regulation and insulin, and this is why we see so many calorie tracking dieters being diagnosed with diabetes.
The body burns through its protein (muscle) when it is under starvation. That is a proven, biological fact. Basically, the body burns fat after it exhausts the contents in its digestive tract and glycogen reserves. Once starvation is prolonged (extended time in hypoglycemia) the body uses the protein within muscle tissue as a fuel source. This is basically the only time that the human body will use protein for energy, rather than for building.
This makes perfect sense because if you are starving, you want to preserve your body fat. That's what will keep you from dying and you don't really need your muscle as that expends even more energy, which you want to conserve. Muscle becomes an enemy for the starved and fat becomes their friend. That's why you can't starve yourself to thin, unless you're really ready to starve for real. Starvation is the loss of lean muscle mass.
The explanation that "the body will not use protein because there is plenty of fat available" is a dumb marketing slogan, that is not based on what actually occurs in reality whatsoever. It's just something that appears to make sense, so therefore it must be true. Well it's not. Things aren't wished into reality just because they make sense in your head alone. This is precisely why the people who make this claim cannot prove it scientifically, except by showing you intermittent fasting studies. Well, intermittent fasting is not extended fasting and the effects of one does not translate to the other.
The only reason intermittent fasting does not put your muscle mass at risk is because it simply does not last long enough to do so. But you have to keep in mind that metabolic syndrome changes everything and even fasts that would be considered intermittent can have very negative health effects for some metabolically ill people. This is because the metabolically ill have a very exaggerated stress response that breaks down lean muscle mass very quickly and they have a very hard time regaining it. So, these people have to be careful.