Fasting and Weight Loss - Solving the Two-Compartment problem
Summary
TLDRThe speaker discusses the ineffectiveness of traditional calorie-counting diets compared to intermittent fasting and low-carb diets. They critique the 'Biggest Loser' approach, highlighting how severe caloric restriction leads to slowed metabolism and weight regain. The talk emphasizes the role of insulin in fat storage and the body's two-compartment model for energy storage. Fasting is presented as a natural and effective way to lower insulin levels, allowing the body to access and burn stored fat. The benefits of fasting include simplicity, cost-effectiveness, flexibility, and its potential to counteract modern health issues like obesity and diabetes.
Takeaways
- 🔍 The script discusses the ineffectiveness of traditional calorie restriction diets compared to intermittent fasting and low carbohydrate diets.
- 🏆 It highlights 'The Biggest Loser' as an example of a high-profile diet program that promotes calorie reduction and exercise but has shown poor long-term results.
- 📉 The contestants on 'The Biggest Loser' experienced significant metabolic slowdown post-show, leading to weight regain despite severe caloric restriction during the show.
- ⚡️ The script emphasizes that obesity is a hormonal issue primarily influenced by insulin levels, which control the storage and release of fat in the body.
- 🚫 The traditional calorie-in, calorie-out model is criticized for being overly simplistic and not accounting for the body's compartmentalization of energy storage.
- 🍽️ Fasting is presented as a natural and effective method for reducing insulin levels, allowing the body to access and burn stored fat more efficiently.
- 💊 The script refutes common misconceptions about fasting, such as entering 'starvation mode', increased muscle breakdown, and the idea that it's an unsustainable weight loss method.
- 🌟 The benefits of fasting include simplicity, cost-effectiveness, convenience, flexibility, and its potential to significantly impact weight loss and overall health.
- 🌱 Historical and religious practices of fasting are mentioned to illustrate its long-standing recognition as a beneficial practice for both body and spirit.
- 🛡️ The script suggests that fasting can be a powerful tool against modern health issues like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.
- 🌐 It concludes by emphasizing the importance of applying ancient techniques like fasting to break free from the constraints of modern health problems.
Q & A
Why do calorie restriction diets often fail in the long term according to the script?
-Calorie restriction diets often fail in the long term because they result in a slowed metabolism. As people lose weight, their bodies adapt by burning fewer calories, which makes it difficult to maintain the weight loss and often leads to regaining the weight.
What is the main issue with the contestants on 'The Biggest Loser' diet after the show?
-The main issue is that despite significant weight loss during the show, most contestants end up regaining the weight after the show. This is due to their metabolism slowing down significantly, which makes it hard to maintain the weight loss without continuing severe caloric restriction and high levels of exercise.
How does the speaker describe the typical approach to weight loss on 'The Biggest Loser'?
-The speaker describes the approach as a calorie reduction diet with a lot of exercise, similar to an 'everything in moderation' approach, but more intense. It is not specifically a low carbohydrate diet.
What does the speaker suggest is the problem with the traditional calorie theory?
-The speaker suggests that the traditional calorie theory is flawed because it operates on a 'one compartment model', assuming all calories are the same and stored in one place in the body. This model does not account for the different ways the body stores and uses different types of calories.
What is the 'two compartment model' mentioned in the script?
-The 'two compartment model' refers to the idea that the body has two main places to store food: easily accessible glycogen (like a refrigerator) and more difficult to access fat (like a freezer). The model emphasizes the importance of insulin levels in determining which compartment the body uses for energy.
How does fasting affect insulin levels according to the script?
-Fasting reduces insulin levels because the body is not consuming food. Lower insulin levels signal the body to start using stored energy from glycogen and fat, making it easier to access and burn fat.
What is the speaker's view on the advice given to people struggling with obesity?
-The speaker believes that the advice to 'eat less and move more' is not effective and can even be harmful. They argue that this advice often leads to failure and then blames the individual for not having enough willpower, rather than acknowledging that the advice itself may be flawed.
What are the benefits of fasting mentioned in the script?
-The benefits of fasting mentioned include increased fat oxidation, conservation of muscle mass, increased resting metabolic rate, and hormonal changes that promote fat burning. Fasting is also described as simple, free, convenient, flexible, and having unlimited power for weight loss.
How does the speaker refute the idea that fasting leads to 'starvation mode'?
-The speaker refutes the idea by explaining that during fasting, resting energy expenditure actually increases, not decreases. This is a survival mechanism to ensure the body is active enough to find food, contradicting the notion of 'starvation mode' leading to a slowed metabolism.
What historical and religious context does the speaker provide for fasting?
-The speaker mentions that fasting has been practiced for thousands of years, with ancient Greeks using it for energy and mental focus. They also note that many major religions incorporate periods of fasting, suggesting that there is a deep, intrinsic benefit to the practice.
What does the speaker suggest about the potential of fasting to combat modern diseases?
-The speaker suggests that fasting has the potential to help combat modern diseases such as heart attacks, cancer, strokes, diabetes, and kidney disease, which are often linked to obesity and high insulin levels.
Outlines
🍽️ Diet Failures and Metabolism
The paragraph discusses the ineffectiveness of traditional calorie-counting diets compared to the success of intermittent fasting and low-carbohydrate diets. It uses 'The Biggest Loser' TV show as a case study, highlighting how contestants lost weight initially through calorie restriction and exercise but later gained it back due to a slowed metabolism. The speaker emphasizes that this metabolic slowdown is a well-known phenomenon, yet people are still given the advice to eat less and move more, which often fails in the long term.
🔥 Metabolism and Exercise After Weight Loss
This section delves into the metabolic consequences of rapid weight loss, as exemplified by 'The Biggest Loser' contestants. It details how the contestants' metabolic rates dropped significantly after losing weight, making it difficult to maintain the weight loss. The speaker contrasts this with bariatric surgery, which seems to maintain a more stable metabolic rate post-surgery, and ponders why this difference exists.
🍞 The Role of Insulin in Weight Management
The paragraph explains the physiological impact of eating on insulin levels and how this hormone influences fat storage and fat burning. It describes the body's two energy storage compartments—glycogen (like a refrigerator) and fat (like a freezer)—and how insulin affects the accessibility of these energy sources. The speaker argues against the simplistic calorie-in, calorie-out model, proposing instead a two-compartment model that accounts for the different storage and release of energy.
🚫 The Limitations of Calorie Reduction
This section critiques the traditional advice of reducing calorie intake to lose weight, pointing out that it often leads to a decrease in metabolic rate and weight regain. It references a study where participants reduced their calorie intake but did not lose weight, as their bodies adapted by reducing energy expenditure. The speaker suggests that the body's response to calorie reduction is to protect itself from starvation, which contradicts the desired outcome of weight loss.
🏃♂️ Fasting and Fat Oxidation
The paragraph discusses the benefits of fasting for weight loss and energy expenditure. It explains that during fasting, the body initially burns carbohydrates and then shifts to burning fat, while protein (muscle) breakdown does not significantly increase. The speaker refutes the myth that fasting leads to muscle loss and argues that the body is designed to use fat as an energy source during times of food scarcity.
🌡️ Fasting and Hormonal Changes
This section explores how fasting affects hormone levels and metabolism. It describes a study showing that during fasting, resting energy expenditure (REE) and oxygen consumption (VO2) increase, contrary to the belief that fasting leads to a 'starvation mode' with a slowed metabolism. The speaker highlights that fasting can lead to a decrease in insulin levels, allowing the body to access stored fat for energy.
💪 Myths About Fasting Debunked
The paragraph addresses common misconceptions about fasting, such as the belief that it leads to muscle loss and weight loss plateaus. It presents evidence from studies showing that fasting can result in significant fat loss without affecting fat-free mass. The speaker emphasizes the effectiveness of fasting for weight loss and challenges the idea that fasting is not a viable long-term solution.
🎯 The Power and Flexibility of Fasting
This section highlights the advantages of fasting, including its simplicity, cost-effectiveness, convenience, and flexibility. The speaker points out that fasting can be adapted to any dietary preference or lifestyle and has the potential to address obesity-related health issues. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the ancient practice of fasting and its potential to cleanse the body and promote overall health.
🌿 The Ancient Wisdom of Fasting
The final paragraph discusses the historical and cultural significance of fasting, noting its practice in various religions and its benefits for mental focus and energy. It suggests that fasting can help 'spring clean' the body of excess sugars, insulin, and fats, and that this ancient technique can be applied today to combat modern health problems like obesity and diabetes.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Intermittent Fasting
💡Low Carbohydrate Diets
💡Calorie Theory
💡Metabolism
💡Insulin
💡Glycogen
💡Fat Oxidation
💡Protein Conservation
💡Starvation Mode
💡Bariatric Surgery
💡Two Compartment Model
Highlights
Intermittent fasting and low carbohydrate diets are more effective than traditional calorie restriction for weight loss.
The Biggest Loser contestants regained weight after the show due to a slowed metabolism, despite initial weight loss success.
Caloric restriction diets often fail in the long term as metabolism slows down, leading to weight regain.
Bariatric surgery can effectively help keep weight off long term without the same metabolic slowdown as seen with caloric restriction.
Insulin plays a key role in fat storage and its reduction through fasting can facilitate weight loss by promoting fat burning.
The body has two energy storage compartments: glycogen (easily accessible like a refrigerator) and fat (harder to access like a freezer).
A two-compartment model better explains the body's energy storage and expenditure than the traditional one-compartment calorie model.
Fasting can lead to increased fat oxidation as the body turns to fat stores for energy once glycogen is depleted.
Protein breakdown for energy is not significantly increased during fasting, contrary to common misconceptions.
Fasting can increase resting energy expenditure, contrary to the idea of entering 'starvation mode' with reduced metabolism.
Norepinephrine levels rise during fasting, promoting increased energy expenditure to aid in survival and fat burning.
Alternate daily fasting can maintain resting metabolic rate without a drop, while increasing fat oxidation.
Fasting is a simple, flexible, and cost-effective method for weight loss that can be adapted to various dietary preferences or restrictions.
Fasting has been practiced for thousands of years across various cultures and religions for its physical and mental benefits.
Fasting provides a natural and powerful tool for weight management and breaking free from obesity-related health issues.
The simplicity of fasting lies in its non-prescriptive nature; it is an absence of eating rather than a specific diet to follow.
Transcripts
so what we're going to talk about today
is really why intermittent fasting and
low carbohydrate diets work whereas the
calorie counters it just doesn't seem to
work right and the problem with the
calorie theory is that it's just like
raw and because we don't really
understand obesity that's why we can't
cure it right so I'm sure many of you
have seen this show it's called The
Biggest Loser and it's on North America
it's in Australia it's everywhere right
and what people do is they're
contestants that compete to lose weight
and they get put on a diet
it's a calorie reduce diet and they do a
lot of exercise and you've seen jillian
michaels screaming at everybody right so
it's a lot of exercise and they don't
show it on the show but there's actually
a fairly severe caloric restriction as
well it's not a low carbohydrate diet
it's more of a kind of everything in
moderation sort of an approach so the
problem of course is that this show has
been running for a long time and certain
of the contestants have come out and
said well you know this really doesn't
work now the reason more haven't come
out is because they're essentially under
a legal gag order right they're actually
not allowed to say any of this stuff but
certain contestants have actually come
out and so this contestant Suzanne said
well they never do a reunion show why
they've all gain that weight again and
it's not it's not unique to the Biggest
Loser a lot of diets and we've all done
these calorie reduce diets it does the
same for everything it does fine for
about six months but then after that it
just keeps coming back your weight
plateaus then it starts to come back and
everybody knows this right because
everybody's done this diet the question
is why right and that's what we really
have to understand and that's what I
mean by we have to solve the two
compartment problem and I'll explain
that in a second so the Biggest Loser
diet despite the fact that we all know
it doesn't work is actually ranked very
highly so USA News for example just this
past year put the Biggest Loser diet at
number three for weight loss and number
11 overall so really a very good diet
and why not it's a eat less
move more sort of approach right cut
your calories in increase your calories
out and hey presto you're going to lose
weight so that's why it does so well
because all the doctors recommended and
so on
the thing is that there have been some
studies that have been done on these
contestants and it's very interesting to
look scientifically at what actually
happens to these people as they do this
sort of eat less news more approach now
the Biggest Loser of course is that
approach on steroids rates or eating a
lot less and you're moving a lot more
and that's why you get these dramatic
weight losses so one season they
actually took these contestants made
them signed consents and then actually
did metabolic studies on them and what's
interesting is that at first it looks
amazing right and we've all seen that
show right the before on the after it
looks amazing and the studies really
bear that out so if you look at the
before and after if you look at the
composition of weight loss so at week
six and week 30 at the end of the show
is week 30 you can see that they've lost
a lot of weight right this is 60
kilograms right and this is fat mass so
most of it is fat right everybody says
aw you're going to lose muscle you lose
muscle another losing mostly fat there's
a little bit of muscle loss but it's
mostly fat and this is their body fat
percentage you can see it's follows a
pretty steady trend downwards and the
average went from 329 pounds to 202
pounds so an amazing result right
body fat went from 49% to 28% so at the
end of the show you get these great
results you have the end of the show
everybody wins
and they pretend like everything's fine
but we know that it isn't and why not
what's the problem it sounds like it
should work right you keep doing what
you're doing and you'll keep losing
weight but you don't and the reason and
we've known this for at least a hundred
years is that your metabolism starts to
slow down and this is what happened to
the metabolism of all these contestants
and you can see in the solid bar that's
their baseline rate of metabolism before
they start at this and the open circles
is that
afterwards you can see that in virtually
every case these people are cutting the
amount of calories they expend by a lot
okay so you can look at some of these
dramatic examples so this fellow for
example list starts out by earning
thirty five hundred calories a day and
he's dropped all the way to about
seventeen hundred calories a day right
and it's not just him it's everybody if
you take the entire group of people the
average decrease in metabolism is over
seven hundred calories a day right so if
you start by burning thirty five hundred
which is a lot so you start at two
thousand you're going to drop down to
like twelve thirteen hundred by the end
of the show so you wonder why you're not
losing weight well it's because your
metabolism has slowed down so much that
if you're burning thirteen hundred and
you are eating 1,500 remember that's
still a lot less than you used to eat
you're going to gain the weight back
that's exactly what we all know happens
you feel cold you feel tired if you're
hungry you feel like and the weight
is going back up right and that's the
problem right we all know that's the
problem it's the decrease in metabolism
so you can try to make up for it with
more exercise right and that's what they
pretend that you can do so you can see
that baseline there's a certain amount
which is resting metabolic rate certain
amount of exercise during the show they
burn a hell of a lot of calories as
exercise you see that the gram tops your
total energy expenditure is better but
when you stop exercising for like you
know five hours a day then your exercise
goes down but look at what's happened to
your basal metabolism this is your
resting metabolic rate it's already gone
down by week six okay so don't kid
yourself this is happening all the time
but by week thirty it's gone down even
or and that's the whole problem you get
this metabolic slowdown and because
you're not burning as much energy you
don't have that you know liveliness you
don't feel very good and you can see
this in this graph you can see this is
the Biggest Loser contestants and you
see that the basal metabolic rate just
keeps on going down but there's a
similar extreme measure that doesn't
seem to have this problem and the
question is why so you can look at
bariatric surgery so bariatric surgery
is stomach stapling surgery right so you
cut your stomach into the size of a
walnut you really just can't eat and you
can't eat for months and months and
months and guess what
the weight goes down right that's not a
surprise the surprise is that it works
to keep weight off in the long term yeah
there are a lot of problems with this
okay so let's be clear I'm not
recommending it for anybody right but if
you look at the resting metabolic rate
with a similarly sort of extreme measure
it goes back up the question is why so
this is another study of the long-term
effects of Bariatrics and you can see
that a baseline and a follow-up this is
several years later the resting
metabolic rate and the total energy
expenditure how much energy you're
burning has really not gone down right
as opposed to the eat less move more
where it keeps going down keeps going
down until you fail right that of course
is the saddest part of all right the
saddest part of the entire thing is that
we know about this metabolic slowdown
this was shown in 1915 so we've known
about it for a hundred years what I
think is sad is that we give people this
really horrific advice to eat less and
move more and then when they fail we
blame them for it right and that's
basically you're blaming the victim
because here's this poor fellow or poor
lady who's victimized because they're
suffering from obesity from type 2
diabetes you give them really bad advice
which you know is going to fail
because we've all done it it fails every
single time and then when the weight
goes back you say yeah you should have
listened to me better you should have
had more willpower you shouldn't have
eaten that bagel or whatever it is you
tell people right and that's really the
saddest part of all is that we try to
pretend that the advice that we give is
really good and the failure lies with
all of you right but doesn't doesn't
make any sense right how can like forty
fifty percent of the population be so
morally bankrupt that they let this
happen to them is it not more logical
that the advice that we gave was just
really crappy that seems to me much more
sensible so we're going to explain why
this sort of discrepancy exists so in
order to do that you have to understand
what happens when you eat okay so what
happens when you eat is that insulin
goes up so most foods almost all foods
have a mixture of macronutrients fat
carbohydrates and protein so your
insulin goes up to a varying degree and
insulin basically is the hormone that
tells your body to store fat so it stops
your body from burning fat you start to
store some of the sugar and store some
of the fat okay and this is normal this
is a normal situation so carbohydrates
get turned into glycogen which are
chains of glucose so chains of glucose
in the liver is basically a storage form
of sugar okay and when you have too much
of that then your liver produces lipids
which is called de novo lipogenesis and
it basically stores fat okay so when 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 pulling some of that energy out
right so you're going to start by
pulling some energy out from the
glycogen which is your stored sugar and
you're going to pour some pull some
energy out of the stored fat so you can
think of it the glycogen like a
refrigerator right you're storing food
energy
and the reason it's like a refrigerator
is that it's easy to access so you can
get put food in easily you can take food
out easily right it's just food energy
and the fat is more like your freezer
okay so you can store more of it but
it's in your basement you know 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 and it's the same idea
you have two storage forms of energy one
easy to use and one not so easy to use
the refrigerator though has a limited
capacity so if you put if you have too
much stuff you have no choice but to put
it in your freezer now the reason that
the calories don't work is that they
operate on what I call a one compartment
model okay so that means they pretend
that all your calories goes in to your
body and it's all the same all your
calories are the same they're stored in
one giant compartment like this sink and
when it comes to taking out energy it
all comes out of the same thing right
therefore if you follow this sort of
very simplistic incorrect model what you
see is 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 but the
entire premise of this sort of calories
in calories out model is completely
fictitious because we know that's not
what happens in the body the body
doesn't have some giant vat of calories
right you can store sugar you can store
fat it's not some giant vat of calories
that's held somewhere in your liver
right but that's what they all pretend
it is so if you have the entire wrong
idea of why this should work then it's
not going to work what instead is a
better model is a two compartment model
that is 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 goes in into your fridge
calories goes
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 this the fat but that's
the one that's much harder to get to
right and the question is what's
controlling this because that's really
the key and it turns out that the main
player is insulin we know this because
insulin inhibits lipolysis right what
that means is it stops you from getting
the fat coming out that's a job that's a
normal job so if you have a lot of
insulin right so normally if you eat a
huge meal your insulin is high it's
going to tell the body to move all the
storage in this way if your insulin is
very high then you can't get the food
back out this way and that's the problem
so if you have a lot of insulin
resistance for example which keeps your
insulin levels very high it's like that
freezer is kind of locked away in the
basement behind the lock
you know steel bar you can't get at it
so what happens now when you start
reducing your calories if you start
reducing your calories in and you can't
get at your storage what your body is
simply going to do is reduce the
calories out that's what it does right
because it's not going to keep losing
weight
until you die that's just ridiculous
right so if you look at the Women's
Health Initiative which was a huge fifty
thousand person study they reduce
calories by 350 odd per day for like
seven years and they estimated that
people would lose 30 pounds women would
lose 30 pounds per year right so in
seven years they should have lost 210
pounds right of course that didn't
happen how much did they lose not even a
single pound it was ridiculous because
what happened of course is that their
body is if you're not affecting me in
insulin you can't get at that fat you're
just going to reduce your calorie though
and notice here of course that we're not
breaking any laws of thermodynamics
right calories in calories out yeah
you're accounting for all the calories
but what's important is the
compartmentalization of energy right
that's what we're talking about not the
total energy but where it goes right
because that's what we want to know if
you eat and you just burn it off
who cares that'd be great but if you eat
and all of it goes into fat
well now you care a lot right but it's
not that calories are imbalance if you
eat an extra 500 calories your body
burns it all off as Fat Bob burns it all
off as heat yeah who cares you don't
have any extra body fat but if you get
500 extra calories boom the insulin is
telling it all to shunt into here well
that's a problem and that's really the
problem of the two compartment syndrome
so if you look at what happens during
fasting what happens because everybody
worries about this right Oh what about
protein you're burning your muscle right
so this is a study by Kevin hall from
the NIH and he basically looked what
happens during fasting and this is what
happens right so for the first couple of
days of fasting what you see is that
carbohydrate oxidation goes off it goes
way up right in other words you're
burning sugar you can see that fat
doesn't actually move for a couple of
days
you're not burning a hell of a lot of
fat right and then as you run out of the
glycogen remember that the glycogen is
you're easily accessed energy but
limited in terms of how much you can
store once it all burns out then look
fat oxidation goes off 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 hell no it goes up slightly okay
at the very beginning then drops so
protein is not a storage form of energy
why would your body
burn it for energy right you hear this
argument all the time you're going to
burn muscle right so it's ridiculous
right because you're telling me that the
way we're designed is to store energy as
fat but when the chips are down we'll
burn muscle right okay like I don't
think so
right it's like if you have a
wood-burning stove you store firewood
right because you're going to burn it
but when the chips are down you don't
you chop up your sofa and throw it into
the fire right it's crazy the other
thing that's ridiculous is that if you
have repeated fast famine cycles like
cavemen might have had for instance so
you store fat burn burn muscle right so
at the end of a few of these cycles
you're like one giant ball of 100% fat
right it's like that's what happens to
the Bears right it's like come on don't
be ridiculous you don't burn muscle
protein yes you do need a certain amount
of protein to maintain your lean protein
right but it's not increased that's my
point it's not that it's not zero there
is some right but it's not increased in
response to fasting so 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
is it empties out that fridge right and
remember what you want to do is get rid
of all that insulin - right because now
if you don't have insulin telling your
body to shunt all that energy into fat
now you can start to move your calories
out this way right if you have a lot of
insulin so we do this for example if if
we give people exhaustion as insulin
they can't lose weight right even if
they fast it's very hard because they
can't access that fat
they just keep reducing their calorie
expenditure but the whole point is that
fasting provides the easiest way you get
rid of all that glycogen you got your
insulin down so you can actually access
your body fat and there and the whole
thing is that why can't you
right you know I asked my son one time a
few years ago you know how do you lose
weight these goes here's six or seven at
the time and he goes just don't eat so
easy right it's like huh
how can you be so right about this point
that has escaped like 99% of the world's
doctors and dietitians right if you
don't need you're going to lose weight
and here's the thing to understand
there's nothing wrong with it that's the
way we're built right that's the way
Lions are built its we tigers are built
that's what bears are built that's the
way we're built we're built to withstand
these repeated episodes where there's no
food right because back in the caveman
days there's no McDonald's there's no
refrigerator there's nothing there there
are times you're going to have nothing
that's why you have fat right that's the
whole point so one of the most ironic
things is that this is what you hear all
the time
fasting is going to put you into
starvation mode right huh
this is actually very ironic because
starvation mode refers to the idea that
your metabolism slows to such an extent
that you're going to regain weight okay
so I've heard that before somewhere
right that's exactly what happens when
you try to reduce your calories right if
you don't do anything about your insulin
and just reduce your calories your
metabolism goes down you're going into
starvation mode but what happens during
fasting does it happen well here's a
study of four consecutive days of
fasting right so this is in normal
people right and what you see is that at
the top the weight goes down right so
that's great that's exactly what we
expect to see but what happens to your
REE this is this middle line here that's
the resting energy expenditure right
that's your basal metabolism it doesn't
go down it goes up
right you're burning more energy than
you did now you might think why is that
so well it makes a lot of sense because
suppose again you're a caveman and
there's nothing to eat it's winter
there's nothing to eat right so if your
body starts shutting down then you're
even less likely to find something to
eat because you're tired you can't go
out there and hunt a woolly mammoth
you're tired right you need to sleep so
that's gonna you're all going to die
like that
right your body is just not that stupid
right your body says wow you have
nothing to eat so I'm going to give you
energy I'm going to increase the amount
of energy you're burning and I'm going
to provide it from your fat stores
because you need to go out and eat and
fill up this refrigerator again right so
that's exactly what you do otherwise we
wouldn't be here right
it'd be like cockroaches and insects
running the world so what happens to
your vo2 right that's how much oxygen
you can metabolize right does it slow
down no it goes up right again you have
more capacity to do exercise more energy
and why is that so one you're burning
fat for energy and your body's like whoo
there's a lot of this right so there's
plenty of it
let's go but the other thing you see is
that the norepinephrine so
norepinephrine and epinephrine are
called adrenaline or noradrenaline so
your body is actually providing you with
a big kick in the pants to keep your
energy expenditure high because that's
what you need to do to survive
so insulin drops which is one of the
major things that we want to see and
your hormone so that's a hormonal
remember obesity is a hormonal disease
it goes up it's providing you the tools
to burn fat so there's no starvation
mode actually it's quite the opposite it
goes up you can do something called
alternate daily fasting which is kind of
one day of fasting one-off and in these
studies is not actually a full fast so
they still allow about 500 calories on
those fasting day so it's not even a
true fast but the calories are low
that you still get the benefits and you
again if you look at the resting
metabolic rate which is the first line
you can see that from baseline to day 22
so you know a couple of weeks of
alternate daily fasting your resting
metabolic rate really hasn't dropped
your fat oxidation goes way up right so
you're burning fat you can't argue with
that
right you can measure these things
you're burning fat why because you have
no carbohydrate to burn right because
you're clearing out that fridge you're
clearing out all that storage sugar and
burning fat that's great that's exactly
what we want do the other thing we
talked a little bit about already is
that you're going to burn muscle right
and again the idea is that here you're
going to burn protein to provide glucose
right and this doesn't actually happen
and this has been known again for 20-25
years so if you look at your reah reah
is this big line camp so it's a
breakdown product of protein so you can
see that you excrete a certain amount of
nitrogen every day you're also taking in
a certain amount of nitrogen every day
right this is under normal conditions
now you fast people like you just give
them nothing to eat well what happens
well there's virtually no you're really
out right now there's nothing going in
to but what you you notice is that
you're not burning muscle because if
you're burning muscle that urea should
skyrocket or at least be as high as this
your body is actively conserving your
protein your muscle mass right and
that's what happens during fasting and
you can do 70 days of alternate daily
fasting right so 70 days is more than
two in a bit months and what you see is
that if you measure fat mass and fat
free mass in this study you can see that
fat mass goes down very nicely from
forty three point five to thirty eight
point one kilos and the fat free mass
your lean mass doesn't move at all so
these are sort of some of the myths that
everybody tells you right servation mode
burning protein and
here's my favorite right it doesn't work
that is never going to work right it's
like okay genius if you don't eat do you
think you will lose weight right well
yes you will right so it's not exactly a
very good comeback for people to say it
won't work because it will definitely
work okay it will definitely work I'm
not saying it's easy okay that's a whole
other thing can you do it that's a
separate question I actually think that
most people can do it but if you are
able to do it yes you will lose weight
right and here's the thing so back in
the 1960s they have done a bunch of
studies on these patients and what they
did was they admitted them to hospital
they did that back then and they just
watched them and you can see that people
lose weight and here's the thing that
always says people are goes oh how about
women women shouldn't fast like why not
don't you think you'll lose weight yes
you will now if you're underweight then
yeah you shouldn't be fasting right
you're going to get a man areia you're
going to get menstrual problems but if
your need to lose weight yes you will
lose weight and that's exactly what they
found in all these studies so you have
men they lose weight women they lose
weight right and what you can see that
it's fairly steady there's no kind of
drop-off right there's no drop off that
kind of dreaded weight plateau because
that's the whole problem with weight
regain is that we all plateau there's so
many advantages to fasting that are just
not available in that it's completely
different from most other diets which
tell you what to do because this is
really the opposite it's something you
don't do right so one of the biggest
advantages is really that it's
completely simple you can explain it in
like two seconds and everybody
understands intrinsically what it is
right now there are variations right
there's fact fasters juice fasts there's
you know water-only fast there's no
water fasts there's all kinds of
variations but at it's very core it's
easy to understand and that's important
because if people don't
understand what you're trying to do they
can't do it right it's free like you
know as much as I would love to always
eat home-cooked meals and you know long
simmered bone broth the truth is that
most of us sometimes don't have the time
and don't have the inclination don't
have the money if you want to eat
grass-fed beef every day it's going to
cost you you want to eat organic all the
time it's going to cost you not saying
that you shouldn't but it's expensive
and some people just have no money so I
have people who write me from the
Philippines and they're like you know I
got all this stuff and I can't afford
anything it's like well there is no cost
there's no cost at all it's convenient
right so again you can cook all you want
but it takes time right it takes time
and sometimes you just don't have the
time but this one there's no shopping
there's no preparation there's no
cooking there's no cleanup there's no
eating right there's nothing it's so
convenient because again the key is it's
not something to do it's something to
not do right and that makes it
completely different in sometimes
something that you can add something
that's completely flexible right so it's
not like oh yeah you need to eat six
times a day right it's like sometimes
you just don't want to eat a snack today
sometimes you're busy right well this is
going to give you more time you can put
it in anywhere you can do it tomorrow
and you cannot do it the whole next week
and then do it again right you can do
whatever you want it's completely
flexible do it for 12 hours you could do
it for 12 days right it doesn't matter
and really the the point is that you can
add it to any diet because again it's
something that you can put in and fit in
wherever you need to right so say you
want to eat the you know the rice diet
or something like that you get still
fast right that's the whole point you
don't eat meat you can still fast right
you don't eat wheat
you can still fast you have a nut
allergy you can still fast right you
don't have time
hey you can so fast you don't have money
you can still fast you're traveling all
day you can still fast right you know
cook yeah you can still fast right and
probably the most important thing is
that it really has unlimited power right
and it's a doctor sometimes you get into
these things where you want to do
something and it's not strong enough
right well you can just keep fasting
until you get the results you see as I
said if you don't eat you will lose
weight right you're almost it's almost
impossible to not write can you keep it
up that's a separate question right I'm
not saying it's easy I'm not saying that
I mean you do have to have the proper
medical supervision especially if you're
on medications so on but you could fast
you could fast I have a 75 year old who
did like 30 days right you felt great
right the world record is 382 days you
can keep going right and this is the
whole point is that this gives you
options because it's not a diet it's no
diet it's nothing right it's like
Costanza to show about nothing right
there's a talk about nothing right
Georgie stands us so smart that's the
whole point is that because it's the
opposite it gives you so much
flexibility and it has the ability to
really free ourselves so the chains that
bind us down right we have all these
problems right the number one problem in
the world today right you got heart
attacks you got cancer you got strokes
you got diabetes
you got kidney disease and it's all due
to obesity it's all due to diabetes but
yet we have the ability to free
ourselves from all of these modern
afflictions right only with the
application of a technique they new
5,000
years ago the ancient Greeks were all
about fasting not for health they didn't
have a lot of obesity back then but
because it gave you energy gave you like
mental focus right that's why they did
it and these involuntary periods of
fasting eventually got taken out right
as we started getting more reliable food
then religion started introducing
periods of fasting right so if you look
at any major religion in the world they
have periods of fasting their periods of
feasting - that's balanced by periods of
fasting right I remember
that they're not trying to kill all
their practitioners right not like oh
you should fast you'll die haha that's
not it at all right it did it because
there is something deeply intrinsically
beneficial to the fasting right and it
was always known always it's a cleanse
it's a detox right there's probably only
one thing that the three most
influential people in the history of the
world agreed on right so the Prophet
Muhammad Jesus Christ and Buddha they
all agreed on one thing and that is
fasting is very beneficial it's uniquely
beneficial not only for the spirit but
also for your body we need to clean
ourselves out of this junk that
accumulates right all this extra sugar
all the insulin all the fat we need to
clean it out once in a while right it's
a spring cleaning that's all it is and
yet with the application of this kind of
ancient time-tested technique we can
break free of all this right you know in
the last century we broke free of a lot
of infectious diseases right
tuberculosis pneumonia and all this and
now all that replaced with was all these
diseases but we have the knowledge we
only have to apply it and that's the
most ironic part of all we won't but
there's no reason why we won't we've
always been told
by everybody that we have to do that and
yet why do we not my son knew it any
questions we have a couple of minutes
left
thank you very much
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