in this video I'm going to talk about calories this topic is probably one of
the most confusing things that you can ever imagine so
really pay attention because this is really important to video you know every
so often I'll have people come in and say you know dr. Berg I'm eating I'm not
eating that many calories I don't know why I'm not losing weight
I mean I'm practicing portion control I'm eating everything in moderation why
can't I lose weight because I read in a book that it's just a matter of calories
in equal calories out and you will lose weight right well let me just go a
little bit deeper so let's first define what a calorie is calories are units of
energy in food okay it's a unit of energy and food so we have three basic
types of food we have proteins we have fats and we have carbohydrates so let's
just talk about proteins first of all proteins have four calories per gram and
fats have nine calories per gram and carbohydrates have four calories per
gram so now if you didn't understand about the hormone system which we'll get
into you would look at this and go wow look at those fats it contains more than
twice the calories so therefore I'm going to avoid fats big and that's going
to help me lose weight well let's take a look at what occurs as another layer on
top of these calories because the way the body manipulates these calories is
very different than a machine you have hormones that react in influence these
all these three very differently okay so the first thing I'm going to talk about
is the hormones involved when you eat protein now if you have a small amount
of protein maybe three to four ounces you will trigger the fat burning
hormones to help you burn fat now I want to mention what proteins the function of
proteins in the body actually are there to
replace in bill body tissue like muscle like ligament like collagen like your
joints like your hair your nails a lot of the cell structures are all made from
protein certain hormones are made from protein so that's why we need protein
we're constantly replacing the body with these the structure of the material
protein and through the hormone cycle alright so if you actually consume too
much protein like a very large amount then what happens is you'll trigger the
opposite hormone called insulin and that makes fat okay so excessive protein can
cause fat storage and so so really proteins can help you or they can hurt
you depending on the amount now I want to talk about fats fat has the most
calories but as far as hormones are involved it's neutral as far as insulin
it does not trigger the fat making hormones so it's neutral now I'm not
saying that if you consume all this fat that it could influence your ability to
get fat I'm not saying to start eating tons of fat but I am saying there's a
diet out there called the ki toast ketosis diet and it's used for children
with seizures and it's it's also involved in the Atkins diet which is
basically a high-protein diet and ketosis is basically a breakdown of fat
in the body and fats convert converted to ketones
and that ketones is used as fuel instead of sugar so in other words the Atkins
diet works like this it's very high protein and high fat and very low if any
carbohydrates okay so we have high protein high fat and a lot of people
lose weight with that so why because when you eat that much fat and oil it
forces your body to release your own fat so in other words fat doesn't
necessarily always turn into fat now then
dr. Berg, don't I recommend the Atkins diet well first of all it's missing the
nutrients there's not enough vitamins and minerals in fat and protein to be
able to sustain the body plus it's very hard on your liver if you have all this
fat that's being burnt through the body it all has to come out through your
liver which is three and a half pounds right here and it can plug up the liver
and create all sorts of problems like a fatty liver it can block your liver from
detoxification you can have bad breath it creates a lot of side effects it's
not the healthiest way to lose weight yet a lot of people will do it and they
will lose weight but it's not a long-term thing so fats are neutral with
making fat but it also will force your body to burn up your own fat that fats
used as an energy source and to satisfy the hunger as well there is some
nutrients in fats but not a lot now we have carbohydrates
now the carbohydrates depending on what kind of carbohydrate will either cause
you to make fat or burn fat so the carbohydrates consisted of sugars okay
and that would be refined grains like breads pasta cereal crackers biscuits
waffles pancakes muffins so does things like that juice hidden sugars and yogurt
alcohol all that will trigger even though it's a small amount of calories
it will trigger insulin which will make fat so carbohydrates are converted into
fat if they break down the sugar really fast okay so that's one thing number two
the vegetables that we're talking about vegetables are carbohydrates the non
sweet vegetables the non starchy vegetables have a lot of nutrition and a
lot of fiber and low sugar so those things do not convert to fat at all and
that's why we recommend them because it's a very good sustaining thing that
you can do for the liver because it enhances the nutrition into the body it
gives you all the vitamins and mineral that we need to convert the proteins and
fats to body tissues okay so that's why we do recommend the non sweet
carbohydrates now of course potatoes and rice and the starchy ones also are
sugary and they convert into fat as well but the vegetable family does not so
what I wanted just to make you aware of is the calories of these really react
differently to hormones and it's not as simple as calories in equals calories
out it really depends on what type of carbohydrates one purpose of fat one of
the purposes of fat would be to build the body tissues well every single cell
in your body the outer part of the cell the cell wall is made from fat your
brain is made from fat your hormones are made from hat fat all the nervous system
that the covering around the nerves are made from fat all your skin is made from
fat so you need certain fat to replace that you need fat and protein to build
the body but you need the vitamins and minerals from the carbohydrates the
vegetable carbohydrates to provide the nutrition to allow these to work and
that is the purpose of nutrition is to allow the raw material to be converted
into body tissue to allow that that egg that you eat to be turned into your hair
you need vitamins and minerals at the DNA level and that's why we have these
nutrients to help repair and build body tissue okay so I hope that's a good
summary of what a calorie is I'm expanding your definition now what goes
wrong is when you age the hormones change your metabolism changes and what
I just talked about is even more important because now you're going to
have to be very very strict and how many carbs you allow into your body and you
have to understand the function of proteins and fats and really keep the
diet clean if you want to lose any weight because you can't do what you did
when you're 18 when your metabolism on hormones were at their peak
so the more the hormones decrease towards 50 this becomes more and more
important but when you're 18 you probably could lower your calories and
lose weight just like that now you can't now we also have if you Brewin your
metabolism any other slow metabolism this becomes even more important as well
so sometimes I'll have people say dr. Berg am I ever going to go back to being
able to eat Twinkies again I'll say well you don't have the luxury right now
let's build back up your metabolism so then this becomes less of a problem and
you can eat more Twinkies if you want to eat one once in a blue moon also so
hormones are affected by food and they're influenced by aging and they're
influenced by metabolism so I hope that expanded your your idea on what a
calorie is and then next time someone says everything in moderation well not
if you are getting older now if you have a slow metabolism that doesn't work and
also portion control even a small amount of refined carbs and sugar can really
block your ability to burn fat for a long period of time so this does not
apply if you have problems with the hormone okay I hope that helped