One of my viewers Little Voice asked me to make a comment on a video by Sam
Robbins called sumo wrestlers gaining weight and
intermittent fasting so I thought I'd do this comment to clear up some of the
confusion and misunderstandings that resulted from that video coming right up
hey I'm Dr. Ekberg with Wellness For Life and if you'd like to truly master
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subscribe and hit that notification bell so that you don't miss anything so dr.
Sam apparently got the question how can sumo wrestlers gain so much weight when
they are doing intermittent fasting so Dr. Sam did a video trying to explain
that and he said number one they skip breakfast which slows their metabolism
and this does not happen if you are fat adapted it does happen if you are
insulin insulin resistant and carbohydrate dependent because if your
insulin resistant then your body is fat storing so you have lots of fat stores
but you can't access the fat store because the insulin keeps it locked away
so now if you skip meals your body perceives that as starvation because
it's starvation in the midst of plenty insulin resistance is the early stages
of diabetes and diabetes is the full-blown starvation in the midst of
plenty they have hundreds of thousands of calories of fat stored on their body
they can't get to it because insulin locks it away so if you're not insulin
resistant then skipping breakfast is not going to slow your metabolism as long as
you're not completely emaciated if you have at least a few pounds of fat on
your body that's not a problem number two exercise in a fasting state
increases cortisol and stress hormones which leads to fat conservation
so this is to almost the same answer as the first one because this happens the
cortisol comes from you starving when your carbohydrate dependent so if you
are fat adapted that does not happen unless you're also at the same time if
the exercise that you're doing is an aerobic meaning that it is at such a
high intensity that you cannot keep up with oxygen delivery because now in the
presence of oxygen if you can't keep up with oxygen delivery you can burn fat if
you can't keep up with oxygen delivery you can't burn fat you need
carbohydrates and if you don't have carbohydrates and you can't get to the
fat fast enough now you need sugar and your body produces more cortisol so it
has to do both of those circumstances it has to be high intensity and you have to
be not accessing the fats number three they eat too large meals eight hours
apart no argument that's what they do number four they sleep after each meal
again no argument except why do they sleep well if you eat large amounts of
foods especially carbohydrate and your insulin resistance now one of the backup
mechanisms for the body to deal with all that blood sugar is to convert it into
triglycerides that's why sugar drives up triglycerides so a lot of the fat lipid
profiles that people if they're out of balance and people are told oh you eat
too much fat that's not true they're eating too much sugar because that's
what turns into the triglycerides and that conversion from sugar to
triglycerides is very very energy expensive your body uses up lots of
energy to do that so you get really really sleepy and with the amount of
food that these guys consume there is no mystery
that they have to sleep after each meal five they eat high carb low fat no
argument there that's what's gonna pack on the fat six
they drink lots of beer that's gonna pack up pack on the fat seven they eat
with friends which has proven to increase food consumption by forty four
percent so while that has been observed we also have to ask what is it that
makes people eat too much so think about that Thanksgiving meal you had the
turkey you had the really fatty gravy you had some accessories and you are so
full you're saying I can never eat another bite and then they bring out the
sweet pecan pie and now all of a sudden you can make some more room because it's
sweet it's the sugar it's the carbohydrates that bypasses your normal
regulatory processes your body says you're full and you won't eat again if
there's only real food available but if sugar is being offered you can always
make another effort so it's the sugar it's the carbs that trick your body into
eating too much so if you only eat real food whether you eat with friends or not
if there is no carbohydrate or sugar available if there's meat and fish and
vegetables and fat available you're not going to overeat so then he said this is
why they gained weight then he went on to admit that yes they
do eat a lot of food we're talking 8,000 to 20,000 calories so if we just take
the mid portion of that range not the least not the worst then we'll end up
some around 15,000 calories and he also said that they eat almost all carbs
virtually no fat and some protein so that means they probably at least 70% of
the calories from carbohydrates which would put them at an absolutely
astronomical
2,500 or more grams of carbohydrates per day and he said that they also go and
scout these people based on who is gonna get fat who has the big thick structure
already so these are the real reasons that they get fat not so much that they
skip breakfast or they exercise or that they eat too large meals that has
virtually nothing to do with it and this is the healthy lifestyle this is just
insanity no matter what you eat to eat 20,000 calories to be so insulin
resistant you have to sleep to eat high carb low fat to drink lots of beer
so we have to look at at the whole picture we can't just say oh well these
people do this so that's why they get fat you can't look at someone who wears
the blue hat and is mean to dogs and say oh if I wear a blue hat I'm gonna be
mean to dogs doesn't work like that you have to look at the big picture you have
to look at what is it that they're doing so poorly so crazy that it throws off
everything else so based on this he drew some conclusions and he said that
because they do this and get fat it's better to eat several small meals rather
than two large meals and again has nothing to do with it what has to do
with it is how much carbohydrate are you eating and how much total food are you
eating are you insulin resistant as a result then he says they do eat too much
carbohydrates amen he suggests that you eat somewhere around a third of your
calories from each fat protein and carbohydrate and that's certainly better
than the official guidelines because they recommend 60 to 70 percent from
carbohydrate and low-fat however this might work a third from each if you're
already healthy if you're not insulin resistant if you have a normal body
weight if you stay physically active if you eat whole food I think you might
get away with that but if you have some health compromised if your insulin
resistant if your if you don't exercise every single day then this is gonna make
you insulin resistant or keep you instantly resistant then he says
calories matter total calories matter and that's not really true it is the
carb calories that matter because you couldn't really eat whole food without
carbs you can't eat enough meat and vegetables and fats if you turn it into
a contest I suppose you could stuff down a lot of calories but you couldn't keep
it up because your body would just eventually say hey you know I've had it
I don't want more food it's the carbohydrates that creates the storage
that makes you able to keep eating that amount of food then he concluded that
fasting exercise leads to cortisol and that really is consequence is reduced
muscle and increased fat and it is true that cortisol causes that but like we
said above it really only happens if you do high-intensity exercise or if you're
not fat adapted if you do aerobic exercise meaning you keep it at a
intensity low enough that you're not huffing and puffing now that exercise
that fasting exercise does not result in a lot of cortisol there's going to be a
smidgen with every amount of exercise but it's not going to trigger a lot of
cortisol and now you get fat burning it's one of the best ways to burn fat is
low intensity exercise while you are fat adapted he says to keep the workout
short and intense and totally agree with that then he says to do it 45 to 60
minutes that's not short if you do high
tensity exercise like and check out this video right here on high intensity
training you want to do a warm-up and then the intense portion of that should
be no more than five to ten minutes because that gives you all of the
hormonal benefits it gives you all of the good hormones like human growth
hormone and BDNF brain-derived neurotrophic factor and it does give you
a lot of cortisol on high intensity but it's of such short duration it doesn't
have much of a long-term impact the cortisol half-life is very very fast
whereas the growth hormone half-life is very extended so that level stays up 24
48 72 hours even and he says sleep is important no argument there so we can't
just look at what someone is doing and saying oh because they do that it's it's
gonna cause this if they do something that's absolutely insane that's going to
override anything else that they do so yes intermittent fasting is not going to
work if you eat 20,000 calories but it's not going to make it worse either
however intermittent fasting will work wonders if you are fat adapted and you
keep your carbs low because now the intermittent fasting helps further
reduce your insulin resistance that's what it's really all about you start off
with low carb maybe even keto to reduce insulin resistance and then you add
intermittent fasting to it because any period of time that you don't eat helps
your body get less insulin in the system so it has nothing to do with
intermittent fasting their weight gain it has everything to do with the carbs
and the insulin resistance that they have so if you're doing intermittent
fasting do yourself a favor and do it with a low carb or even keto diet
because if your body is carb dependen then you're not going to be able to
sustain these long fasts very well you'll be starving you'll be hungry
you'll be cranky because your body says give me some blood sugar because you're
not fat adapt it you can't access those fat stores very well
your body will we'll get to them eventually if you fast long enough but
you make it so much easier on yourself if you get your body fat adapted because
then you're more balanced and level to start with hope that this was helpful if
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