Counting calories does not work. Here's why. Hey I'm Dr. Ekberg with Wellness For
Life and if you'd like to truly master health by understanding how the body
really works make sure that you subscribe and hit that notification bell
So that you don't miss anything today we're going to talk about one of the
biggest topics ever because it's so misunderstood and everyone sort of
thinks on an intuitive level that calories in calories out if you eat too
much and you don't exercise enough then you gain weight and yes those basic
physical principles are true but there's more to it that tricks the body into
doing the wrong thing so you can't count calories and have long-term success
won't work here's why most people have at some point try to lose weight and
then 99% of the time they gain it back so they get this perpetual yo-yo weight
curve and it's very frustrating because that's not what they were after
originally that's not their ultimate goal to create a yo-yo they want to lose
it and keep it off why can't they because when you count calories when you
try to restrict food you are depriving your body you put your body in a state
of deprivation that it takes strong willpower to maintain so then when you
can't maintain it when you feel oh I gained the wain back I must be a useless
person so now you have guilt because you apparently didn't have as strong a
willpower as those skinny people that managed to keep it off but that's not
what it's about and then the skinny people look at the
fat people and they think that oh well they must just be a glutton they must
just be lazy and of course the fat people feel terrible because they can
feel that pressure that they're not good enough well it's not what it's about so
here are the three factors about food that determine if we're healthy and main
gain weight or if we gain weight and are unhealthy so food is supposed to provide
fuel and food is supposed to provide nutrients and then food have different
hormone responses primarily insulin so someone who tries to deprive themselves
of food they're reducing the fuel they're reducing the amount of calories
and typically they also reduce the amount of nutrients because they eat
less but most people don't cut back on carbs and replace it with fat on the
contrary we've been told for the last 50 years that fat is evil so everybody
tries to cut back on the fat and they maintain the carbs and they just try to
reduce the quantity and that won't work you cut back the fuel you cut back the
nutrients but you maintain the hormone insulin at a high level and insulin is
fat storing it is fat storing blood sugar has to get out of the bloodstream
so if you eat something with carbohydrate it raises blood sugar and
blood sugar requires insulin to get out of the bloodstream and into the cell but
if the cell has more fuel than it needs in that moment which always happens when
you have high blood sugar then the rest gets converted into storage so now the
average person would probably have a lot more than this actually this would be
someone like me has about 15% body fat I carry about thirty pounds of fat which
is a hundred thousand calories so if you figure out if you are 200 pounds and 50%
fat now you have a hundred pounds you have over 300 thousand calories how can
you be deprived when you have that much fuel walking around on your body it's
because the insulin keeps it locked away you you eat a little bit
and then you get hungry and you have all these reserves that the body should be
able to use for fuel so that you didn't get hungry so you could make it till
tomorrow and not eat but you can't get to it
as long as there's insulin around and insulin is driven by carbohydrates so
here's how we want to look at this and understand blood sugar so blood sugar
needs to be in a very narrow range the body needs to keep it in a very narrow
range about 80 to 120 milligrams per deciliter
if you eat high carb you get a blood sugar spike now this is too much blood
sugar in the presence of insulin this is going to get stored then because of high
insulin levels the blood sugar crashes we get a valley we get a dip called
hypoglycemia now you have not enough blood sugar you don't have enough energy
so what does your body do of course it tells you to eat something what's the
fastest way to increase blood sugar it is through sugar and carbohydrates and
processed foods that's why they're so addictive that's why they satisfy the
cravings because we've created a pattern of high and low blood sugar and whenever
we are on a low end we want something for fuel we so we satisfy number one
here but we don't necessarily satisfy number two and then we trigger more
insulin that creates more fat storage so we have all these there's energy all
these resources the reserves on our bodies but we can't get to them because
of insulin that creates blood sugar rollercoasters that creates hypoglycemia
that creates cravings so we're trapped in that vicious cycle and this is why
you can't count calories because it's not the amount of the fuel it's what
happens to the fuel when you eat it if you eat a carbohydrate it will tend to
get stored to a greater degree than if you eat a protein or a fat once you've
stored it now you can't have access to it you have to eat
more so insulin makes you hungry processed food makes you hungry and you
have to break out of that vicious cycle that's why it's not about willpower
that's why you can't get long-term success you can't sustain deprivation
it's not it's not possible there are some people who are more like fanatics
they get into like the people on the on The Biggest Loser they have them
exercise eight hours a day and yes of course these people are gonna lose the
weight but how many of them keep it off very very very few and the ones who do
there's the one or almost get like a fanatic and that's not a bad thing if
they have an interest in exercise and they can make themselves workout four
hours a day then they can keep it off even if they eat some high carbohydrate
meals but for 98 percent of people it's not sustainable and you can't count
calories and it's not about character and you are not a bad person you just
have to understand these principles so that you can gradually change and here's
what you have to do you have to start eating more foods that are low glycemic
index that means foods that do not enter the bloodstream very quickly that don't
contribute to blood sugar and insulin responses and those are fat which has a
negligible insulin response and proteins which have a slight insulin response you
want to stay away from any grain or starch which have or sugar which have
very high insulin responses secondly though it has to be satisfying
you have to eat foods that are satisfying that's the only way you're
going to do something that's sustainable very very few people can punish
themselves for an entire lifetime and maintain deprivation so you have to
create a lifestyle that's satisfying and there are lots and lots and lots of good
food there meats and fats and vegetables and fish
delicious rich satisfying dishes that satisfy all these criteria and you just
have to learn what they are it takes a little bit of work to transition into
that but it is so doable and so worth it and then finally it has to be nutritious
and this is where some of the key dough people miss out because they don't
understand that you have to eat whole food you have to eat food from nature so
they eat a bunch of synthetic fats they eat a bunch of artificial sweeteners
they forget about the the vegetables and the the liveness of food so a lot of the
keto people they can create a quick weight loss because they satisfy the low
glycemic index because they eat a lot of fat and it's very satisfying because
they eat a lot of fat but if you don't get the nutrition if you don't get the
balance with the whole food now you're setting yourself up for trouble in five
years ten years twenty years and I know that's not what you want it you want to
create the long term solutions and that's why we have to learn how to
create that long term solution there is no quick fix
there is no circumventing the laws of nature so your body has built in laws
that have to be followed you developed alongside nature nature provided the
nutrients to food and you can't mess with them you can't you can't destroy
the fats you can't heat them and nuke them and pulverize the foods and and
maintain the nutritious value it just doesn't work so there is hope you can
create long-term weight loss but you can't do it through deprivation you have
to do it through lifestyle changes and learning how to heal the body and how to
satisfy it without the carbohydrates and the sugar I hope this was helpful please
share this with as many people as you can because as you know we have
a obesity and a overweight epidemic in this country it's a majority of people
who are having trouble with this not just one here and there and most of them
have tried yo-yo dieting and most of them have failed and the government is
still recommending high carb low fat diets and we have to start understanding
the physiology so that we can create these long-term solutions that people
are looking for share this message ask me any questions that you have and if
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watching