Why Hormones Not Calorie Counting May Be Key In Obesity - Latest What Your GP Doesn't Tell You Podcast
Dr Jason Fung argues that much of what we think we know about weight loss is simply wrong
The latest episode of the What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You Podcast - Why Hormones Not Calorie Counting May Be Key In Obesity is now available on Apple, Spotify and other podcast platforms. And you can sign up to the podcast mailing list at What Your GP Doesn't Tell You, where you can also find out more about the pod. The next episode of the podcast will go out on Tuesday 2 April 2024.
Dr Jason Fung argues that calorie-restricted dieting may actually make weight loss worse not better. And that matters, not for some frivolous cosmetic reason, but because soaring obesity across the world is linked to a huge range of health conditions.
Fung says that we all have what is effectively a fat thermostat in our bodies that tries to keep our body within a particular weight range, so if we try to lose weight and drop below this, our metabolism will do its very best to sabotage our diet, so that it’s harder for us to lose the weight and easier for us to regain it.
He contends that we need to understand that it’s not calorie counting that is key to weight loss, but the hormones that control calories and our metabolisms.
Fung explains because our body’s fat thermostat has this set weight range, our body has several strategies it can use to ensure we stay within this weight. One of which is to make us feel more hungry if we drop below this, and he reveals studies have shown that people actually feel hungrier than they did before they started their diets.
But Fung explains even if we are able to exercise iron willpower and fight the increased hunger pangs to try and prevent ourselves regaining the weight, our body has another strategy. It can drop its metabolic rate, so that we burn few calories than we did before.
So, the question is, is there any way we can reset this internal fat thermostat and move it down to a lower level, so that we can lose weight? Or are we doomed forever to be caught in a vicious circle of dieting and weight gain? Fung argues there is a solution. And it involves both changing what eat and when we eat.
You can hear the full conversation with Dr Jason Fung on the podcast.
Dr Jason Fung is a kidney specialist and an expert on intermittent fasting. He is the author of a number of best selling books, the scientific editor of the Journal of Insulin Resistance, and the managing director of the nonprofit organization Public Health Collaboration (Canada).
You can find out more about the podcast at What Your GP Doesn't Tell You and follow me on Twitter @lizctucker.
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Looking forward to listening later. I have an insanely fast metabolism (at least I assume given how many calories I eat just to maintain my weight). I wonder if it’s because I have never, not once, not ever limited how much I eat. I have only ever limited quality of foods.