How to Fix Fatness

Preface

From now on, I'll be operating under the assumption that you've watched Tom Naughton's Fat Head and Big Fat Fiasco, and you agree with what is said within them, for the most part. What I say here will mostly build upon that while trying to avoid redundancies.

It should go without saying that caloric restriction and/or exercise is the foolproof method of losing weight. But what I am about to talk about is why I am convinced that low-carb is the way to go in terms of fixing fatness, not just treating it. I believe it is the path of least resistance as far as treating obesity goes, and it also can be hugely beneficial in terms of metabolic health.

Insulin resistance is the problem

Recall that the ultimate reason for [many cases of] obesity is insulin resistance, which is caused by a chronic overconsumption of carbs. Being insulin resistant means your fat cells don't work like they are supposed to; they get "greedy." If you accumulate too much insulin resistance, and you can develop type 2 diabetes, which is disturbingly common nowadays.

While genetics do play a large role in your "natural body type," it's not an excuse.

It's abused as a scapegoat. However, you can still blame it on the government:

"The Food Fail Pyramid." Gotta love government-subsidized obesit- er, grains.

Fix your insulin resistance, and you'll eventually fix your obesity. How? Go low-carb, of course.

There are several ways to go about achieving this- I'll give you an overview on the the major three:

Generic "low carb": results may vary

Firstly, there's just the overarching, multifaceted "low carb" diet which can be pretty darn ambiguous. Calorie intake percentage from carbohydrates can go from anywhere from 10%-40%, but that even that range isn't set in stone. There are no set guidelines or rules (unless it's one of many specific variations), so it's fairly arbitrary. It seems like a hit-or-miss diet for most people; some really do go low and get the benefits of improving insulin sensitivity and see results, but others go from eating way too many carbs to eating less-but-still-too-much. It's a fairly good diet if it's done right, but with the lack of guidelines it's pretty easy to mess up.

"Atkins" AKA the ketogenic diet

Another method was popularized as the Atkins diet, which basically said that you can eat anything you want as long as you severely limit your carbs (~5% of caloric intake), meaning a diet composed almost entirely of fat (ironic, no?) and protein. Its modern equivalent is the ketogenic diet, also known as "keto," which I will discuss in detail in my next post. This is essentially what Tom Naughton followed in Fat Head, and what I will focus on when discussing "low-carb". Keto is like the the fast-track low-carb diet. It is the quickest way to improve insulin sensitivity and it as some other unique characteristics that, again, I will address in my next post.

 This is more like it.

Paleo

Another popular diet is the paleolithic diet, also known as "paleo." which tries to emulate how early humans ate. It is harder to follow than keto because you're supposed to avoid all man-made and processed foods, and any other kind of food that wasn't available to our superancestors.

 

The Paleo Food Pyramid

Personally, I prefer keto to paleo because that means I can eat cheese and all sorts of "modern" foods that I would have a hard time without. Some people love paleo, but to many it's not sustainable as a long-term diet (not that keto is a long-term diet, but paleo is more of a lifestyle thing). Another awesome thing about keto is that if you follow a certain protocol coupled with exercise, you can have cheat meals every weekend. That means you can stay sane by not having to forgo your most beloved foods and stay on the diet. Again, this will be explained in detail in my next post.

The antithesis of veganism. Yay animal food!

"Fad diet"

"But low-carb is a fad diet! All that weight lost is water, and it comes right back!"
Only if you do it wrong. This happens when you follow the diet for just a week or two, don't watch your caloric intake, and remain sedentary. Yes, going low-carb will make you lose water weight because it tends to deplete your glycogen stores in your liver and muscles; yet again, I'll explain this in my next post.

Diets, fad or not, are not something you do to lose weight just so you can go right back to eating the way you did before. The point of a good diet is to get you to your ideal bodyfat percentage and teach you some valuable lessons on the way there. No person should have to follow a diet indefinitely unless they really want to- otherwise, that's likely cutting into their quality of life. You can be healthy and have your cheesecake too; you can splurge on almost anything provided you don't do it frequently, because it's what you eat on a weekly basis that really matters. Following a low-carb diet will drastically change your perspective on carbohydrates as food, but that doesn't mean you have to avoid them when you're done following the diet. When you're once again sensitive to insulin, carbs won't be a problem as long as you don't abuse them, though that is the government's implicit recommendation.

Low fat vs low carb

One last thing that I almost forgot to address: why low-fat diets work.
Ultimately, it's all about caloric intake. Knock off the most energy-dense macronutrient, fat (at 9 Calories per gram), and keep the rest of your diet the same, and you've got a pretty nice caloric deficit going for you. You'll lose weight because you're forcing your body to do so, but what happens when you go off the diet? Bam, you're back at square one before too long. Why? Because you've only treated the signs and symptoms of obesity instead of addressing the root cause. Heck, you might have made your insulin resistance even worse in the process (fat lowers the glycemic index of foods; removing it means even more insulin is needed to keep your blood sugar down).

 Because juxtaposition is nice to have.

Low-carb gets you two for the price of one: it fixes the the signs & symptoms, and the source.
It has some other interesting properties, too.

Many diets out there are absolutely terrible, ranging from silly to dangerously stupid. I'll talk about that at some point n the future.

Fat.

Foreword

We are fed with so much misinformation and lack thereof that a lot of what is "common knowledge" is either dead wrong or inaccurate. There's too much ignorance spread around for me to sit by and not do something about it. I thought it fitting to christen my blog on the topic

Questioning "common knowledge"

What do you think of when you see the word 'fat?' An obese man? Adipose tissue? Food grease, maybe the kind on top of pizza that you soak up with a napkin? Or perhaps there's no real distinction between these things in your mind? Regardless, the word 'fat' carries an extremely negative connotation in modern times.

I want to change that. Or, at least, how you perceive it. Dietary fat is much better for you than it's cracked out to be.

 This was probably not the first thing that came to mind.

Or "Fatties gonna fat."

I'll start with the obvious. We're brainwashed with the idea that fat, especially saturated fat, is bad for us. Saturated fat is a "bad" fat, but there are "good" fats too, like monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, etc.

So saturated fat is "bad." When I say "saturated fat," what's the first thing you think of? If you've been sufficiently brainwashed, an image that might pop in your head is that of a cheeseburger. We "know" that they are bad for us in more than one way, but we eat them anyway. Why? BECAUSE THEY'RE DELICIOUS!

Obligatory. Cats are carnivores, you know.

But why can we not resist almighty meat? It boils down to the fact that we homo sapiens are omnivores. It's not natural for us to not eat meat. For most of our existence, that was our primary source of food. We have a hard-wired instinct to eat animals. Somehow, a few people do resist: vegetarians and their more ascetic counterparts, vegans. I have nothing against them (intellectually, yes, but personally, no), but I want to point out that being either does not automatically make you healthy. In fact, they would not be able to survive for long outside the context of civilization.

SEE? Meat good!

So why would something we subsisted on for millenia suddenly be bad for us in the modern world? It makes no sense. With the exception of trans fats and most unnatural vegetable oils (ironically: corn, vegetable, canola, etc.), which are man-made and most likely detrimental to your cardiovascular health, there is almost nothing inherently bad about dietary fat.

The concept of fat being mostly harmless might be a new idea to you-- possibly blasphemous and heretical. These are bold claims, but, alas, I am making these assertions without proof!

Well, actually, I don't have to prove anything, because someone else already did. His name is Tom Naughton, and he did it in the form of an entertaining (and blatantly low-budget) documentary, which covers so much more than what I just barely touched on. It's called Fat Head, and you can watch it for free on Hulu. It's also available on Netflix. Tom runs an awesome blog and has an amazing lecture entitled the Big Fat Fiasco which you can watch on YouTube. This 5-part, roughly one hour lecture focuses and expands upon a specific part of Fat Head: the truth about bad science (for which we have to blame for this mess), fat, cholesterol, carbs, why we get fat, et cetera. Part 5 is especially eye-opening.

Because BS wouldn't work well here, for obvious reasons.

Tom Naughton is just one individual of many (Gary Taubes, for starters, who is even more influential) who are trying to get the word out. It just so happens that he does a better job of doing it than anyone else I know of, so it's not like this guy is some sort of medical conspiracy theorist. He simply put the pieces together and made it accessible and concise. Watch his stuff and educate yourself.