Do you have a friend who says the keto diet is the answer to your problems, they swear it worked for them and they lost a ton of weight? All you have to do is eat exactly one stick of butter before every meal and your body will FINALLY learn how to burn fat.
Your other friend only eats for two hours every couple days and you can’t believe how much weight she’s lost! Fasting works! It’s a miracle and so good for you! They Say. Just supplement with medical grade appetite suppressants, and cigarettes to battle those pesky hunger cravings and you’ll lose the weight!
A third friend is all about that IIFYM life. If it fits your macros, you’re good, bro. Just track your food and hit your macro targets and the fat will melt off. It’s the lost piece of the puzzle called life and sustainability.
But seriously, why do these things work for people? Why are there so many diets that guarantee results, and why do you have so many friends who’ve made progress using different methods? Which one really works?
The answer no one wants to hear is all of them. Here’s why: insulin.
Let’s keep it simple. If you really want to understand how your body loses fat, watch this video. (Sneak peek: It’s a 50-minute lecture and I watched it twice in one night. That’s how interesting it is.)
So, how do the diet programs listed above influence insulin, and how does that lead to fat loss?
When insulin is present in the bloodstream, it’s impossible for your body to pull fat out of your fat stores for energy. It is the regulator of fat metabolism. If you want to get fat out of your fat tissue, you have to get insulin levels down.
Why does your body produce insulin? To control blood-sugar levels.
Why does your blood sugar go up? In response to carbohydrates.
Do you remember the food pyramid? You know, the one you saw in school where the base is grains, rice, cereal and pasta? Fun Fact, that pyramid originated in 1974 and was introduced to the US in 1992.
When did we see a dramatic uptick in heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity? Obesity had the largest increase in the 1990 to 2000. Chronic heart disease increased sharply between 1999 and 2020. Type 2 Diabetes significantly in 2001 according to USAFacts. The number of people living with diabetes more than tripled between 1990 and 2010. All of these affecting men, women, and children today.
Correlation or causation? You decide.
Back to the original question at hand. Why do these diet trends work?
Keto. The goal of the ketogenic diet is to reduce your carbohydrate intake to less than 30 g of carbohydrates per day and replace those calories with protein and fat. What happens when you reduce your carbohydrate intake? Your blood-sugar levels decline. What happens when your blood-sugar levels decline? Your body stops requiring insulin as frequently to manage that blood sugar.
Intermittent fasting. The most common practice is 16 hours of fasting (no food or calorie-dense drinks) with an eight-hour window of eating. Most people start fasting at 8 p.m. after dinner, sleep, skip breakfast, and start eating at 12 p.m. for lunch. If during those 16 hours we can’t eat or consume any calories, inherently we are not going to take in any carbohydrates in the form of bread, rice, cereal, pasta, or sugar in our drinks. If we don’t consume any of those things, we’re inherently managing our blood-sugar levels, which leads to insulin management which allows the body to start using fat for energy. See where this is going?
Tracking macros. Made popular by the app MyFitnessPal and the idea of “flexible dieting,” this nutrition program teaches its followers to balance their macro intake (protein, carbohydrates, and fat). With this increased awareness of what their caloric intake is made up of, most people start to balance their diets, reducing their carbohydrate intake from 65-80% to 20-30% and filling in the rest of their diet with a more appropriate balance of protein and fat. Can you guess what kind of hormonal change this causes in the body? I think you can. (Hint, it rhymes with “lower insulin.”)
There it is in the simpliest way i can describe it. Hopefully this makes sense and sheds some light onto these diet phenomena. Calories are still important, and most people will argue that none of this matters as long as your calories are controlled. Thermodynamics and all that jazz are useful tools, but don’t be fooled into thinking they’re the end-all and be-all when it comes to losing fat. If it only it was as simple as subtracting 500 calories a day, then anyone could subtract that 500 from their intake and lose a pound a week forever. Until they weighed zero pounds. Our bodies are wonderfully made, but so complex.
If you take one thing from this article, take this. There is rarely a one-size-fits-all or black-and-white solution to losing weight. There are many paths to the goal; it depends on which you want to take and which one you can sustain. But each path is going to involve less sugar and more vegetables if you’re chasing health and fitness. That is a fact you can take to the bank and cash!
Do you want to talk about nutrition in person with a professional? We offer free “Nutrition Consultation” to anyone who wants the opportunity to educate themselves. There’s no catch. We just want to help answer your questions and maybe coach you through your path. CLICK HERE to schedule if you want to learn more about how you can lose weight, gain muscle and feel better forever.
P.S. You don’t have to start your weight-loss journey with exercise. It’s just more fun if you do.Inspiration provided by Stacy Boil at Faith Fitness Gym.