Are calories real?
Good morning, everybody. Right then, we're in today with a topic. I see this all the time online, and it seems like a battle's gonna go on forever. So you got people that say something like this, you're such an idiot if you think the body is as simple as calories in versus calories out. You're a buffoon.
Speaker 1:The body's so much more complicated than that. It's obviously not, oh my god, you believe in calories, oh my god, you believe in big food. You know, this type of stuff. Right? And the first thing is, like, calories is just a unit of measurement.
Speaker 1:You know, it's just the word we use, to explain energy. Let's just change the word calorie to energy for a minute. So what they're saying is you don't believe in energy, right, which is ridiculous. Of course, we everything is energy. Energy the universe is like a dynamic system of energy.
Speaker 1:And they say you don't believe they don't believe in energy, right, which is a weird thing to say because without energy going into your system, your system can't operate. And when if your system doesn't get enough energy, it'll it'll goes to the stored the stored access. So it goes to your fat stores, which is stored energy. So it will find a way to get stored energy and use that. And if you run out of stored energy, guess what?
Speaker 1:It goes to your muscle, and then it starts breaking down your muscle for energy. And it'll go it'll keep going until you die because, you know, you look at people in the concentration camps, they stick sticks and bones. Skin and bones, alright, sticks and bones. Skin and bones. Because they get all no energy going in, and their energy expenditure is going out, and there's nothing left.
Speaker 1:The the body has tried, they cannot find any more stored energy, and then they they'll shut down. Right? So we know the body is an energy system. It's a dynamic energy system, and the calories in versus calories out or energy in versus energy out is a simplified version of this energy system that is practical. That's the main thing about it.
Speaker 1:It's a very practical thing. Same as Einstein's e equals m c squared. It's a very practical equation. It's true. You know, you look at some physics ex physics kind of calculations, and they are wild.
Speaker 1:I did physics for a level, and, you know, it was really, really hard. And some of those calculations were so long and you could cut them down to like shorter versions that still held true. You can still do this in maths as well. So there is a simplified version of a complex system that holds practical value, right? But it's not exact.
Speaker 1:Of course, it's not exact. No one is claiming that 3,500 calorie deficit a week. So 500 calorie deficit a day equals an exact amount of one pound of fat loss a week. What we say is it ranges. You could lose maybe 0.7 pounds of fat.
Speaker 1:Some people could lose 1.5 pounds of fat to 1.3 pounds of fat. How does it differ? Differ if you're where you start and your body weight at. It differs in your like fitness levels. It it differs in, sometimes of food to the macronutrient composition because we know protein burns more calories to digest than carbs and fats, that's why you're on a higher protein diet, right?
Speaker 1:So protein requires more energy to digest. You know, it doesn't mean calcium, calcium doesn't work. It just means there's a few things that do impact both sides of the equation, and we've got to be aware of these things. Now I want to bring you to a study, that's an interesting one by doctor Hall. He was a p he's got a PhD in physics, actually.
Speaker 1:So an interesting background coming into this. And he basically wanted to see, you know, how how accurate is this equation. You know? Is it accurate enough? Is it useful?
Speaker 1:What's going on? And he was like, maybe it's not true. Maybe it is true. Let's have a look into it. So he was hired by a biotech company to stimulate the progression of diseases like type two diabetes to predict how our bodies respond to various treatments, right?
Speaker 1:So computer modeling. And then he continued to do modeling work for the US National Institute of Health, right? Then he confronted a problem his models couldn't resolve. Low carb diet advocates have long made a claim, a very bold claim, that it's not a surplus of calories that makes people fat. It's the insulin generated by a surplus of carbohydrates.
Speaker 1:So according to the carbohydrate insulin model of obesity, the easiest way to lose fat is to eat more fat whilst avoiding most carbs. Okay? Big claim. Big, big claim. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, as Carl Sagan once said.
Speaker 1:So there wasn't direct evidence to support carb hiding model of obesity, so he said, I'm gonna go and check some. I don't wanna see I don't wanna see if it's true or no. I'm gonna put these together. And what he did was he got 19 people of obesity into a metabolic ward, which meant that they controlled all of their food intake, and they tracked all of their energies burned for four weeks, you know, like a very, very tight study. Right?
Speaker 1:So they basically get either lower fat diet for two weeks and then low carb diet for the other two weeks, but they were given a gap between two to four weeks in between, which is very, very important part of the study. Right? So we don't have that kind of like or maybe week three and four fat loss slows down or whatever. Break two of them. Let's go.
Speaker 1:So this is what the study showed. Right? So remember now, he was trying to see if okay. I get that weight loss is a math problem. It's not an exact math.
Speaker 1:It's not exact math, but it's close enough. But there are a lot of people out there saying calories are stupid, and it's not calories. It's your actual insulin spike in caused by eating carbs that cause you to gain weight. So this is what the study reveals. Calorie for calorie, so energy for energy, fat restriction results in more body fat loss than a carb restriction in people with obesity.
Speaker 1:And a more recent study use a similar setup controlled the low fat plant based diet. So think like low fat, high fiber, with a low carb animal based diet. So you've got low fat plant based, and then you've got, low carb animal based diet. So you've got like a higher carb plant based diet, then a low carb meat based diet. So think ketogenic diet.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Right? So this is what I said. They basically let them eat whatever they wanted to because remember, keto and the paleo people say if you follow paleo and keto, so just like lots of meats and cheese or whatever, your hunger levels go down, which means you eat less. So this is what the study looked at.
Speaker 1:Okay, can eat whatever you want. Go and eat. There's no limit on what you can eat, but you have to stick to your diet. You have to stick to these types of foods, right? Keto enthusiasts were gonna claim well, hoping this was a big study for them.
Speaker 1:But basically, the low fat plant based diet ate 700 calories less per day than the mid rich keto diet. So again, we've seen other studies that show some in the between. And again, remember low fat showed more fat loss than low carb in the metabolic ward of four weeks. But overall it's not statistically significant in a sense that like over a twelve week, sixteen week plan, maybe it's like a pound or two or whatever, say. But the most important thing to realise is what food do you like?
Speaker 1:So like in a very controlled metabolic ward, that's not real life. So we probably won't be following such a strict regime and it's not worth the squeeze to follow such a strict regime. So it's more about what you can stick to. That's the main thing of all of these research. It's like, yes, all these diets, maybe some people prefer lower fat.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I covered this in a podcast the other day, but matching your genes to your macros, does that help you lose more weight? Because in the research, they do say, well, some people react really good to low fat and some people react really good to low carb. So does that mean if they prefer in it? Let's have a look at their genes, DNA. Look at their genes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, these are more like fat responders and these are more carb responders. All right. Okay. Well, what if we matched the diet to their macros, like their genes to their macros, will they lose more weight? And from now, once you control calories and protein, that wasn't the case.
Speaker 1:So all this shows is that body weight change is a math problem, but it's a dynamic math problem. That's why we got the weekly check ins in the app because as you lose weight, your step count might change, you might be doing more training, whatever it is, over time, your energy requirements change. They likely drop as you lose weight. Most of the time they do, but some people's activity goes up at the same time. So we need to make sure that your targets are still being tweaked.
Speaker 1:And you the tweaks aren't large, but they are they they can be significant in terms of, keeping your results going. Okay? So if someone comes out to you and says, calories are stupid, blah blah blah, just say, look. They've done a metabolic wall study, buddy. I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 1:Like, they control their energy in. They can they looked at they they they studied their energy out. They weren't allowed to leave for two weeks. Everything was controlled. Eve and, you know, the high carb group actually lost more fat even though it's it's not the diff like, doesn't mean that this that's the same for everyone.
Speaker 1:Just proves that this obesity, this insulin model of obesity is false. So the energy equation holds true, but it's dynamic. So what that means is whilst we can focus on our energy intake and our protein intake, we still have to look at our behavior, our emotional needs, decision making, like, you know, they all impact these the the the the calories in, calories out or energy in, energy out. This is impacted by all these things. It's not as simple and this is why I don't agree with I see some PTs and stuff online.
Speaker 1:They go, you're fat because you just need to eat less and move more. Right? And whilst on paper, if you were to do that, going to a calorie deficit over time would let me use that is true. It really doesn't neglect the human side of the journey. Like, why do you think I do this daily podcast and in the WhatsApp groups and trying to speak to you guys and help you daily?
Speaker 1:It's because it's a lot more than just this equation. It's a it's a huge mindset thing. It's a you need support and community access. You need to be able to have your questions answered. You are gonna freak out sometimes.
Speaker 1:You're gonna try hard for weeks and your weight doesn't drop, and you think what's going on, and you wanna you panic, and you wanna catastrophize, and it's what we're used to. And you need someone to say to you, hey. Listen. These plateaus are normal. That is a part of the process.
Speaker 1:You just need to, you know, not put so much emphasis on the weight for now. Look at all the good behaviors you're doing. Look at how you're managing your emotional eating better. Look at you're drinking a bit more water, you're eating higher protein. You're actually some of you trying to do weights and stuff as well, and you're doing all these amazing things.
Speaker 1:And you can't just distill it down to just a math problem because it's a human problem. And changes in hunger levels also impact stuff, right? So they'll say to you like eat less, move more easy. As you lose weight, your body does kind of fight back. This is not damage or whatever you people say.
Speaker 1:But after you've lost weight for a few months, your weight loss starts to slow down, plateau, very normal, but very, very normal. And people panic from this, and then they just kind of bounce back and they just you know, they think what's the point? But what's important to understand is, right, for every kilogram of lost weight, you burn about 20 calories less a day. Right? So you there's a myth that skinny people have quick, fast metabolisms, they say, and then people with obesity have slow metabolisms.
Speaker 1:But what it what to be more accurate, people who are obese have higher metabolic rates. They burn more calories per day than skinnier people, because a lot of energy is burned through carrying the weight around. So as you lose this weight, your body has less weight to carry about. So your body actually burns less calories a day. So your initial calorie target you give needs to change over time because as you're losing weight, your requirements come down.
Speaker 1:Right? And that's why the apps will tweak your targets for you. But here's the kicker. Right? So for every kilogram of lost weight, right, you burn 20 calories less a day.
Speaker 1:But your appetite for food increases by 100 calories a day for every kilogram you lose. Right? So it's kinda like a five to one ratio going against us here. So if you lose one kilogram, you're about 20 calories less burned per day, but you know 100 calories more. You know, your body's like, hey, bring it to me.
Speaker 1:And this is shown in the Biggest Loser study. It's called metabolic adaption, right, in our study. It's a normal part of the process, a very normal part of the process. So you'll start thinking, What's wrong with me? Why am I so hungry?
Speaker 1:And that's maybe a time to say, Hey, maybe I go two or three days at maintenance. Maybe I just give my body what it needs for a few days and then it go back into it because your hunger levels can increase, can increase. So it's important that you realize this, it's part of the process. And it's about like how I see it is like a home renovation. Typically most people don't do a home renovation in one go.
Speaker 1:They will do some parts first, and then in a few weeks, and then they look around, they do another part, another part. You start building your home, you start doing the walls, you start doing this and that, and things start coming together. But there's, like, periods of time in between the works where maybe there's nothing going on. You kind of realize maybe halfway through, actually, the plugs don't actually work over there. Maybe you got to move over there.
Speaker 1:Actually, I don't like the couch here. I haven't should move things there. You know, you need to have these times between where you're given a break from the continuous work so you can actually sit where you are for a bit. And that's how you really understand where you are, where you want to go. So a good thing for this, like say, you know, you're in a deficit for five weeks, you've lost weight, you're feeling good, but you're starting to feel hungrier, right?
Speaker 1:Very normal. You're starting to feel maybe my fat loss is slowing down. You can keep powering through if you want, and you can say I'm a bit hungrier. Or you can say, hey, maybe it's time that I have this kind of what they call in the research diet breaks. And and maybe it's a day, three days, seven days, but you have to go to maintenance here, guys.
Speaker 1:It's not about, you know, so this isn't called this isn't cheap days. This isn't all our rubbish. It is just I've been in an energy deficit for a while. Maybe I need to go into an energy maintenance for a bit. And when you go to energy maintenance, your hunger levels will drop again.
Speaker 1:Your kind of hormones kinda and I don't like to use the word because it's kind of quacky. Some people use it, but, your hormones kind of reset a bit. Your cortisol levels drop. Yeah. There's other leptins.
Speaker 1:Other leptins, other hormone leptin and ghrelin. Right? So these things can kind of normalize again, and you feel less like out of control with your with your eating. And it's important as well during these times that we we look as well at our food quality. Right?
Speaker 1:So I'm a big, big advocate in a mixed bag of foods. Like I live in the real world. I like certain foods. I understand the foods I love. I know that the foods I love, I eat very fast, like, because they're so nice.
Speaker 1:I get it. I'm not demonizing that food. I'm just saying that's a highly densely calorie item. I eat it quickly because it's so tasty. I definitely can't have that every day all the time, or I can't have them around all the time because I probably just keep eating them because they're so nice.
Speaker 1:And that's just the reality of those foods. So when we look at, people's diets and how many calories they consume, If your diet is higher in ultra processed foods versus mini processed foods, you're likely going to be consuming more calories just because hyper, ultra processed foods are high in calories, sugar, fat. They taste amazing and you eat them very, very quickly. That's why you eat more of them. So that's pretty much why you need to look at then.
Speaker 1:Okay. Well, maybe if I'm feeling hungrier, but I'm having one meal a day, which is veggies and lean meat or whatever, but I'm still having, like, protein bars and I'm still having this and that. Maybe it's time to say, instead of a protein bar, a 220, two hundred and 30 calories, I'm gonna put 200 calories worth of, like, potentially veggies or or complex carbs or, fruits in so then they're gonna help my hunger levels better. And then you say, well, maybe that's helped me. You know?
Speaker 1:Foods companies have known, right, for I mean, they design foods specifically high in carbs and fat and salt. So basically a fifty fifty ratio of carbs and fat and high salt is like the magic formula for making our brains go wild. And people are like, no, they ain't trying to kill you. They're just trying to make the tastiest food possible that you wanna buy more of it. Like, this just simply comes down to that, and it it just makes sense.
Speaker 1:Okay. Well, we're gonna make the best tasting chocolates, and how do we get people to buy our chocolate? Well, it's gotta be the best tasting. They got labs and people testing out the best tasting chocolate. Know?
Speaker 1:They literally their entire business revolves around you thinking it's the best taste in food. Right. Okay. That's fine. Can I trust myself to eat the, you know, normal amount of these foods?
Speaker 1:Some people moderation is possible. Some people snore, like I mentioned yesterday. But there's there is a big, big movement now against these things. But you just consume too much energy too quickly with these foods. That's all it is.
Speaker 1:That's all it is. And they don't have much nutrients. I mean, cereals and stuff get added, vitamins and minerals, but but yeah. So I think I've run off this topic, and I wanna cover it because I've seen a lot of the chat about it. So metabolic ward kind of proves the mathematical problem of weight loss.
Speaker 1:It's not simple all the way through. It's a dynamic system. It changes. It's not exact, but it's good enough for us to use. Insulin isn't the cause of obesity.
Speaker 1:Carbohydrates are not the cause of obesity. You can definitely eat carbs and lose fat. All a higher carb diet will do is potentially hold on to more water because glucose in the muscle pulls in about four grams of water per gram of glucose, so you can hold a significant amount of water in the muscle if you've been, eating carbs, which is not a bad thing. But other than that, guys, hopefully, it was a reminder podcast for some of you. Some of you, maybe it's new information.
Speaker 1:All you gotta remember is trying to make your life easier, trying to make it simpler so that whilst you can simplify the equation part of this, can actually focus on the human part more. The human part is more important. Your relationship with the scales, your relationship with food, your relationship with yourself, how you view yourself, your relationship with what you weigh even and how you you express yourself. Like, you know, ultimately, we wanna be expressing ourselves more. I came across a video the other day of I think it was I can't remember who it was, but you're saying there was a book by an Australian nurse about people you know, she looked after people before they died, and their biggest regret was they they they weren't themselves.
Speaker 1:They became people that they thought others wanted them to be. They weren't expressing themselves authentically. That's quite wild to think about. And I think to express ourselves authentically, we first have to delve into our relationship with day to day things that do cause us to change our behavior. When we think about, okay, well, the scales have said today I'm two hundred pounds, that society has told me I'm very overweight and I don't deserve anything, I'm disgusting.
Speaker 1:We have bad relationship with scales, we wouldn't want see our number because it makes us feel that way. With food even, know, shouldn't be eaten in, shouldn't be eaten out, we have this kind of black and white thinking of food, and then that leans us to, like, you know, secret eating and be and again, this shame and guilt when we're home alone eating, and we turn to food to handle our emotions and all this stuff. We become shells of who we are because we think we gotta be x y zed. And we for us to untangle all of this, we have to delve into this relationship with other things, and you can only catch these relationships or thoughts as they happen. So that's why daily weigh in can actually be a useful tool in therapies called exposure therapy.
Speaker 1:But every time you get on the scale as a scientist to collect data, you observe the brain and the thoughts and what it says. You say, wow, I'm observing what my brain is saying about this weight, like, where does it go back to? Or it goes back to this time when my mother said this about me or my friend in school said this, and you start thinking, oh, it's just a thought that's going back to a core belief that actually isn't true. You know? And it's weighing me down.
Speaker 1:It's causing me to have a huge amount of pain every day because I think that because of this weight, I'm at this person. But that's not true. So there's a lot of things that are not true that we believe in. And that's what you wanna be focusing on. Like, you let the numbers themselves.
Speaker 1:Let the app handle the changes per week. Let that track with ease. You know? Do that basic stuff. But look at the human side of you and put put a lot of time into that.
Speaker 1:And you gotta be non you gotta be objective. You can't be so the way to observe these things, you can't be judging your thoughts and judging these things. You have to be very observant like a child. Like, you have to be very, oh, this is interesting. You gotta look at small things, and then you gotta be just all nest day to day with yourself and put the time into maybe journal or something like that, and things will change a lot for you.
Speaker 1:Anyway, rambled on for enough, but these are important things I really believe in. So have a good day. Speak to you soon.
