The Most Important Thing to Know For Fat Loss

I recently asked followers of my Facebook page what they thought was the most important thing to understand for fat loss.  I had excellent input like “cut out sugar” and “cut sugar and gluten”.  In my replies, I said they were warm, but not quite nailing the answer I was looking for.  Are you curious?

My own path to easy fat burning was fraught with common errors because I listened to government guidelines (now officially being retracted) and believed the descriptions on food labels.  I saw people in infomercials saying, “Fat makes you fat” (which is false) and you need to eat many small meals each a day.  Contradictions abounded.

Eventually, science and self experimentation prevailed.  I learned how simple dietary and fitness changes could effectively flip the switch that causes fat burning.

Today, I’m going to tell you the most important thing you need to know for fat loss.  Then I’m going to lay out specific steps you can put into action immediately.

The most important thing to know for fat loss

Food is the primary way to control digestive hormones like insulin, leptin and ghrelin.

Insulin – regulates matabolism and initiates fat storage.

Leptin – signals the brain you feel full and regulates fat stores.

Ghrelin – signals the brain you feel hungry and works in opposition to leptin.

You can optimize these hormones to do the fat-burning work for you – with food, exercise and sleep.

Granted, that is oversimplified.  There are many other hormones and metabolic processes involved, but these three hormones are king when it comes to dealing with fat.

But what about calories?  Calories are not insignificant, but it is not necessary or typically helpful to count calories. Saying, “a calorie is a calorie” is only true in the sense of scientific energy measurement.  The nutrient content of the food sends instructions to your body and different nutrients can cause vastly different results.

We know this instinctively.  If I asked you, “Which is more healthy: 750 calories of broccoli or 750 calories of soda?”  We all know the broccoli is better for us.  But why?  Let’s step through the instructions each presents to the body.  I adapted this example from Dr. Mark Hyman MD.

The Broccoli vs. Soda Showdown

A 7-Eleven Double Gulp has an average of 750 calories and contains 186 grams of sugar (4.2 grams of sugar equal one teaspoon so 44.28 teaspoons).  Sugar is a simple carbohydrate, which means it breaks down quickly into glucose.  Here’s what happens as you drink sugar.

• Your gut quickly absorbs the fiber-free sugar as fructose and glucose.
• The glucose spikes your blood sugar, initiating a cascade of hormonal responses.  A high release of insulin is one.
• The high insulin turns on storage of belly fat, increases inflammation, raises triglycerides, lowers HDL, and raises blood pressure.
• In men, high insulin lowers testosterone.  In women, high insulin and lack of fiber causes an oversupply of estrogens and contributes to infertility and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
• Insulin blocks leptin, the hormone that controls appetite.  You become more leptin resistant, so the brain never gets the “I’m full” signal. Instead, your brain thinks you are starving.
• Simultaneously, your pleasure-based reward center is triggered, further driving your desire to consume more sugar.
• Fructose goes right to your liver, where it starts manufacturing fat, which triggers more insulin resistance and causes chronically elevated blood insulin levels.  This directs your body to store everything you eat as dangerous belly fat.
• You also get a fatty liver, which initiates more inflammation. Then ongoing inflammation causes more weight gain and “diabesity” (a recently made up word to help people mentally connect obesity and diabetes).
• We’re still not done with the negative effects of the sugar.  Stress worsens the downward spiral. When you perceive a lot of stress, you produce an excess of the hormone cortisol, which then makes you crave more sugar. Excess cortisol can slow down thyroid hormone function.
• And finally, soda contains no fiber, vitamins, minerals, or phytonutrients to help you process the calories you are consuming.  There is no nutritional value; only detriment.
• And to top it all off, your taste buds get hijacked, so anything that is not super-sweet doesn’t taste very good to you.
• Note that the effect of “diet” soda with artificial sweeteners is worse.  You feel even more hungry and are also damaging gut bacteria.

Now let’s look at broccoli, which is a complex carbohydrate. Complex carbs are made up of a chain of simple carbohydrates linked together.  Because of this structure, they take longer for the body to break down into glucose.

The vital difference between simple and complex carbohydrates is in how they affect your blood sugar. Table sugar and bread are quickly digested and spike blood sugar. Broccoli is high-fiber, low sugar, slowly digested and doesn’t lead to blood sugar and insulin spikes.  

The 750 calories of broccoli would make up about 14 cups.  The “sugar” in 14 cups of broccoli is the equivalent of only 1 teaspoon; the rest of the carbs are the low-glycemic complex type found in all non-starchy vegetables.

Realistically, most people wouldn’t be able to eat 14 cups of broccoli, because it wouldn’t fit in your stomach. Just for fun, we will assume you could.  What would happen?

• A serving that large would contain 42 grams of fiber, so much fiber that very few of the calories would actually get absorbed.  Fiber also helps you get rid of bad estrogens.
• There would be no blood sugar or insulin spike, so any calories absorbed would be absorbed very slowly.
• No fatty liver.
• Your stomach would distend (bloat from carbonation doesn’t count!), telling ghrelin secretion to stop.  This would signals your brain that you were full.  When the stomach is empty, ghrelin is secreted to tell the brain you are hungry.  When the stomach is stretched, secretion stops.
• The addiction reward center in the brain is not triggered.
• Metabolism is optimized.
• cholesterol is lowered.
• Inflammation is reduced.  The flavonoid kaempferol found in broccoli is a powerful anti-inflammatory.
• The phytonutrients in broccoli (glucosinolates) boost your liver’s ability to detoxify environmental chemicals.
• Broccoli also contains high levels of vitamin C and folate, which protect against cancer and heart disease.
• The glucosinolates and sulphorophanes in broccoli change the expression of your genes to help balance sex hormones, reducing breast and other cancers.
• There’s no hijacking of taste buds.  On the contrary, after just a week without sugar, you can totally reprogram your taste buds to taste the sweetness in vegetables and the natural sugar in fruit becomes a treat.

The same 750 calories yield polar opposite results.

Strategies that work to make fat burning easy, pleasant and sustainable

All of these tips are based on providing helpful instructions to your hormones so they can do the work for you.

1.  Intermittent Fasting

This can be done a variety of ways to suit your individual lifestyle, but the most common method I hear about is to simply skip or delay breakfast.  I know.  It sounded like blasphemy to me too until I saw the research and actually tried it.  I posted what I learned here.

You can still eat just as many calories during the day, but your feeding window will be a little smaller.

Intermittent fasting has been shown to offer many benefits including appetite control, fat burning, improved muscle support and brain protection. Dr. Vikki Peterson explains.

Black coffee is encouraged during the morning fast as it blunts appetite and assists with mental focus.

I have been practicing intermittent fasting for quite awhile and it works magnificently.  This past weekend I climbed a mountain and back down prior to breaking my morning fast and wasn’t hungry or low-energy at all.

2.  Aim for lower glycemic foods

According to the Glycemic Research Institute:

“A low glycemic food causes a slower and more gradual rise in blood sugar than a high glycemic food, and maintains increased energy levels for a longer duration.”

“A high glycemic food increases blood sugar concentrations quickly, thus providing energy to the body in a short period of time.  However, insulin is released in response to this rise in blood sugar, which, in turn, brings the blood sugar down rapidly.  This rapid decrease reduces the energy supply and triggers mild-to-intense hunger.”

Sugar and gluten in wheat have the highest glycemic loads of all foods. Eat more protein and healthy fats, including extra virgin coconut oil, avocados, egg yolks and fatty grass fed beef.

My Glycemic Index and Load page shows the glycemic index and load of many foods.

3.  Eliminate artificial sweeteners

They act like sugar, only without delivering any energy at all for the body to use, so your brain thinks you are starving.  They make you feel extra hungry.

Artificial sweeteners also harm gut bacteria, which is associated with numerous diseases. They have also been proven to be toxic to your brain (neurotoxic).

If you want to burn fat and improve health, ditch the pink, yellow and blue packets.

4.  Eliminate processed foods

Processed foods are full of high glycemic ingredients and also contain chemical toxins that inhibit endocrine function (your hormones).

Instead, choose nutrient-dense fresh vegetables, berries, and lean animal protein such as wild-caught fish, pastured chicken, and pastured eggs (if tolerant).

5.  Eat the right fats

Steer clear of vegetable oils, including soybean oil, which now comprises about 10 percent of our calories.  Bad fats are inflammatory.

Focus instead on omega 3 fats, coconut oil, avocados, and yes, even saturated fat from grass-fed animals.

6.  Eat mostly plants

Plants should form 75 percent of your diet and your plate. I usually aim for two to three vegetable dishes per meal.  I recommend 6-11 servings of veggies per day.

7.  Clean up your animal products

Look for animal products that are pasture-raised, grass-fed, and antibiotic-, hormone-, and pesticide-free.  Reduce mercury by sticking with small, wild-caught fish.

8.  Go organic

Pesticides and chemical fertilizers poison your metabolism, your thyroid and your sex hormones. Buy as much organic food as your budget allows.

The most meaningful label is the one that says, “USDA Organic“.  USDA Organic also means the food is free of GMOs.

Organic meat costs much more, but is the most important item to buy organic because meat can store far higher concentrations of toxins (antibiotics, hormones, pesticides) in adipose (fat) tissue.

9.  Don’t overdo in the gym

It is a crucial mistake to view the gym as a place to burn calories.  The gym is the absolute hardest place to burn calories.  Think about it.  Is it easier to work out on an elliptical machine for 60 minutes or to not eat a donut?  Manage calories in the kitchen.  The gym is for strength.

Progressive strength training optimizes hormones for fastest fat burning.   Aim for compound movements that recruit the most muscles at once.  Examples would be elevated bench press, chin-ups, pull-ups and sumo squats.

The hardest way to burn fat is with sustained cardio because it increases appetite (more so for women) and also causes release of the stress hormone cortisol, which blocks fat burning.

Limit cardio to no more than 15-30 minutes per day and make it High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).  It’s also called ‘burst’ or ‘tabata’ training.  The key is to achieve close to your maximum heart rate during the burst of exercise, then to allow your heart rate to drop.

If you already like the elliptical, go as fast as you can for 10-60 seconds followed by a rest until your heart rate goes back down.  Then repeat.  You can do burst training on machines or with push-ups, burpees, kettlebell swings, ropes, beating a tire, pull-ups, plyometrics; anything that gets your heart rate up.  The list is endless.

While we’re talking about fitness training, note that it is impossible to “spot reduce” fat.  Sit-ups don’t make your stomach thinner and are not worth your time until you can already see your abdominal muscles.

10.  DON’T track calories

The Wellness Repair Diet was designed to make regular tracking unnecessary.  Instead of tracking calories, pay close attention to how you feel and select foods that give you stable energy without cravings for about five hours after meals.

See  Why You Should Forget Counting Calories for a more detailed explanation of why tracking calories is teaching you the wrong mindset.

11.  Protect muscle

Another mistake people make when losing weight is not consuming enough protein to preserve the muscle they have.  They lose muscle and fat at the same time.

Muscle is a fat burning machine, so if you lose it, fat burning becomes harder.  You wind up being “skinny fat” instead of toned.

I recommend moderate protein; somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-6 servings per day.  Consider making at least one of the servings a high quality whey protein concentrate (if tolerant).

12.  Get enough high quality sleep

Research backs it up.  Those who slept less at night experienced greater food cravings. Studies have found that reduced sleep causes reduced leptin (hormone that suppresses appetite) and elevated ghrelin (hormone that increases appetite).

See the theme here?

If you have read some of my other posts, you should be seeing a pattern in the recommendations.  Eating nutrient-dense real food, training for strength and getting high quality sleep not only help you burn fat but also help you fight disease, experience a better mood and think more clearly.

If you’re ready to get started, download my free checklist called: Day 1 Checklist for Wellness Repair

Then begin using The Wellness Repair Plan.  Just be sure to remember that “before picture” so we can show everyone how well it worked.

Thanks for reading!

Jeff