Can Intermittent Fasting Make You Gain Weight Like Sumo Wrestlers?

One of my viewers Little Voice asked me to make a comment on a video by Sam

Robbins called sumo wrestlers gaining weight and

intermittent fasting so I thought I'd do this comment to clear up some of the

confusion and misunderstandings that resulted from that video coming right up

hey I'm Dr. Ekberg with Wellness For Life and if you'd like to truly master

health by understanding how the body really works make sure that you

subscribe and hit that notification bell so that you don't miss anything so dr.

Sam apparently got the question how can sumo wrestlers gain so much weight when

they are doing intermittent fasting so Dr. Sam did a video trying to explain

that and he said number one they skip breakfast which slows their metabolism

and this does not happen if you are fat adapted it does happen if you are

insulin insulin resistant and carbohydrate dependent because if your

insulin resistant then your body is fat storing so you have lots of fat stores

but you can't access the fat store because the insulin keeps it locked away

so now if you skip meals your body perceives that as starvation because

it's starvation in the midst of plenty insulin resistance is the early stages

of diabetes and diabetes is the full-blown starvation in the midst of

plenty they have hundreds of thousands of calories of fat stored on their body

they can't get to it because insulin locks it away so if you're not insulin

resistant then skipping breakfast is not going to slow your metabolism as long as

you're not completely emaciated if you have at least a few pounds of fat on

your body that's not a problem number two exercise in a fasting state

increases cortisol and stress hormones which leads to fat conservation

so this is to almost the same answer as the first one because this happens the

cortisol comes from you starving when your carbohydrate dependent so if you

are fat adapted that does not happen unless you're also at the same time if

the exercise that you're doing is an aerobic meaning that it is at such a

high intensity that you cannot keep up with oxygen delivery because now in the

presence of oxygen if you can't keep up with oxygen delivery you can burn fat if

you can't keep up with oxygen delivery you can't burn fat you need

carbohydrates and if you don't have carbohydrates and you can't get to the

fat fast enough now you need sugar and your body produces more cortisol so it

has to do both of those circumstances it has to be high intensity and you have to

be not accessing the fats number three they eat too large meals eight hours

apart no argument that's what they do number four they sleep after each meal

again no argument except why do they sleep well if you eat large amounts of

foods especially carbohydrate and your insulin resistance now one of the backup

mechanisms for the body to deal with all that blood sugar is to convert it into

triglycerides that's why sugar drives up triglycerides so a lot of the fat lipid

profiles that people if they're out of balance and people are told oh you eat

too much fat that's not true they're eating too much sugar because that's

what turns into the triglycerides and that conversion from sugar to

triglycerides is very very energy expensive your body uses up lots of

energy to do that so you get really really sleepy and with the amount of

food that these guys consume there is no mystery

that they have to sleep after each meal five they eat high carb low fat no

argument there that's what's gonna pack on the fat six

they drink lots of beer that's gonna pack up pack on the fat seven they eat

with friends which has proven to increase food consumption by forty four

percent so while that has been observed we also have to ask what is it that

makes people eat too much so think about that Thanksgiving meal you had the

turkey you had the really fatty gravy you had some accessories and you are so

full you're saying I can never eat another bite and then they bring out the

sweet pecan pie and now all of a sudden you can make some more room because it's

sweet it's the sugar it's the carbohydrates that bypasses your normal

regulatory processes your body says you're full and you won't eat again if

there's only real food available but if sugar is being offered you can always

make another effort so it's the sugar it's the carbs that trick your body into

eating too much so if you only eat real food whether you eat with friends or not

if there is no carbohydrate or sugar available if there's meat and fish and

vegetables and fat available you're not going to overeat so then he said this is

why they gained weight then he went on to admit that yes they

do eat a lot of food we're talking 8,000 to 20,000 calories so if we just take

the mid portion of that range not the least not the worst then we'll end up

some around 15,000 calories and he also said that they eat almost all carbs

virtually no fat and some protein so that means they probably at least 70% of

the calories from carbohydrates which would put them at an absolutely

astronomical

2,500 or more grams of carbohydrates per day and he said that they also go and

scout these people based on who is gonna get fat who has the big thick structure

already so these are the real reasons that they get fat not so much that they

skip breakfast or they exercise or that they eat too large meals that has

virtually nothing to do with it and this is the healthy lifestyle this is just

insanity no matter what you eat to eat 20,000 calories to be so insulin

resistant you have to sleep to eat high carb low fat to drink lots of beer

so we have to look at at the whole picture we can't just say oh well these

people do this so that's why they get fat you can't look at someone who wears

the blue hat and is mean to dogs and say oh if I wear a blue hat I'm gonna be

mean to dogs doesn't work like that you have to look at the big picture you have

to look at what is it that they're doing so poorly so crazy that it throws off

everything else so based on this he drew some conclusions and he said that

because they do this and get fat it's better to eat several small meals rather

than two large meals and again has nothing to do with it what has to do

with it is how much carbohydrate are you eating and how much total food are you

eating are you insulin resistant as a result then he says they do eat too much

carbohydrates amen he suggests that you eat somewhere around a third of your

calories from each fat protein and carbohydrate and that's certainly better

than the official guidelines because they recommend 60 to 70 percent from

carbohydrate and low-fat however this might work a third from each if you're

already healthy if you're not insulin resistant if you have a normal body

weight if you stay physically active if you eat whole food I think you might

get away with that but if you have some health compromised if your insulin

resistant if your if you don't exercise every single day then this is gonna make

you insulin resistant or keep you instantly resistant then he says

calories matter total calories matter and that's not really true it is the

carb calories that matter because you couldn't really eat whole food without

carbs you can't eat enough meat and vegetables and fats if you turn it into

a contest I suppose you could stuff down a lot of calories but you couldn't keep

it up because your body would just eventually say hey you know I've had it

I don't want more food it's the carbohydrates that creates the storage

that makes you able to keep eating that amount of food then he concluded that

fasting exercise leads to cortisol and that really is consequence is reduced

muscle and increased fat and it is true that cortisol causes that but like we

said above it really only happens if you do high-intensity exercise or if you're

not fat adapted if you do aerobic exercise meaning you keep it at a

intensity low enough that you're not huffing and puffing now that exercise

that fasting exercise does not result in a lot of cortisol there's going to be a

smidgen with every amount of exercise but it's not going to trigger a lot of

cortisol and now you get fat burning it's one of the best ways to burn fat is

low intensity exercise while you are fat adapted he says to keep the workout

short and intense and totally agree with that then he says to do it 45 to 60

minutes that's not short if you do high

tensity exercise like and check out this video right here on high intensity

training you want to do a warm-up and then the intense portion of that should

be no more than five to ten minutes because that gives you all of the

hormonal benefits it gives you all of the good hormones like human growth

hormone and BDNF brain-derived neurotrophic factor and it does give you

a lot of cortisol on high intensity but it's of such short duration it doesn't

have much of a long-term impact the cortisol half-life is very very fast

whereas the growth hormone half-life is very extended so that level stays up 24

48 72 hours even and he says sleep is important no argument there so we can't

just look at what someone is doing and saying oh because they do that it's it's

gonna cause this if they do something that's absolutely insane that's going to

override anything else that they do so yes intermittent fasting is not going to

work if you eat 20,000 calories but it's not going to make it worse either

however intermittent fasting will work wonders if you are fat adapted and you

keep your carbs low because now the intermittent fasting helps further

reduce your insulin resistance that's what it's really all about you start off

with low carb maybe even keto to reduce insulin resistance and then you add

intermittent fasting to it because any period of time that you don't eat helps

your body get less insulin in the system so it has nothing to do with

intermittent fasting their weight gain it has everything to do with the carbs

and the insulin resistance that they have so if you're doing intermittent

fasting do yourself a favor and do it with a low carb or even keto diet

because if your body is carb dependen then you're not going to be able to

sustain these long fasts very well you'll be starving you'll be hungry

you'll be cranky because your body says give me some blood sugar because you're

not fat adapt it you can't access those fat stores very well

your body will we'll get to them eventually if you fast long enough but

you make it so much easier on yourself if you get your body fat adapted because

then you're more balanced and level to start with hope that this was helpful if

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