Counting Calories For Weight Loss? - Dr Ekberg

Counting calories does not work. Here's why. 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 today we're going to talk about one of the

biggest topics ever because it's so misunderstood and everyone sort of

thinks on an intuitive level that calories in calories out if you eat too

much and you don't exercise enough then you gain weight and yes those basic

physical principles are true but there's more to it that tricks the body into

doing the wrong thing so you can't count calories and have long-term success

won't work here's why most people have at some point try to lose weight and

then 99% of the time they gain it back so they get this perpetual yo-yo weight

curve and it's very frustrating because that's not what they were after

originally that's not their ultimate goal to create a yo-yo they want to lose

it and keep it off why can't they because when you count calories when you

try to restrict food you are depriving your body you put your body in a state

of deprivation that it takes strong willpower to maintain so then when you

can't maintain it when you feel oh I gained the wain back I must be a useless

person so now you have guilt because you apparently didn't have as strong a

willpower as those skinny people that managed to keep it off but that's not

what it's about and then the skinny people look at the

fat people and they think that oh well they must just be a glutton they must

just be lazy and of course the fat people feel terrible because they can

feel that pressure that they're not good enough well it's not what it's about so

here are the three factors about food that determine if we're healthy and main

gain weight or if we gain weight and are unhealthy so food is supposed to provide

fuel and food is supposed to provide nutrients and then food have different

hormone responses primarily insulin so someone who tries to deprive themselves

of food they're reducing the fuel they're reducing the amount of calories

and typically they also reduce the amount of nutrients because they eat

less but most people don't cut back on carbs and replace it with fat on the

contrary we've been told for the last 50 years that fat is evil so everybody

tries to cut back on the fat and they maintain the carbs and they just try to

reduce the quantity and that won't work you cut back the fuel you cut back the

nutrients but you maintain the hormone insulin at a high level and insulin is

fat storing it is fat storing blood sugar has to get out of the bloodstream

so if you eat something with carbohydrate it raises blood sugar and

blood sugar requires insulin to get out of the bloodstream and into the cell but

if the cell has more fuel than it needs in that moment which always happens when

you have high blood sugar then the rest gets converted into storage so now the

average person would probably have a lot more than this actually this would be

someone like me has about 15% body fat I carry about thirty pounds of fat which

is a hundred thousand calories so if you figure out if you are 200 pounds and 50%

fat now you have a hundred pounds you have over 300 thousand calories how can

you be deprived when you have that much fuel walking around on your body it's

because the insulin keeps it locked away you you eat a little bit

and then you get hungry and you have all these reserves that the body should be

able to use for fuel so that you didn't get hungry so you could make it till

tomorrow and not eat but you can't get to it

as long as there's insulin around and insulin is driven by carbohydrates so

here's how we want to look at this and understand blood sugar so blood sugar

needs to be in a very narrow range the body needs to keep it in a very narrow

range about 80 to 120 milligrams per deciliter

if you eat high carb you get a blood sugar spike now this is too much blood

sugar in the presence of insulin this is going to get stored then because of high

insulin levels the blood sugar crashes we get a valley we get a dip called

hypoglycemia now you have not enough blood sugar you don't have enough energy

so what does your body do of course it tells you to eat something what's the

fastest way to increase blood sugar it is through sugar and carbohydrates and

processed foods that's why they're so addictive that's why they satisfy the

cravings because we've created a pattern of high and low blood sugar and whenever

we are on a low end we want something for fuel we so we satisfy number one

here but we don't necessarily satisfy number two and then we trigger more

insulin that creates more fat storage so we have all these there's energy all

these resources the reserves on our bodies but we can't get to them because

of insulin that creates blood sugar rollercoasters that creates hypoglycemia

that creates cravings so we're trapped in that vicious cycle and this is why

you can't count calories because it's not the amount of the fuel it's what

happens to the fuel when you eat it if you eat a carbohydrate it will tend to

get stored to a greater degree than if you eat a protein or a fat once you've

stored it now you can't have access to it you have to eat

more so insulin makes you hungry processed food makes you hungry and you

have to break out of that vicious cycle that's why it's not about willpower

that's why you can't get long-term success you can't sustain deprivation

it's not it's not possible there are some people who are more like fanatics

they get into like the people on the on The Biggest Loser they have them

exercise eight hours a day and yes of course these people are gonna lose the

weight but how many of them keep it off very very very few and the ones who do

there's the one or almost get like a fanatic and that's not a bad thing if

they have an interest in exercise and they can make themselves workout four

hours a day then they can keep it off even if they eat some high carbohydrate

meals but for 98 percent of people it's not sustainable and you can't count

calories and it's not about character and you are not a bad person you just

have to understand these principles so that you can gradually change and here's

what you have to do you have to start eating more foods that are low glycemic

index that means foods that do not enter the bloodstream very quickly that don't

contribute to blood sugar and insulin responses and those are fat which has a

negligible insulin response and proteins which have a slight insulin response you

want to stay away from any grain or starch which have or sugar which have

very high insulin responses secondly though it has to be satisfying

you have to eat foods that are satisfying that's the only way you're

going to do something that's sustainable very very few people can punish

themselves for an entire lifetime and maintain deprivation so you have to

create a lifestyle that's satisfying and there are lots and lots and lots of good

food there meats and fats and vegetables and fish

delicious rich satisfying dishes that satisfy all these criteria and you just

have to learn what they are it takes a little bit of work to transition into

that but it is so doable and so worth it and then finally it has to be nutritious

and this is where some of the key dough people miss out because they don't

understand that you have to eat whole food you have to eat food from nature so

they eat a bunch of synthetic fats they eat a bunch of artificial sweeteners

they forget about the the vegetables and the the liveness of food so a lot of the

keto people they can create a quick weight loss because they satisfy the low

glycemic index because they eat a lot of fat and it's very satisfying because

they eat a lot of fat but if you don't get the nutrition if you don't get the

balance with the whole food now you're setting yourself up for trouble in five

years ten years twenty years and I know that's not what you want it you want to

create the long term solutions and that's why we have to learn how to

create that long term solution there is no quick fix

there is no circumventing the laws of nature so your body has built in laws

that have to be followed you developed alongside nature nature provided the

nutrients to food and you can't mess with them you can't you can't destroy

the fats you can't heat them and nuke them and pulverize the foods and and

maintain the nutritious value it just doesn't work so there is hope you can

create long-term weight loss but you can't do it through deprivation you have

to do it through lifestyle changes and learning how to heal the body and how to

satisfy it without the carbohydrates and the sugar I hope this was helpful please

share this with as many people as you can because as you know we have

a obesity and a overweight epidemic in this country it's a majority of people

who are having trouble with this not just one here and there and most of them

have tried yo-yo dieting and most of them have failed and the government is

still recommending high carb low fat diets and we have to start understanding

the physiology so that we can create these long-term solutions that people

are looking for share this message ask me any questions that you have and if

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watching