The SECRET To Burning BODY FAT Explained!

Hello Health Champions. What is the secret to  burning body fat? Today I want to expand on some  

of the concepts around burning body fat and I  also want to answer some of the questions and  

misconceptions that come up a lot because if you  have really stubborn body weight then you want  

to know and understand as many of these tools as  possible so that you can finally get a handle on  

that weight. Coming right up. Hey I'm Dr. Ekberg. I'm  a holistic doctor and a former Olympic decathlete  

and if you want to truly master health by  understanding how the body really works  

make sure you subscribe hit that bell and  turn on all the notifications so you never  

miss a life-saving video. When I was looking for  some ideas recently I came across a video where  

Lewis Howes was interviewing Shawn Stevenson  and it was a great video I was blown away by  

the clear-sightedness of Shawn. Nevertheless there  were a couple of points in there that I think they  

sort of missed to bring some clarity to so let's  just take a look at that. "How do I go to bed  

weighing a certain amount and then I wake up and  I lose two pounds where does that go is that just  

a burn through sweat is that just mitochondria  burning and it's disintegrating into the air  

what is happening the question should be like  where the hell does fat go where does it go to  

just poop it out do you sweat it out does it you  got that breathing in about 84% of the fat that you  

lose or that you expel from your body is through  breathing. What? Yeah it's eliminated via your lungs  

yeah it's carbon dioxide so it no way so fat about  the body and then it goes what into your lungs  

it's like transporting through the lung cavity  and then you breathe it out it's an eliminatory  

organ you know we don't think about that we tend  to think about like our gastrointestinal tract our  

bladders eliminatory organs your lungs and so you  breathe about 84 of the fat that you lose comes  

out via your br your breath and about a third of  that happens while you're while you're sleeping at  

night." Like I said I thought it was a great video  and I think Shawn did an amazing job. I'm sure he  

understands this stuff it was just a few of these  points just weren't really brought across i'm sure  

some people were left sort of confused and there's  really three questions here in that little clip  

the first one is - How can we lose two pounds  overnight? The second one is - Is that lost weight  

fat? And the third question is - Where does the fat  go? Do we really breathe out fat and the answer  

is no we don't breathe out the fat so whether  we eat carbs or fat or protein it sort of works  

the same way they consist of carbon oxygen  hydrogen and they turn into energy, water and  

carbon dioxide. The process the chemical process is  no different than if you burn a log or if you burn  

oil the difference is just the amount of heat  in a fire you burn it with heat or pressure  

and in the body you burn it through enzymes. Same  thing with fat it's carbon oxygen hydrogen the end  

products are identical with protein it's just  a little bit different because in addition to  

the other three we have nitrogen but then the  end products are still water carbon dioxide  

and nitrogen so do we breathe out fat  no the end product of all combustion of  

all metabolism is water and carbon dioxide and  carbon dioxide is the thing that we breathe out  

so the second point there seemed to be that we  can lose a lot of weight at night but is that  

fat that we're losing so if you burn about 2,000 calories in 24 hours and you sleep a third  

of that we divide that by three then we multiply  by 75 percent because your metabolism is a little  

bit lower during the night and I'm just kind of  throwing a number out there but let's say it's 75%  

of your average metabolism then that means you  burn 500 calories at night let's say that 60% of  

that is fat because you're not very active so your  basal metabolism is mostly fueled by fat so that's  

300 calories divided by nine calories per gram  of fat so you're losing 33 grams of fat you're  

losing just over an ounce which is pretty far from  two pounds so that means that ninety-seven percent  

of the weight loss is something else that  you're not really losing that much weight  

or fat during the night but what is it then that  you're breathing out well let's just take a quick  

look at this amazing organ the lung so first of  all people mostly think of this as a bag it's  

like a we inflate the bag and we deflate the bag  but it's not a bag it is sort of semi-solid it  

actually weighs 1.3 kilo or three pounds because  there's a lot of tissue in there it's not hollow  

but instead these bags are subdivided into tiny  tiny tiny little bags called alveoli and we have  

500 million of those little bags inside the  lung and if you add up the airways the length  

that the air travels through it's 2400 kilometers  about 1500 miles of airways and if you add up all  

the surface area it's about 50 to 75 square meters  540 to 810 square feet which is about half a  

tennis court so that's the surface area that if  you take a full breath then that's the surface  

area that is exposed to air that is having a  gaseous exchange in that single breath this gas  

exchange though what happens is your lungs absorb  oxygen into the bloodstream and it gets rid of  

it excretes carbon dioxide but this  can only happen in a fluid medium so  

it requires just a little bit of moisture on  that surface and because the moisture is so huge  

you're going to breathe out water with every  breath that is how you can tell if you are alive  

if you hold up a mirror and it fogs up then that's  a good sign but it's water that you're breathing  

out and during the night you're breathing out  about 50 grams per hour if you sleep for eight  

hours that's about 400 grams or about one pound  of water just through the breath and then you're  

sweating a little bit and you might go to the  bathroom during the night or first thing in the  

morning so there you go you've lost two to three  pounds but it wasn't really fat. I've talked a lot  

in the past about how you don't want to focus on  calories we know what calories are we can use them  

to count how much food we're eating it's a useful  tool but it's not a useful tool for losing weight  

so let's look at that in a few different ways  here again first of all calories is a new concept  

like a few hundred years ago they had no way of  measuring the energy in the food so how did they  

know what to eat well how did every other species  on the planet make it to this point not knowing  

what calories were well there is no such thing as  a calorie we don't have calorie receptors we can't  

absorb calories through our digestive tract  it's a notion it's a measurement it's a unit  

of measurement so when we measure energy or heat  it's the amount of heat that it takes to raise one  

liter of water one degree celsius and the way that  they measure this and they put it in a specific  

tool in a little chamber and then they pulverize  they burn into ash every single molecule of food  

put in that which of course doesn't happen in your  body so there again there's a huge difference and  

because in the body it's a matter of how much gets  absorbed how much gets utilized and what effect  

does that food have on your hormones on your  metabolism on your behavior on your satiety so  

we really really have to understand that no matter  how many people say that a calorie is a calorie  

a calorie is NOT a calorie because a calorie is  something measured in a calorimeter and in the  

body it is a totally different story let's look at  it one more way whole food has a certain amount of  

macronutrients and micronutrients macronutrients  are the fat protein and carbohydrate that we use  

for fuel and it also is the essential amino  acids and the essential fatty acids that we  

use for hormones and building blocks for tissue  the micronutrients are the tiny tiny tiny stuff  

often measured in milligrams or micrograms that  we need to metabolize these it's the little stuff  

that acts as a catalyst that allows us it includes  enzymes and bacteria as well even and all whole  

food has just the right amount of micronutrients  to allow us to process and metabolize and convert  

the macronutrients but when we process food  then we retain most it's like 90 percent of the  

macronutrients are still there the fat protein and  carbohydrates and that's what they list on a label  

but they destroyed and or removed most virtually  all of the micronutrients so now we have  

all these supposed calories we have all of this  fuel all these building blocks but we don't have  

the stuff necessary to process it so we've  changed the picture we've changed the effect  

simply by processing it so in one study Shawn  talked about they gave a group of people a  

certain number of calories of processed food  and another group the same number of calories  

of whole food and then they measured their  energy expenditure their metabolism and the  

people who got the processed foods their calorie  burning went down by 50 percent their metabolism  

shut down because a calorie is NOT a calorie  what do calories do well the problem that they do  

is they reduce food to a number now it's not about  quality of food it distracts us from the real  

issue of how good is this food really what's  the energy of the food what's the nutrition  

content how is it raised is it fresh etc  now it's just a number and we get stuck  

in the same mindset that has stifled that  has paralyzed our medical system because now  

food is just a number just like blood pressure  and cholesterol and anything else they can measure  

it used to be you went to a doctor and they  actually communicated and they would touch  

you and feel things and examine you and now they  run a bunch of tests they don't touch you anymore  

they run tests and now tests come back and now  you become a number your cholesterol is high  

your blood pressure is high but don't worry  i have a pill that will fix it so they're not  

caring for the person they're treating a  number with a pill and they can bring it down  

they're good at that does that mean you  feel better does that mean you get healthier  

usually not but that's kind of beside the  point and that whole way of thinking is  

called reductionism it is about reducing the body  reducing any system down to its smallest component  

and if you think you understand and can control  and manipulate the smallest component now you  

can manipulate the whole system but the problem  is that this is the wrong model it works great  

in mechanical engineering but it doesn't apply  to biology everything in our scientific model  

is based on linear thinking that a leads to b and  b leads to c and c leads to d and that's the only  

linear way that's the only way it can happen  and that's exactly how it is in machines  

but in biology we're a little more complex than  that because in biology a can lead to b but b can  

also lead to a and b can lead to c and c can lead  to b and all of these arrows are very intricate  

and interrelated so we have multiple, multiple  ways of affecting this system and how complex  

is that well we don't have four brain cells our  electrical wiring our physiological wiring is not  

four components it's a hundred billion components  and each of those brain cells each of those  

components makes on average five to ten thousand  connections so our system is infinitely complex  

and we have millions of different ways  into that system it is not a linear system  

we can't think of it the way that they do with  reductionism and linear way of thinking because  

it's the wrong model for biology what else do  calories do well the people who quote calories in  

calories out they're sort of stuck in their  thinking and they claim to have all the answers  

and unfortunately this is still the vast majority  all the government guidelines talk about calories  

that eat less exercise more and when you have that  attitude that this is how it is then you tend to  

not have a lot of understanding and flexibility  in your thinking and in our society there's a  

lot of stigma around this that if we know how  it works and you're not making it work then  

you're just lazy and we have done studies and we  know that most on average these people lost weight  

on a balanced diet so that's all you have to do as  well and if you have stubborn weight then you know  

that this is not how it works but nevertheless  we are told that there's something wrong with us  

and it induces guilt and it lays the blame  on someone who doesn't deserve it you know  

the funny thing is I guarantee that even with me  saying all this there's still going to be a few  

months from now there's going to be dozens of  comments on this video where people are saying  

that it's all about calories that's all you have  to do eat less exercise more and the sad thing  

is that none of these people will have actually  watched the video they leave a comment because  

they hear a little sound bite somewhere  as they're fast forwarding through but  

they won't actually have watched this and listened  to it but that's how the mind works that when  

you are so certain that this is how it is you're  not really open to listening to the other stuff  

so that would be my strong recommendation  that don't just take my word for it be  

open listen and and learn so that you can confirm  things and really understand the mechanisms  

Sharon is a member and frequent contributor to my  channel and she's been keeping me updated here so  

she says i've been doing intermittent fasting  for a few months finally losing weight where  

just calorie restriction didn't work at all okay  just sort of confirming what we're talking about  

intimate intermittent fasting has been the only  thing that worked for me over a longer time  

everything else worked for a few weeks and then  stopped she would get frustrated give up and then  

gain back all the weight lost plus some  extra why is that because calorie restriction  

makes you hungry and you can't be hungry for  a very long time and it doesn't address the  

underlying imbalance she says I can keep on with  intermittent fasting forever I actually enjoy it  

that's the difference and what else happens well I  also have full rotation in my shoulder joints and  

ankles something else I haven't had for about two  years so she'd been frustrated she'd been trying  

for 13 years to lose weight and only kept gaining  it back but now what's happening is she's finding  

something that she can do for a long time and  her shoulders are getting better because she's  

actually getting healthier in the process her body  is coming back to balance and why is that because  

you have to address hormones a calorie is  not a calorie because they affect hormones  

differently and hormones determine your behavior  hunger you can't go hungry the rest of your life  

but if you change your hormones you change your  behavior with intermittent fasting you reduce  

the insulin resistance and now your behavior  changes you have more control over your hunger  

and what happens then is your body changes  its perception if the body has the perception  

that there is lack when you're hungry you have  lack then it is not willing to spend energy to  

spend calor to burn calories to convert fuel  into heat because it has a different perception  

so all of these have to change in order for  you to get a long-term result. I've talked a  

lot about how you have to change hormones  and behavior and perception and one more  

huge enormous factor that affects these three  things is your microbiome that is the collective  

life form collection of life form that lives  in your gut all the microbes that live there  

you have about 40 trillion cells in your body and  they used to say that you had 10 times that many  

bugs in your gut but it turns out that it's about  the same number that you have about 40 trillion  

bacteria and I don't know what that means  but I find it sort of interesting that it is  

the same number or close to it and these bacteria  they have so much power over your body's behavior  

they can change your hormones they can change your  behavior they can change the body's perception and  

influence metabolism so one thing that they did  was in several studies now they have done this  

where they change the bacteria they do what's  called a fecal transplant and if they take  

gut content if they take the bacterial culture  from a fat mouse and put it into a slim mouse  

and they don't change anything else about the way  they're feeding them the slim mouse will become  

fat and vice versa if they start off with the  contents of the slim mouse and they insert it  

into a fat mouse then it becomes skinny so all of  these things living in us are part of us they are  

part of the community and they have an enormous  impact on what's happening now a big problem a lot  

of us never develop the kind of biome that we're  supposed to have so the first step is at birth  

that if you have a natural birth then you're  going to be bathed in a certain bacterial culture  

from your mother and that becomes your first and  most important meal in your life is a bunch of  

bacteria but today 50 percent of kids are born  with a c-section so they don't actually get  

that exposure they don't get that first dose  that's supposed to become their microbiome and  

then on top of that we have germ phobia so we swab  and we clean and we disinfect and we sterilize  

everything so this poor kid doesn't have a  chance to get a whole lot of exposure to bacteria  

and then we're supposed to get infections  that's how your immune system develops  

only thing is we're supposed to get these  pathogens through natural routes we're supposed to  

swallow them we're supposed to breathe them  in we're supposed to get them through food  

because then the they have first exposure to your  immune system in something called the galt your  

gut associated lymphoid tissue so your  immune system gets a taste of these pathogens  

and they're working together with all these  helpful bacteria living in your gut so they learn  

and you develop an immune system but now if this  poor kid gets an infection he can't fight it off  

or maybe he got it through a vaccine which does  not go through the gut associated lymph tissue  

so now they have to give him antibiotics they  don't have to but they are very quick to do  

that and now these antibiotics start killing  off the very few bacteria that were there  

and we reduce the total number and we  reduce the diversity of these bacteria  

and then we had five bacteria remaining in that  poor gut and now we feed it sugar and white trash  

which selectively skews the balance and feeds  the more pathogenic bacteria so this poor kid  

doesn't have a chance to develop a proper biome  that can interact with the rest of his organism  

and then of course we add some more garbage  some chemical additives and some poisons  

and some artificial colors and all of that  stuff and then when this poor kid gets fat  

and he can't lose weight now we tell him to count  calories and then when he can't lose any weight  

then we tell him that he has poor character but  all the while we feed him less calories made up of  

white toast with jam and orange juice and waffles  and mac and cheese as long as it's low fat then  

what does a good microbiome look like and how  do you develop it well a good biome is a diverse  

biome you want as many different kinds of bacteria  as you can get you want hundreds of different  

kinds thousands even and the main way that you get  that is don't annihilate them in the first place  

and then you eat a lot of diverse foods so this is  why it's so important even if you're losing weight  

on low carb or keto that you don't eat  the same three things over and over you  

develop a variety you learn a new recipe every  week you introduce a new food so you can get some  

variety because that's going to promote diversity  in your biome then of course you want to stop  

sugar because not only does it trigger insulin  resistance and inflammation but it also is the  

favorite food of all the kind of bugs in your gut  that you don't want so with sugar you promote the  

wrong kind of balance of course avoid antibiotics  because they will go through your gut flora like  

a forest fire they don't leave much of anything  behind so antibiotics we want to save them for  

the times that they're really desperately needed  when something is life-threatening they will save  

a life but if you have a virus or if you have a  headache or they just don't know what's going on  

don't take an antibiotic right the very name  antibiotic bio means life anti is opposite of life  

so you don't need them unless there's something  life threatening i haven't had an antibiotics for  

well over 30 years ever since i knew better then  a lot of people ask me about probiotics okay  

antibiotics and probiotics against life and  for life aren't they good yes they are but they  

don't do a whole lot of benefit for most people  i use a lot of them in my office but i don't use  

a lot of them with people right away because  they're useless if your gut is totally messed up  

they're not really going to do anything these are  not supposed to repopulate they're not supposed to  

re-fill or replace the bacteria they're supposed  to serve as seed and if you have a bunch of flower  

seed or grass seed and you go out on a concrete  parking lot and start throwing seeds those seeds  

are absolutely wasted because they need good  soil to take root and that is exactly how  

probiotics work so yes they're great but don't  expect them to solve the problems after you've  

had antibiotics and your biome has been abused for  decades then there's going to be a while before  

they really take root that's all so the recipe for  losing weight is the same recipe as for developing  

a microbiome or dealing with anything else that  we talk about on this channel and that is called  

get healthy what is health it's when everything  in your body is working the way it's supposed to  

when everything is regulated appropriately when  your body is able to be free of interference  

when it has sufficiency of the proper foods when  it is not toxic and when you move it on a regular  

basis so it has the proper stimulation then  your body can return to homeostasis and health  

but it's not a quick fix if you have been  out of balance for 20-30 years or more then  

it's not take this pill or eat this superfood  it's a process and you have to start understanding  

all of the different things you don't have to  understand the details but you have to understand  

the essence of all of the things we're talking  about so how do you get healthy you eat real food  

you get some movement and you pamper your soul  you deal with stress you practice de-stressing so  

i often talk about how the body has a chemical  aspect a structural aspect and an emotional  

aspect and all of these three affect your health  your biome your weight etc you don't lose weight  

to get healthy you get healthy when your body is  in balance then it will find the right weight for  

you if you enjoyed this video and you'd like to  learn more about how the body really works that  

one's going to be a great video for you next thank  you so much for watching i'll see you next time