You Won’t Lose Belly Fat Until You Do This….

Hello Health Champions. Why is it almost  impossible to lose belly fat and lose weight,  

and even harder to keep it off? And why is it that  some people can lose weight easily, but then those  

same methods they used can backfire for people  with stubborn weight? Today I want to talk about  

the factors that really make a difference because  that's the only way that you can lose belly fat  

and lose weight and more importantly to keep it  off. Doesn't it seem sometimes like food is the  

problem? If we could just forget about it and not  eat then we'd be so much better off. Well, not  

really because we need food there is a profound  innate drive in every living species to go  

look for food and a lot of the behavior a lot of  the time of almost every species is geared toward  

finding or eating food because food is  fuel that leads to energy that of course  

helps us survive and all of this behavior all  this drive is driven by hunger and satiety it's  

guided by these two sensations and because they're  so important to survival they're also controlled  

by very very complex systems that we have to  get it just right but when we don't get it just  

right when there is excess fat why is that what  happened? Well, we go back to the standard phrases  

that there is more calories in than there is  calories out or if we flip that around another  

way of saying that is that we're burning less  than we're consuming and then we keep hearing that  

these are part of the laws of thermodynamics that  the energy in the system is constant and so forth  

so these are indisputable we can't argue this  is the way it is but it's not the whole picture  

and we'll get to that now the problem is that  there's a lot of blame and there's a lot of guilt  

involved with simplifying it this much because  if you take in more calories than you burn  

then you are a glutton then your appetite  is out of control you have a hedonistic  

appetite you have no character no self-control  that if you could just control yourself then you  

wouldn't have these issues is what we keep hearing  and if we look at number two if we think that the  

problem is we're not burning enough then of course  now we're lazy and we don't exercise enough we're  

called slothful and these both gluttony and sloth  are two of the seven deadly sins so we should feel  

really guilty and really bad about not being able  to control this but it's not really your fault and  

I'm going to get to that so if we believe the  standard simple model like a lot of us have and  

a lot of us have tried then we decide all of a  sudden we're going to eat less and move more so  

based on the two things that we talked about  calories in calories out and burning calories  

then we follow simple math and we have found that  if we eat 2,000 calories our weight stays the same  

so we do the math and we decide we're going to cut  back to 1,500 calories calorie restriction now we  

have a 500 calorie deficit based on our dietary  intake and then we decide we're also going to move  

more so we exercise to burn another 500 calories  which comes out to a thousand calorie deficit per  

day we do the math and that's equivalent to two  pounds of fat per week or one kilogram of fat per  

week and we're all excited this is going to be so  easy in this hypothetical example we have someone  

weighing 300 pounds we know we're going to lose 2  pounds a week according to the math. Math is not  

flexible it's exact this is the way it's going  to work so in 50 weeks or about one year we're  

going to go from 300 pounds to 200 pounds and it's  like this is so straightforward this is so simple  

why didn't we think of this before well a lot of  us probably did think of it before and a lot of us  

did try it and the problem is it probably didn't  look like that my guess is that it probably looked  

like that and then we get more guilty and we get  more blamed and we say you should control yourself  

better but we're going to look at this in a second  and it isn't your fault okay these are mechanisms  

that you do not have control over but why then  is there such an enormous difference between  

the result that science predicts and the reality  that we observe and it all comes down to the  

body's perception does the body perceive that  we have an abundance of energy or do we have  

a lack of energy and to understand that we need to  look a little bit deeper because we didn't really  

finish this slide we only got to point 2 but  there's a 2a and a 2b and one part of burning if  

you're not burning enough is if you're lazy if you  don't move then yeah you're not burning but the  

other part of that is what is the body burning on  its own what's the basal metabolic rate and part  

2b if you're not burning enough is because your  body doesn't want to if it has a sense of lack  

then it says I can't afford to spend that energy I  have to save that energy but then you're going hey  

look I've got plenty of energy what's the problem  and there is a misunderstanding because again it's  

not about the reality of the situation it's about  the perception of the body it's the same as if  

people are really wealthy but they still feel  insecure they can have millions in the bank and  

they can't make themselves spend anything because  they have a sense of lack whereas other people  

with hardly anything in the bank go spend every  penny so it's about perception it's not what's  

actually there and if you could talk to your body  and you would try to explain this misunderstanding  

then you would say hey listen body I know  you think there's a sense of lack I know you  

think we can't afford it but I promise you we can  afford this you can safely go down that straight  

line that green line toward weight loss because  here's what's really going on I weigh 250 pounds  

I have 50% body fat for example and then you  would have over 400,000 extra calories to spend  

that's a veritable fortune when it comes to  surplus energy these numbers make someone as  

wealthy as they can get so what's the problem why  doesn't the body get it because there's a language  

barrier that unless you speak the language of  hormones you can't convince your body it's an  

internal dialogue and here's what drives it so  when you're hungry your body says I want to eat  

find some food you eat and then when your stomach  is full your body gets satisfied and there's a ton  

of different hormones and don't worry about what  all these are but insulin goes up amylin goes up  

pancreatic polypeptide goes up cholecystokinin  goes up PYY, GLP-1, ghrelin goes down leptin goes  

up we're not going to worry about what all these  are I just want to show you that there's a lot of  

different players that when your stomach is full  there's a bunch of different messengers in place  

to signal satiety to signal to basically say hey  shipment has been received we're good for now and  

then if all is in balance if this body is still  in a state of insulin sensitivity and balance  

then in three to four hours all these values  return to baseline values but here is where it  

gets interesting and here I really really want you  to pay attention whether you have a weight problem  

or whether you can easily lose weight you need to  understand this either so you could lose weight  

or you can have some sympathy for the people who  have a harder time. What is the difference between  

a thin person let's say someone who is sort of  like myself six foot three or 190 centimeters 180  

pounds or about 85 kilograms I guess someone who  has usually been thin hasn't fluctuated very much  

and someone who is the same height who used to  weigh 300 pounds but now they have successfully  

lost they have whatever they have done they've  gotten down to 185 pounds? So now on the surface  

these two people look the same. But what is the  difference in these signaling hormones that signal  

hunger and satiety and eating behavior?  So when we look at insulin, ghrelin and  

pancreatic polypeptide the insulin is a fat  storage hormone that means we have an increased  

tendency to store away the energy we have less  access to it so that's going to make us hungrier.  

Ghrelin is a hunger hormone it tells  us to go look for food so all of these  

are increased in the person who have lost the  weight even though they are now the same weight,  

these hormones are much higher. And then  we look at some other hormones like leptin  

which is a satiety hormone we look at PYY and CCK  and don't worry about what they do but the point  

is they're all different that these two people  that look the same on the surface their hormone  

levels are very very different their hormones are  still signaling as if this person is content and  

this person has lack and you don't need to know  all the detail and I'm not going to memorize it  

but what they do tell you is that these signals  they act to make you regain the lost weight the  

body wants to gain the weight back it's not happy  where it is it signals to increase hunger it  

signals to decrease satiety meaning after eating  the same amount of food or at the same frequency  

the person who has lost the weight instead of  never having had it is not going to get as full  

from the same amount of food and this person  is still going to have a much higher capacity  

to store fat they're going to have a tendency  to store fat rather than use it and the other  

thing to understand is what I say all the time  I'll show you this arrow to help you understand  

that there are going to be some people who have  a very slight tendency they'll be on the green  

end of the spectrum their tendency to regain  this lost weight and to have all these factors  

to reverse the process are going to be very  slight whereas for some people it's going to  

be like a total rubber band the force the pull  is going to be enormous so we need to understand  

that whatever it is it is and just because we are  at a certain place we shouldn't compare ourselves  

to someone who is in a different situation but  even though we have all these different signaling  

molecules and hormones in different parts of  the body different tissues it all comes back  

to the hypothalamus that's where the signals and  the triggers originate and the hypothalamus is a  

very tiny little area in the middle of the brain  under the thalamus but on top of the brain stem  

and it's the master regulator if anything needs  regulating hypothalamus is involved it regulates  

heart rate blood pressure temperature, sleep  cycles and temperature of course is related to  

expenditure of energy breathing energy balance and  breathing of course has to do with oxygen levels  

co2 levels and pH all of that is regulated  and related to energy balance of course also  

hunger and thirst so the hypothalamus is where we  ultimately have this perception of abundance or  

lack and if there is a misunderstanding then  that is where that misunderstanding occurs  

and that's where long term we have to try to undo  it and there's not a single simple precise way to  

do this it's more like the whole picture of  a total lifestyle and we need to understand  

more about the body, the physiology and the laws  of nature this is what I talk about a lot on this  

channel to give people not just the methods  but also a more philosophical understanding  

about what the right thing to do is so there are  laws of nature just like there's a law of gravity  

and so forth that in nature all other animals eat  food that is appropriate for their species there  

is no other species there's no other animal that  has a weight problem why because they eat things  

they're supposed to they all eat whole food they  eat food that has never been processed like this  

guy running around he's not gonna find a processed  breaded salmon he's going to get the real thing  

and that thing is going to have essential amino  acids essential fatty acids it's going to have  

all the minerals and the vitamins and the fiber  and the enzymes that he needs and if he doesn't  

get it from the salmon he's going to go find  something else that has that but it's going to be  

whole food so that's the first key and then of  course all animals on the planet are involved  

in some sort of movement in acquiring their  food and that's something that humans have  

bypassed we don't have to move we don't have to go  after anything we push a button we order it on the  

cell phone and then it shows up and movement  is involved with not just burning calories  

that's not why we move movement stimulates and  balances all aspects of physiology and when we get  

all the pieces that we need of a holistic balanced  lifestyle then the result is homeostasis that is  

equilibrium it's the place that the body returns  to it's the place where everything is working the  

way it's supposed to and if we follow the laws of  nature and we live like this then the hypothalamus  

is also going to be part of that homeostasis it's  going to have a precise and appropriate perception  

of what the reality is and what to do but  humans don't really live like that anymore  

do we instead we have become experts at breaking  the laws of nature and the thing though is  

that nature doesn't care if and when we break the  laws we just suffer the consequences because we  

have these principles these laws running inside  us so instead of following the laws we now get  

60 to 70 percent of our calories of the  fuel from sugar, white flour and seed oils  

things that are completely processed, completely  devoid of any nutrients anything that gives life  

we also eat a lot of addictive chemicals we  eat a lot of toxic chemicals that interfere  

the addictive chemicals of course change the  eating behavior change hunger and satiety they  

bypass these normal regulatory mechanisms and  we now have three solid meals but we also have  

snacks in between and a lot of people will go  sipping on a sweet tea or a soda or a drink  

all day long so there's rarely 10 minutes  where we don't swallow something and if we  

did that once in a while on a vacation once or  twice a year the body would be able to reset  

and return to homeostasis but when we do that  every day year after year for 10, 20, 30,  

40 years now the body has no defense against  that we're pushing the body further and further  

we're changing the momentum and eventually that  hypothalamus gets confused it has no reference  

anymore it ends up out of balance and it  can't tell whether we have abundance or lack  

and of course if we have broken the laws on nature  the way to improve things are to restore the laws  

of nature and how do we do that well I often talk  about an analogy between health and physiology and  

homeostasis the the healing principles that go on  in the body and that of water. If we have water  

it tends to flow it follows another law of nature  called gravity and water at an altitude will  

always try to get to sea level and if there's no  obstacle the water will always get to sea level  

but if we build an obstacle if we build a dam then  we will stop the water from flowing temporarily as  

long as that dam is there but here's the good  news that if we remove the dam we don't have to  

teach the water how to flow again it already knows  how and that's how the body works as well that if  

we just start removing the obstacles, the things  that interfere with health, we don't have to teach  

the body to do anything different it's already  doing it it's already flowing toward health and  

that's such a powerful understanding to have that  once you remove the dam the water will flow again  

once you start removing the obstacles of health,  health will start flowing again now depending on  

how long the obstacles have been there and  how many layers of obstacles there are,  

it could be a good while before you see  significant results you'll probably see  

some results within weeks, but you may not see all  the way sort of results that you're looking for  

unless you go months or years and the number one  thing that keeps health from flowing in the body  

is sugar so you want to stop eating sugar it's  the ultimate processed food it's the ultimate  

useless food it's the ultimate interference it  clogs up the liver it causes insulin resistance  

the fructose in sugar is a liver poison just  look at some of my other videos where I talk  

more about the details I have videos on every one  of these things that we're going to talk about so  

you can go back and review that number two you  want to eat whole food try to get at least 90  

percent of your food from real unprocessed food  that means meat fish vegetables plants roots  

anything that is roughly in its original form the  way that we found it or hunted it or picked it  

should be close to that form then it's a whole  food and if you're eating mostly garbage today  

then try to get to 50 percent eat half real food  and then you try to increase that percentage  

gradually if you're pretty healthy it doesn't  necessarily have to be a hundred percent you  

can make exceptions here and there but closer to a  hundred percent is going to be better number three  

is to reduce the amount of carbohydrates and again  I've done videos on this this isn't necessarily  

equally true for everybody it depends on how  carbohydrate intolerant you are and most people  

who are overweight are insulin resistant and very  carbohydrate intolerant so cutting down on carbs  

and then cutting down on the number of meals  also because every time you eat a meal every  

time you eat a meal high in carbohydrate  you're going to stimulate insulin and that's  

where a lot of these problems are coming from  number five is you want to add some movement  

and even if you don't have to move to go find your  food then you want to find some other movement  

in some other fashion it doesn't have to  be in a gym it doesn't have to be called  

exercise but your body requires movement it drives  every physiological function in your body. Number  

six is to get sleep try to get an adequate amount  whatever that means for you and try to get it on  

a reasonably similar time period and for most  people it fits the hormones and the circadian  

rhythms better if you can get it during a dark  period of the day and number seven is to reduce  

stress and the best way to do that is  with breathing exercises and meditation  

every single disease known to man can be  linked to stress in some way but stress  

is your perception of what's happening out there  you can't change the world but you can change  

your perception of it and like I said the best way  to do that is meditation now humans are creatures  

of habit and any time we even think about  changing something we have resistance because  

changing takes a little bit of effort and  therefore our first impulse is that this is going  

to be too hard but it's not just allow yourselves  to spend a little time with the thought and then  

just do something make a really small simple  change that you know you can do and stick with  

and then what's going to happen is pretty  soon you'll feel better because your body  

starts moving toward homeostasis and then  even if it takes years like we talked about  

then it's not going to be a burden it's going to  feel easy it's going to feel like you want to do  

it because it's getting better and better and  you're understanding why and before you know it  

you're you might have set out to just lose some  weight or some belly fat but you're going to be  

amazed at how many areas of your life and how many  areas of your health get improved as a result of  

helping your body move in the right direction and  in the end what you end up with is a better life  

not just a leaner body and in the words of Wayne  Dyer "Remember that it's never too late to have  

a happy childhood". If you enjoyed this video,  you're going to love that one. And if you truly  

want to master health, by understanding how  the body really works, make sure you subscribe,  

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