Stop Counting Calories
Every nation has increased its obesity rates in
the last 20 years; 75 countries have more than
doubled their obesity rates. That's not the
most shocking bit of data ... it's that not a
single nation anywhere in this world has found
a way to lower obesity rates!
The old held belief system that we are
overeating and people with weight problems
are being gluttonous and junk food addicts. In
my experience, this has not been the case. I'm
constantly shocked at how many people are
struggling with weight loss and maintaining
healthy weights, even though their lifestyle
may be full of healthy foods.
Traditionally we've pointed fingers at different
foods and demonize them. For example, "is
bad, avoid fat," so naturally we start replacing
fats with other foods (usually sugars), then we
flip over and vilify sugars and sugar makes you
fat, animal products are making people fat,
etc. A look at almost every "diet" you'll find
their focus is on the negative, which foods are
the 'bad ones' and stay away from those. It
clearly is not working, the #1 new year's
resolution for the majority of North Americans
is to lose more weight and yet at the end of
that next year, they are heavier than the year
they started. According to American Journal of
Public Health 2015,
once a woman is classified as Obese
the chances of her ever obtaining a
healthy weight is 0.8% and CDC
stated that 80% of Adults and 33% of
children now meet the clinical
definition of Overweight or Obese.
Don’t get confused here, I am not saying weight
loss never work, because they do! But, there are
many aspects of weight loss that can be
improved instead of just looking at it from a
cosmetic aspect. If you’re like me, I am
frustrated that the amount of work it takes to
lose 1lb feels enormous compared to how easy
it is to regain it back. One of my personal
experiences was 1.5 hours of exercise per day
for 5 days a week, counting every calorie,
constantly feeling deprived and having no life
outside of meal prepping, only to lose 1 lb per
week. I was left with the deep feeling that there
has to be a better way! There is, so get
comfortable, we are going down a different
approach to healthy weight loss.
I genuinely feel it is not how much we are eating,
a fact you should know is North Americans are
eating less calories in 2019 than we did in 2003,
yet we doubled our obesity rates. So how is it
possible that as a nation we can eat less and
still increase in size? Maybe, just maybe, it isn’t
about the quantity of the food but the quality
of the food!
A calorie is not just a calorie anymore. More
than 60% of the calories the average person
consumes comes from processed foods that
are high in refined sugars, low in fibers, and
injected with so many additives, colors,
preservatives, and stabilizers that are known
endocrine disruptors. The easiest way to
describe this is that our refined, and altered
foods are contributing our body into storing
more fat. So 1 calorie from processed foods may
carry the baggage and extra work compared to 3
calories from cleaner whole foods.
Endocrine disruptors alter hormone levels and
functions; one we are going to highlight in this
article is the alternating of insulin in the
pancreas. As a race, we are seeing increasing
rates of Diabetes everywhere. This is being
caused by the pancreas not being able to meet
the demands of insulin by our bodies. Many
believe the primary factor of this is endocrine
disruptors causing the gland to deteriorate,over
stimulate, or malfunction in various ways.
Our livers are responsible for running our
entire endocrine system; it produces the
hormones that turn our glands on and off.
Endocrine disruptors cause chaos in our liver
functions. Similar to a house full of young
kids running around making a mess while you
are trying to clean. This chaos is difficult to
deal with and adds unwanted stress on many
parts of your body but especially the liver.
Endocrine disruptors are only part of the
problem, though, as the majority of these
additives are viewed as toxins within our
bodies, and our liver has to process and
neutralize them. Since the 1800’s many
professionals have considered the liver to be
overburdened and incapable of keeping up
with the modern lifestyle, that was 200 years
ago; think about how much more is in our
world today! Toxins that bypass the liver must
be eliminated or stored, and a majority of
these toxins are stored within body fat,
creating the need for more body fat. (Maybe
this is another reason people who lose a lot of
fat weight quickly also feel tired and drained,
these toxins could be re-released into the body
that was once stored.)