Well, I’ve had a crazy day and posting late. So, sorry. But, in between work meetings, kid feedings, a soccer party and a bit of housekeeping—I did happen upon a great article in the Huffington Post on weight loss. I’ve become one of those people that when I’m about to lose it, a few minutes of skimming through the Internet puts me into my happy place. To ensure full happiness benefits, I limit myself to three sites: The Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com), Radar Online (radaronline.com) and The Onion (theonion.com).
I like the Huffington Post because they have a great Healthy Living section. Radar Online is good for a few ridiculous celebrity stories that make me feel grateful about my middle class life. The Onion is simply hilarious, made up news and general mockery that always makes me laugh.
The title of the Huffington Post article was “The Key to Immediate Weight Loss,” so (of course) I clicked over to it like a race horse. It was actually a decent, credible article despite its seemingly far-fetched title. The article was based on a recent study David Ludwig and Mark Epstein published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It’s touted as the most important weight loss article since the Watson and Cricks paper on DNA in 1953, which changed our whole way of thinking about genes. They also explained their findings in the New York Times piece, “Always Hungry? Here’s Why.”
Basically, Ludwig & Epstein confirm the same theory I have about eating and weight loss—it all depends on the quality of your food (see my post last week: bodyofeve.com/weight-plants-body). If you are overweight, you eat because your body thinks it’s starving. Hormones and blood sugar regulation is key. Calorie counting is out the window. And, eating more calories of the right foods will lead to weight loss. When I’m good, I’m living proof. If I eat unlimited amounts of plant-based foods, my pants will be falling off in two weeks. I’m not exaggerating.
Below are the take-home lessons from Ludwig & Epstein’s paper or you can check out the full article via the Huffington Post by going to: www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/weight-loss_b_5355166.html.
10 Take Home Lessons: Forget the Calories, Focus on the Quality of Your Diet
- Overeating doesn’t make you fat. Your fat cells make you overeat.
- You make hungry fats cells by eating sugar and refined carbs.
- Restricting your calories will slow your metabolism, make you hungry and guarantee that your weight loss attempts will fail.
- Eating a higher fat, higher protein, lower sugar and refined carb diet will speed up your metabolism and cut your hunger.
- Controlling what you eat is much easier than controlling how much you eat.
- Forget calorie counting. It’s not about the calories but about diet quality and dietary composition. Just try eating 1,000 calories of broccoli.
- End our scientifically-outdated position that all calories are equal and weight loss is simply a matter of eating fewer calories than you burn.
- Lower insulin by a sugar detox, and watch your body lose weight effortlessly without hunger or cravings.
- To learn more, watch the movie Fed Up or read The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet (my medically-designed program to cut insulin and detox from sugar and refined carbs).
- Stop blaming yourself for lack of willpower, and start empowering yourself by eating real, whole, fresh food that’s low in sugar and starch.
Even though the article seemed preposterous via its title–it was well worth reading and makes total sense to me. Ludwig touts a detox diet, but I’ve not given it a try yet. I’d like to get Heidi’s opinion on detoxing first because I’ve heard both sides of the coin on whether it is really effective and/or beneficial. Stay tuned. . .
Heidi Diller says
Well, I don’t have a quick answer about the detoxing but I can say the premise of “detox” is faulty. Our bodies don’t store toxins from the foods we eat. That’s why we have a liver and our liver is the best filter for any toxins. But I do believe that sugar can be addicting. See my post on sugar http://bodyofeve.com/the-single-most-important-thing-you-can-do-to-feel-better/
Its when we eat or drink concentrated amounts like soda or candy that sends our insulin soaring and causes us to–increase insulin—which causes us to crave more sugar which fuels the addiction. Oh, the irony. So with that in mind, cutting back or eliminating sugar (a sugar detox) is helpful to get our appetites back in control.