Accelerate Fat Loss: Switch Your Metabolism from Sugar to Fat -Transcript
Do you have a hard time losing weight?
If so, it might be that your body is a better sugar burner than a fat burner.
In this video, we show you how we tweaked Keith’s diet to train his body to prefer burning fat for energy AND how those tweaks resulted in the loss of more than 26 pounds in the past nine weeks!
Video: Accelerate Fat Loss by Becoming a Better Fat-Burner
If you lose weight too slow, the problem might be that your body is a better sugar burner than a fat burner.
In this video, we show you how we tweaked Dr. Keith’s diet to train his body to prefer burning fat for energy, instead of sugar.
If you are insulin resistant, pre-diabetic, or have metabolic syndrome, your body is very good at storing fat, but it’s not good at releasing fat.
The solution comes when you change your food choices.
Transcript
Becky:
“Hi, I’m Dr. Becky.
I’m a college instructor of the science of nutrition.”
Keith:
“I’m Dr. Keith.
I’m a chiropractor in private practice for the past 26 years.
You are watching 2 Fit Doc’s, where I’m getting fit, live in front of the camera, so we can show you how we approach weight loss in a scientifically sound way.”
Becky:
“So, you had a good week last week.
Not only weight-wise but also how you felt.”
Keith:
“Yeah, I felt like there was a change in my body this past week.
It was like my body just became more efficient at burning fat.
My weight is down two pounds from last week.”
Becky:
“So, if we had to sum up what you’ve been doing, we could say that your diet is high in fiber, high in fat, moderate in protein, and low in carbs.
We’re doing that because we want to keep your blood sugar and your insulin level in check.”
Keith:
“Yes, insulin is a fat-storing hormone.
It’s the hormone that clears sugar out of the blood.
So, if there’s too much sugar, insulin stores it in our fat cells as fat.
My blood sugar insulin levels were too high because my body was insulin resistant.”
Becky:
“Right.
So, your body always had this blood sugar supply available, and therefore it was always producing insulin.
Your body was very good at storing fat but had no time to burn fat.
This is what happens in a lot of people who have trouble losing weight.
They keep eating carbs, which even if they are whole carbs, turn into sugar inside the body.
So they have a constant supply of sugar to burn, which is easy energy for the body.
However, because that energy source is there, there is no need for the body to go through the trouble of taking fat out of storage and converting it into energy.
So explain how we figured this all out for you.”
Keith:
“Well, I started with the 0,1,2,3 strategy, which increased my fiber intake. That worked well for me.
All be it, a little slower than I would have liked.
After digging into my own health status, I found that I was solidly in the classification of metabolic syndrome.
I had rising blood pressure, a large waist measurement, high triglyceride [levels], and it is a fair bet that I was at least pre-diabetic, if not already a type-2 Diabetic.”
Becky:
“Right, so those are the things that made it very hard for your body to release fat.”
Keith:
“So I did some research, and it showed great promise in reversing the components of metabolic syndrome.
I found that I could keep following the 0,1,2, 3 strategy, and then make a few additions and subtractions here and there to give my weight loss a boost.”
Becky:
“So what exactly did you do?”
Keith:
“Well, I had a large amount of fat, sometimes up to 80% of my daily caloric intake, and I cut my intake of carbohydrates drastically.”
Becky:
“Right, so explain some of the research that’s available when we look at this type of eating pattern.”
Keith:
“Okay, so studies have shown that although weight loss is achievable on both the lower-fat diet and the lower-carbohydrate diet, the amount of weight loss is typically much greater on a low-carb diet.
One of the main factors when predicting weight loss success is the degree of insulin sensitivity in the subject of these studies.
It is estimated that 60% to 75% of the population may be insulin resistant.
This means that they are not sensitive to the effects of insulin to any real degree.
These people are diabetic, or on their way to diabetes.”
Becky:
“Right, since these people don’t respond to insulin in the normal manner, handling carbohydrates puts a lot of stress on their bodies.”
Keith:
“Restricting carbohydrates allows their bodies to function more efficiently.
Without getting too deep into the science, I think one of my lightbulb moments was when I read that the human body has no essential need for carbohydrates.
In fact, carbohydrates are the only macronutrient that is not essential to human life.”
Becky:
“Explain what you mean by essential.”
Keith:
“Okay, So I mean we don’t need to eat carbohydrates to survive.
Which I know sounds bizarre because we all think of athletes’ carb-loading for energy, and carbs do provide a quick energy source.
However, if there are no carbs available then the body will turn to fat for energy.
There’s a lot more fat available than sugar.”
Becky:
“Right, so I remember you mentioning to me that there was something like 2,000 calories of sugar or glycogen stored in our body, but there were 100,000 calories stored in fat.”
Keith:
“Right, there is a lot of energy stored in fat and that 100,000 calories are just fat calories in a lean person.”
Becky:
“So your average person has a lot more energy stored on their body than in the lean person.”
Keith:
“Right, so if we can convert our bodies from the sugar burning metabolism to a fat-burning metabolism, then we will burn fat quickly and overcome weight-loss resistance.
You make that switch by eating more fat and fiber and fewer carbs.”
Becky:
“So, that doesn’t mean that you only eat meat and you don’t eat any vegetables or plant foods?”
Keith:
“Not at all.
Non-starchy vegetables and nuts and seeds are all vital parts of my dietary plan.
In fact, the ‘1’ and ‘2’ of the 0,1,2,3 strategy stands for one large salad and two cups cooked vegetables every day.
I think it’s important to note that not everyone needs to follow a diet like mine.
If you are insulin sensitive, you may feel better with a lower to moderate-fat diet.”
Becky:
“Right, and I think that’s a really good point.
To overcome your weight loss resistance, we had to refigure things and come at it from an approach that was right for you.
So we’ve talked a lot about the 0,1,2,3 strategy and diet tweaks in this video.
If you want to learn the 0,1,2,3 strategy and see the foods that we added and subtracted from Keith’s diet to accelerate his weight loss, we put together a starter kit which you can download here.”
About the Authors
Dr. Becky Gillaspy, DC graduated Summa Cum Laude with research honors from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1991.
Dr. Keith Gillaspy, DC, CFMP grew up in central Nebraska and earned his Doctor of Chiropractic in 1991 from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa.