You will not gain weight from eating too few calories.

There are many reasons why it can seem like under-eating can lead to weight gain. But, science has shown over and over again that this isn’t physiologically possible. 

So, what’s happening with all the low-calorie diets that don’t seem to ever lead to more weight loss, and, too often, cause weight gain?  

There are 3 primary reasons that create diet deception. But, first, it’s important how dieting sets up you to eat more than you think. 

The Hardest Part of Dieting

One of the hardest parts of dieting is that as you lose weight your body makes it easier to gain back. That’s because hormone levels change (particularly leptin), and that manipulates your hunger. The more you lose, the hungrier you become.

This matters because hunger can work in subtle ways. And, when your brain is pushing you to eat a little more here and there (especially if you’re exercising and rationalizing the ability to eat a few extra calories), it’s very easy to eat more than you think (more on this in a moment).

And, this becomes even more complicated when you consider that your body likely has a “set point.” This weight where your body likes to settle, and changing out of that set point is difficult when your body will almost force you to try and stick at that weight.

When you combine these two factors (your brain wanting more food and your body wanting to stick at a certain weight), weight loss quickly becomes a frustrating process for most people.

Once your frustration kicks in, you might even try to fight your body and win the war on weight loss by reducing calories again to make the scale drop.

And what happens? The scale doesn’t move or you appear to be gaining weight.

It’s enough to make you feel like your body must be broken. Or, maybe you wonder if it’s gluten…or dairy…or artificial sweeteners that are making you fat. So, you start restricting foods left and right, only to become more miserable. 

While your frustration is real, rest assured your body is not broken, and artificial sweeteners or dairy are likely not the problems. 

3 Reasons You Gain Weight (When You Least Expect It)

In our experience with online coaching clients, we’ve seen everything. And, when it comes to weight loss, there are three common reasons you might continue to struggle with weight loss, even if it seems like you’re doing everything right. 

All of the reasons, ultimately, are linked to how much you’re eating. While all calories are not equal, calories-in and calories-out (also known as energy balance) is still the main mechanism that determines weight loss and gains.

As we already mentioned, you can’t under-eat your way to weight gain. But, you can appear to be under-eating and still gaining weight.

To make your life easier, we want to make sure you can easily identify all of the sneaky ways you can be tricked into following a diet that only leads to added frustration and a scale that won’t move.

Foods With Hidden Calories

Whether you’re a dieting pro or don’t know the difference between a carbohydrate and protein, hidden calories suck and they are everywhere.

A perfect example is the oils you add to cooking and salads. Most of us don’t realize just how small a tablespoon really is, and how something so simple can add hundreds or thousands of “stealthy” calories to your diet.

It’s frustratingly simple for hidden calories to pile up quickly day-over-day, and week-over-week, and that’s all it takes to keep you on a plateau or even gain weight, despite your best efforts. 

Rather than worrying about counting calories, it’s important to easily recognize where most hidden calories are typically found. 

See the graphic below, so you can think twice when you eat. What makes all of these hidden-calorie foods so difficult is that they are calorically dense. That means, even if they are healthy for you (which several of them are), just a small serving packs a big punch of calories, which is why it’s so simple to eat much more than you thought. 

The 2,000-Calorie Diet Deception

Because very few of us spend our time measuring and weighing food (and rightfully so), it can be shocking to learn just how much we underestimate the number of calories we consume a day.

Research backs this frustration reality. On average, people will underestimate their caloric intake by 30 percent, and sometimes they can estimate by as much as 45 percent. That makes a big difference.

And, to be fair, a lot of people will make it seem like this is an education issue, but even pros can’t tell how much food is in a meal.

I’ve had the same issue. And, it can be minor things. Like how my “1 spoonful” of Justin’s Maple Almond Nut Butter is closer to eating half a jar. You might not keep track, but your body does.

What to do? You certainly don’t need to count calories, but a helpful (and ey-opening) exercise is to track what you eat for 2 or 3 days. 

Much like tracking how much money you spend in a week can show you were you can save more, understanding calories can show you how 1 or 2 small tweaks can create awareness that makes it much easier for you to adjust your diet without going into complete restriction. 

Case in point: many people think that you need to completely cut out dessert or other treats. But, that type of approach usually leads to you breaking your plan. 

Instead, if you think of it like a leaky bucket approach and you plug the minor leaks, you can have more freedom…and a lot more results, too. 

Calories-In, Calories-Out Is Confusing 

We mentioned that calories are still the main factor, but that doesn’t mean you need to count them. It also doesn’t mean that “calories in” or “calories out” is simple for you to understand. So, let’s change that. 

When we talk about “calories-in” and “calories-out”, it’s more than just what you’re eating or your exercise

All of the following factors can influence the  equation:

• the composition of your meals (protein, carbs, fats), which has an impact on your metabolism
• your body type
• the percentage of muscle or body fat on your body
• your hormones
• your genetics
• your environment
• how you slept last night]
• your levels of stress

Let’s just take one small example. When you eat a meal, each type of food (proteins, carbs, and fats) hasve a different “thermic effect of food” or TEF. This is the rate at which your body metabolizes a meal. Or, in other words, it’s how many additional calories you’ll burn when you eat a specific food.

Protein has the highest TEF, which ranges from 25 to 35 percent.

Comparatively, carbs are only 6 to 8 percent, and fats are the least metabolically active with a TEF of about 3-5 percent.  

That means if two people each eat a 500-calorie meal, but one person has more protein and the other person has more fat, the “calories-in” model will look different for each individual, even if they are having the exact same number of calories.

All of which is to say, many factors matter in determining how your body stores (and burns) calories. So, when frustration kicks in, don’t give up on yourself, don’t try to be perfect, and remember that there’s no use in trying to outsmart the system. 

It’s not that we’re lying (though we can sometimes deceive ourselves, and others, about our intake). More than anything, it’s that we struggle to estimate portion sizes and calorie counts.

This is especially difficult today when plates and portions are bigger than ever. And energy-dense, incredible tasting, and highly brain-rewarding “foods” are ubiquitous, cheap, and socially encouraged.

Instead, search for a diet you think you can follow. And when you start following it, add checks and balances to keep you accountable, and support to remove the need for “perfection.” And then other systems that ensure you won’t be overeating without your own knowledge.

If you need help with finding the right diet, or someone to help you with those checks and balances, our online coaching program may be right for you. Every client is assigned two coaches — one for nutrition and one for fitness. Find out more here. 

Have questions? Share them in the comments below.

READ MORE: 

Should I Cut Out Alcohol To Get Rid Of Fat?

Why Am I Hungry All The Time?

The Beginner’s Guide To Fat Loss

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Can You Gain Weight From Eating Too Little? appeared first on Born Fitness.

“Too much of a good thing isn’t good for you” may be a cliché, but, in many situations, it can be accurate advice.

Perform the same workout over and over again, like running? That’s a recipe for developing imbalances, injury, or forcing your body into a plateau. Do too many hard workouts in a row? Welcome to burnout city.

The American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology says there is “no relationship” to consuming a large quantity of a food and developing an allergy.

But what about eating too much of one thing? Can that repetitive behavior cause food allergies that trigger symptoms such as bloating, gas, diarrhea, and other more problems with names that make people squirm? 

Hang out in enough forums or read social media conversations, and you’ll undoubtedly hear someone claim: “I ate eggs every day and they made me fat.” Or:  “I used to drink a whey protein shake after every workout, but now I have food allergies and can’t drink any protein.”

You glance at the frothy chocolate post-workout mix in your hand and think ominously, can I give myself food allergies?  

Can You Eat Your Way to Food Allergies? (No, and here’s why)

Adult-onset food allergies are rare. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

When they do occur, it happens within a specific subset of the population, says allergist and clinical immunologist Dr. Matthew Bodish. “Most adult-onset food allergy comes on in our 30s, especially in women and those with underlying allergic diseases, like nasal allergies and asthma.”

Bowdish adds that, “While we hear occasionally of this in the clinic, I don’t see much evidence in the literature about eating a lot of one specific food causing adult-onset food allergy.”

The American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology goes a step further, stating there is “no relationship” to consuming a large quantity of a food and developing an allergy.

Unfortunately, allergists aren’t exactly sure why adults develop food allergies, but research is ongoing and nothing is pointing to your repetitive meal plan behavior. It’s a frustrating reality when you have stomach issues and don’t know why. Naturally, you try to find a cause-and-effect relationship in the absence of other evidence. You eat the same thing, your stomach now hurts, so it must be the food!

The reality is, scientists have some good suspects but need more time to figure out the answer. “It’s possible that a factor such as a change of environment, viral infection or alteration of the large population of gut bacteria called the microbiome may contribute,” Bowdish says.

Now, that’ not to say food allergies don’t exist. They do, and, if you suffer from them, you’re probably aware of the frustrating symptoms.

Those symptoms hit quickly, often within minutes. So if you were to truly have a food allergy, you would know about it almost right away. The reaction could be severe, even deadly. Which is why, if you truly suspect that you have a food allergy or experience anything like what Bowdish describes, you need to see an allergist for a true diagnosis.

But even if you discover that you have an allergy, it’s not because of you ate your way to a problem. What’s more important is understand why your stomach might be sensitive to certain foods, and what you should do about it.

Why Some Foods Really Do Cause Problems

Ok, so you’re not allergic. But eggs — which never seemed to cause problems — suddenly seem to send you straight to the nearest restroom. What gives?

It’s possible that you have a food intolerance or sensitivity (the terms are interchangeable). In fact, according to a 2015 review of studies published in Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, between 15-20 percent of the population suffers from some sort of food intolerance. Here’s where things get complicated.

The symptoms most often associated with a food intolerance are cramping, gas, bloating and diarrhea. But there’s a lot about intolerances that we still don’t know.

Some intolerances, like lactose intolerance, scientists clearly understand. But the debate continues on what exactly causes things like non-celiac gluten sensitivity, which was only recently recognized as a condition by the scientific community.

There’s an entire category of food intolerances called “idiosyncratic” intolerances, meaning we know they happen, but we don’t necessarily know why.  

But even with idiosyncratic intolerances, excessive exposure to a single food over time isn’t the cause, according to Razvan Arsenescu, the chief of the Atlantic Digestive Health Institute in Morristown, New Jersey. He says there just isn’t good research that shows a correlation between eating something regularly and becoming more sensitive to it over time.

Instead, Arsenescu thinks there may be other factors to consider. For example, if you suddenly start eating a dozen eggs a day in an attempt to move to a ketogenic diet, your gut may be rebelling because of the much higher fat load that diet carries.

Or, returning to the protein powder example, it’s possible that it’s something else in the protein powder mix causing the problem–like lactose or xylitol, a fake sugar that many people struggle to break down.

Arsenescu adds, “If you have an infection or inflammation of the GI tract, then many food items will cause symptoms.” So the problem isn’t the food itself — it’s a breakdown in how you process or digest foods you eat, with certain foods more likely to trigger a reaction.

That’s where fixing the symptoms becomes tricky. If you have a food intolerance (note: not food allergies), then removing the food and keeping it out of your diet might do the trick (more on this in a moment). But, if you have a bigger picture issue — like gut inflammation — removing foods that aren’t necessarily the issue might not be enough.

If you feel better without certain foods –whether eggs, or whey, or grains –that’s a personal choice. Do what works for you. But don’t assume that will put an end to your discomfort. Other foods — one’s you love and feel you can’t live without — might also cause issues, and removing all foods isn’t a long-term solution.

The good news is that if you fix the problem (such as reducing inflammation), you should be able to go back to consuming foods that became a problem. So what feels like a frittata-induced flare up may end up being nothing once you get your gut health back on track. That said, beware that some intolerances—like lactose intolerance—are with you for life.  

The Missing Piece: What About FODMAPs?

Having a food intolerance shouldn’t freak you out. There are plenty of options to help you feel great and eat most (if not all) the foods you love. And here’s why: the pharmacology of certain foods, meaning its chemical makeup, is most likely to blame for your troubles.

Take coffee, for example. Some people can drink gallons with no issue, while one cup will send others sprinting for the bathroom. Is it a built up tolerance for years of drinking coffee? Maybe a little, but more likely your body is not chemically matched to handle the combination of salicylates (a naturally occurring chemical that often functions as natural pest deterrent) and caffeine.

This might help you understand the buzz about FODMAPS, which have been increasing linked with food intolerances and sensitivities. FODMPAS stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols, a naturally set of components in the foods you eat.

“The problem is that bacteria like to eat these things, and that can cause gas,” explains Danielle Flug Capalino, RD, and author of Healthy Gut, Flat Stomach. “In other cases, these foods tend to sit in the gut for a long time and water is drawn into the gut via osmosis and that causes diarrhea.”

Researchers studying irritable bowel syndrome have found that eliminating FODMAPS is a reliable way to soothe GI distress. Any gastroenterologist or registered dietitian familiar with the low-FODMAP diet should be able to walk you through the basic eliminations.

At first, the cuts may seem severe (onions, garlic, and many veggies and fruits are on the list), but Capalino explains that after a few weeks, you can reintroduce one food at a time. If you have a reaction, you’ll know which food you struggle to digest.

The bottom line is that you shouldn’t be afraid to consume your favorite healthy foods on the regular. However, Capalino, as a dietician, is obligated to point out that having variation in your diet is important too since no single food can provide all the nutrients you need.  

To get you started, here is a list of foods that you might want to consider removing if you have stomach discomfort.

• Oligosaccharides: barley, chicory, garlic, legumes, lentils, onion, wheat, rye
• Disaccharides: Dairy products containing lactose, such as ice cream, milk, or yogurt
• Monosaccharides: Apples, mango, pears, watermelon
• Polyols: Apricots, cauliflower, plums, and many artificial sweeteners (Maltitol, Mannitol, Sorbitol, Xylitol)

Split the foods up into groups of 3-5 foods, so that you don’t tackle too many foods at once (this is more likely to lead to failure). After 3 weeks of withdrawal. Add one food back in at a time for 3-4 days. See if you have a reaction. If not, that food isn’t the issue, and you can continue building your diet back with freedom and comfort.

READ MORE: 

Do Carbs Actually Make You Fat?

Winning the War on Hunger: Practical Solutions to Overeating

Wheat Belly Deception: Understanding Wheat, Insulin, and Fat Loss

The post Eating the Same Thing Every Day Does Not Cause Food Allergies appeared first on Born Fitness.

While there are many (many) bad diets that can easily be blamed for why you gain weight, most diets are designed to work. We know this because people lose weight and can keep it off. So what, then, causes the big divide between those that keep pounds off and those that gain them back?

The answer is something known as “set point theory,” which probably means nothing to you. But if you’ve ever found that you gain weight when you diet, it’s likely the missing piece of the puzzle that can change everything.

If more people understood that plateau is a part of weight loss, then they wouldn’t quit prematurely.

Long-Term Weight Loss Is Real (But You’ve Been Fooled)

I’ve been journaling–somewhat consistently–since second grade. While unpacking boxes after a recent move, I found an entry from 1991 (I was 9) that read: “I don’t have to always fit into big pants.”

I was that guy. The chubby guy who needed his pants tailored for his Bar Mitzvah because they didn’t make suits for young men with a waist so big and height so… restricted. 

If my story sounds cliche, well, it is. But it’s not too good to be true. The part missing from the fast-forwarded version is that I struggled with weight loss (and the dreaded weight loss plateau) and body image for years. I’d go as far as telling people I was allergic to chlorine to keep my T-shirt on in the pool. (I’ll never understand how I thought this explanation would work. It’s not like the shirt protected my skin from the water, but I digress… )

My ultimate success was a byproduct of many (many) failures and learning how to overcome times of despair and lost hope. I shifted away from gimmick diets and “four-week plans” and focused on blocking out my negative thoughts and becoming happier with who I was. Then I could finally focus on the other part of the weight-loss battle: building a realistic plan for my body.

It’s the same approach I’ve used to coach hundreds of overweight people to better health and fitness and more happiness. But it all starts with believing a simple truth that is starting to feel more like myth than reality: You can transform your body. Most people just do it the wrong way. Too fast. Too impatient. Too generalized. And too unrealistic.

I’ve worked with clients who have lost 100 to 200 pounds.  And most of the time, these successes happen over the course of months (or even years), not five episodes on a television show. At least, that’s the case for those who successfully keep the weight off.

This is an especially important point because some research (and recent media coverage) suggests that long-term weight loss is hopeless.  While many people do, in fact, gain weight they previously lost, it’s not because dropping fat is “mission impossible.”

Instead, it starts with changing your definition of “success,” setting aside instant gratification, and understanding how weight loss actually works. When that happens, everything changes and anyone can build a plan that ensures they’re not another sad statistic.

Why do you really gain weight?

First, some bad news: All nutritional approaches or diet plans stop “working” at some point. Weight loss stops. You don’t see changes, and you believe that either you or the plan are no longer functioning. The good news: When it appears to stop working, it’s actually still working.

Confused? Stay with me and it’ll make more sense.

We know that as you lose weight, your metabolism tends to slow down–although it’s not absolute. (This research reviewed 71 studies and didn’t find a significant drop in metabolism.) We also know that if you’re patient about (focus on losing one to two pounds per week at most), then you’re more likely to keep it off for good. But most people quit before significant weight loss occurs. It usually looks something like this:

Step 1: You lose weight (sometimes, a lot, and very fast)

Step 2: You stop losing weight

Step 3: You’re still not seeing any changes.

Step 4: Weight gain.

Step 5: You’re pissed off, frustrated, and quit.

This process usually happens in less than 6 weeks. If you believe some studies, the average person diets for an average of 6 weeks — followed by 14 weeks “off” a diet. That’s not a good balance of results.

The thing is — and what no one tells you — steps two and three (stalled progress/plateau) are often an important part of the weight-loss process.

Dropping one to two pounds per week is considered healthy, but it’s also the average. That means you might lose four pounds one week and zero the next. On those weeks when the scale doesn’t change, it’s not necessarily a sign that your body has reached its weight-loss limit.

To put it another way, your plateau is a  necessary part of the process. You must stall in order to move forward (again). And when you understand why–or, more importantly, accept this reality–it changes everything.

The Only Real Weight Loss Secret

Your body does not like change. I don’t care who you are; it’s very resistant to anything that takes it out of its comfort zone (a.k.a. homeostasis). When that change occurs–specifically when you try to lose weight–your body does everything in its power to adjust and get you “back to normal.” This is a process known as set point theory.

If you ask me, set point theory is the reason why so many people fail on long-term weight-loss goals. If more people understood that plateau is an expected and natural part of the process, then they wouldn’t quit prematurely. Sometimes the scale isn’t moving simply because your body is adjusting to change.

Here’s how it works:

We all have a “normal” body weight. Whether we like that weight or not is a different story, but this is the weight that we’ve come to “accept” as our own. We also have a look we desire, whether it’s your college weight, your pre-baby body, or where you were that one time you got super fit a few years ago.

Your mind wants to achieve your goals, but your body wants to cling to what’s familiar. So when you try to change, physiological reactions occur to suck you back into the body you’ve known for so long.

The more weight you lose, the harder your body works to resist that change, or even pull you back to your old weight. It does this by slowing your metabolism (comparatively) and increasing your hunger. Sucks, right?

Just wait, it’s not all doom and gloom. If you can hang in and resist the urge to quit, these changes are temporary and can help ease the permanence of your weight loss.

Set points are not carved in stone. It’s more like frozen in carbonite, a la Han Solo. You can undo the process by changing your body and allowing your body to adjust. This is why plateaus can be so deceiving. Your body is adapting to its new reality. Once it does, that’s when you’re ready to take the next jump and see a “whoosh” of new weight loss.

Everyone’s set point is a little different, so there’s not one rule for how long you have to wait. The more weight you have to lose (say, more than 50 pounds), the quicker it can happen initially without hitting your set point. If you want to lose closer to 15 or 20 pounds, you might hit a wall after the first 10.

This is why you’ve seen so many magazine cover lines about “How to Lose the Last 10 Lbs.” Those should really say, “How to Be Patient After You Lose the First 10 Lbs.” But that doesn’t sound as sexy.

Once you hit your set point, your body likely needs anywhere from four to eight weeks to adjust to your new weight. Then you’ll establish a new set point, and your body will respond like that’s your new normal.

It doesn’t sound that exciting, but it’s better than you think.

If you go from 200 to 180 pounds or 150 to 130 pounds and wait out the set point process, your body’s drive to move back to the old weight has changed. It becomes much easier to stay at your current weight because your body no longer thinks it’s outside its comfort zone–and you’re able to start losing weight again. On the flip side, it becomes much harder to gain weight, as well.

The result: you don’t feel like you’re constantly following a pain-in-the-ass plan. That’s why long-term fat-loss never occurs in 30 days or anything magical. It’s a process.

Finding the right eating approach is about seeing the long-game. Almost any plan can deliver the quick results. Ignore those. Instead, focus on what you think you can do for six to 12 months. When you do, you won’t be as frustrated when you hit the set point. Instead, you’ll be buying time–not buying a new approach (literally)–until the weight loss starts again.

READ MORE: 

Winning the War on Hunger: Practical Solutions to Overeating

Fix Your Diet: Understanding Proteins, Carbs and Fats

Big Meals vs. Small Snacks: What’s Best For You?

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Why You Gain Weight on Diets (And The Simple Fix) appeared first on Born Fitness.

By Dr. Mike Israetel, Professor of Exercise Science at Temple University

Editor’s note: This article is about drawing the line in the search for honest reporting on weight gain, fat loss, and the growing concern about “belly fat.” It was originally scheduled to be published on a mainstream media site. But one editorial request for clarity turned into another for additional research, turned into a game with one agenda: no desire to post an article that clearly opposes a vested interest in a popular book.At Born Fitness, we have one agenda: look at information objectively, translate information, and help you figure out how to apply it to your life. This post is an honest, balanced review on popular diet methods, or as most people think of it: how to lose belly fat. That’s why we worked with Dr. Mike Israetel, a professor of exercise science at Temple University, to review what science really reveals about weight loss, and challenges a popular opinion on weight gain. Whether you agree or disagree with the ideas and research shared, it’s important that open discussion is not censored. -AB

Most studies simply do not demonstrate a detectable effect of the glycemic index on weight gain or loss.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Harvard nutrition professor Dr. David Ludwig previewed some of the basics of his new book, Always Hungry, which proposes a solution to the problems of obesity that plague much of the western world today.

While many of his ideas seem rational and justified, too much of his thinking seems to run counter to the best current understandings of most other experts in the field of nutrition, health, and obesity. Here’s an inside look at Ludwig’s claims based on his New York Times article, and what we know about weight gain and fat loss. 

The Glycemic Index and Weight Loss: The Broken Model

The claim: “In his new book, “Always Hungry?” Ludwig argues that the primary driver of obesity today is not an excess of calories per se, but an excess of high glycemic foods like sugar, refined grains, and other processed carbohydrates.”

Behind the Science: There are several problematic elements with the claim that high glycemic index (GI) foods are mostly to blame for current obesity rates. The most straightforward are that multiple peer-reviewed research trials on the effects of low vs. high glycemic index foods on weight loss have shown that results are similar.

While some studies show that high GI foods affect weight loss negatively and might help cause weight gain, most of the studies show no such effects. That’s right, most studies simply do not demonstrate a detectable effect of the glycemic index on weight gain or loss.

Even if we assume that high GI foods are a big part of the problem, this leaves most of our worst criminals on the streets, so to speak. Cookies, ice cream, pizza, burgers, shakes, potato chips and candy bars are almost all low GI foods. How can this be with all that sugar and those processed carbs they are loaded with?

You see, the presence of fat lowers the glycemic index of any food. The more fat, the lower the GI, even if there’s lots of sugar too.

That’s why brown rice has a GI of about 50 (out of 100), but premium ice cream can have a GI under 40. Are we really ready to claim that brown rice is worse for obesity than ice cream? If we accept one of the central concepts of the “insulin hypothesis” as undeniable, then we have to apply the principle equally for all foods, meaning ice cream is good for weight loss.

The truth is, the relationship between insulin, the glycemic index, and obesity is complicated, but also overstated. Without an excess of calories, all the high-GI food in the world won’t make you fat.

That’s not to say insulin isn’t a contributing factor to weight loss and weight gain. The study of obesity has made it very clear that it’s a complex disease.

There might be a small role for insulin to play in contributing obesity, but something being a small contributor is not nearly the same thing as it being the primary cause. It’s much more likely that tasty, high-calorie foods, such as ice cream, are just much easier to overeat than unprocessed or naturally sweetened foods, and that’s a primary reason why diets high in junk food cause weight gain

Metabolism and Calories-In, Calories-Out

The claim: “Simply cutting back on calories as we’ve been told actually makes the situation worse. Our body responds by increasing hunger and slowing metabolism.”

Behind the Science: It’s absolutely true that cutting back on calories slows your metabolism and can increase hunger. But slow (1% weight loss per week) and steady reductions in eating, combined with increases in activity and exercise have a very small effect on increasing hunger and slowing the metabolism.

In fact, consider the following scenario to help understand weight loss, and how food selection is not the only way to create change.

Let’s say you take someone who is 250 pounds and have them lose 10 percent of their weight and then completely take a break for their fat loss plan. In this scenario, the person would now be 225 pounds after a few months on a plan.

After the break, the subject’s metabolism would speed back up to its normal levels for their current body weight and hunger cravings would return to normal.

This re-setting of the body weight set point is something Ludwig discusses, but it can be done with planned weight loss breaks, and not just with glycemic index reduction and special food selection. None of this is very controversial in the study of obesity.

The big question is: how do we keep people at that new weight or perhaps even get them lower?

Research has shown that after people leave weight loss studies and are no longer monitored or told what to eat, most (in many cases exceeding 90%) will return to their previous weights over time, and many will go up even higher.

And here’s maybe the most important consideration: this happens with essentially every single kind of diet that’s ever been studied, and low glycemic “natural foods” diets are no exception.

Left to their own devices, most obese people will get right back to making the kinds of choices that lead to weight regain.

The big question in obesity research is not how to lose weight…that we know. It’s how to keep it off in the real world, even without special metabolic slowdowns or hunger cravings to account for.

Blood Sugar and Weight Gain

The claim: “We think of obesity as a state of excess, but it’s really more akin to a state of starvation. If the fat cells are storing too many calories, the brain doesn’t have access to enough to make sure that metabolism runs properly.”

Behind the Science: Overweight and obese people have higher, not lower levels of blood sugar and higher, not lower levels of blood lipids, even when they’re fasting. To say that the brain is lacking in nutrients in those with higher body fat levels is not simply to make a misstatement or an exaggeration, but it’s the exact opposite of the truth.

The Yo-Yo: Fat Loss and Weight Gain

The Claim: “Put biology on your side by eating the right way, and weight loss will occur naturally as a fever would break if you treat the underlying cause of the fever.”

Behind the Science: Within this statement is a claim. The claim is that if you do things the right way, you’ll lose weight easily and effectively, and your life will change for the better.

The problem is that while it’s true for the kind of diet Ludwig supports, but it’s also true for almost every other kind of diet ever tested. So long as the diet reduces daily calorie intake, weight loss occurs.

The big problem is that such weight loss, again, from nearly all diet types, doesn’t seem to be very sustainable in the real world by real people over the course of months and years after the weight loss has occurred. There is no evidence to suggest that Ludwig’s proposed low GI whole foods diet does any better of a job retaining losses in the long-term than most any other diet that’s been studied, including low-fat, low-carb, low-sugar, or the “you-name-it” diet.

The Best Diet: Belly Fat, Low-Carb, and Low-Fat

The Claim The underlying cause of obesity is not obesity…“It’s the low fat, very high carbohydrate diet we’ve been eating for the last 40 years, which raises levels of the hormone insulin and programs fat cells to go into calorie storage overdrive.”

Behind the Science: There is a very big problem with this statement. The problem is that Americans have not been consuming a low-fat, very high-carbohydrate diet for the last 40 years.

Average levels of fat intake have been about the same over that time for the average American, it’s just that carb intake went up so much more.

Yes, various national governing bodies on nutrition and health have advised Americans to eat less fat and more grains over this time frame. But it seems Americans only heard part of that message and just added the carbs but never reduced the fats!

To say that Americans eat a low fat diet is simply not true by any definition of what “low fat” really means. What Americans have been doing is eating many more calories, and that’s a sure way to gain weight no matter where those calories come from.

Another potentially erroneous conclusion that could be drawn from this statement is that low fat, higher carbohydrate diets have been reliably shown to lead to weight gain as opposed to higher fat, lower carbohydrate diets. This is not remotely the case.

Vegans and vegetarians, for example, consume far higher amounts of carbohydrates and far lower amounts of fat than omnivores, yet are on average much less likely to be overweight or obese. It’s just not true that those who eat more carbs and fewer fats are fatter people… though those who eat more calories are, no matter how they get them in.

Upgrading Your Diet

Dr. Ludwig’s views are not totally at odds with the current status of the scientific literature. In fact, his approach has quite a few potentially healthy and effective elements.

High-glycemic foods might have some role in keeping hunger levels higher for the same calories as low glycemic foods. However, high GI foods are not always low in satiation power and vice versa.

There is an independent and more useful measure of a food’s direct effect on hunger, called the Satiety Index, and it doesn’t always mesh with the glycemic index. For example, white potatoes are very high on the GI-ranking but are one of the most satiating carb sources.

Whole foods tend to have much higher levels of vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and fiber than processed foods, making them healthier choices regardless of your body weight. They are also usually much more satiating for the same amount of calories, so over-eating is going to be more difficult.

Think about it: How many potato chips can you eat? What about slices of fresh apples? How many people have eaten enough potato chips to gain unwanted weight? What about slices of apples?

By eating highly nutrient dense foods that have more powerful effects on making you full and keeping you full, you stand a higher chance of losing weight and keeping it off. Fundamentally, the basic causes of the modern obesity epidemic are:

• The increased mechanization of the workforce, leading to less physical activity at work for most people, and thus fewer calories burned per day on average
• The increased wealth of the average person, especially in relationship to food costs. Today, even some of the poorest Americans can afford enough calories to gain weight, and this was not always the case historically.
• The improved taste and availability of food. Packaged, processed, ready-made and fast foods bring tons of tasty food to your mouth quick. Historically, if you wanted tasty food, you had to make it (which took time and effort) or wait for someone to make it (which took either time, lots of money, or both). More and more over the past several decades, tasty food has become cheaper and more easily accessible. Eating tasty foods is easier than ever.

Less activity to burn calories, more affordable food to buy and the food is more convenient and designed to be tastier than ever. Is it any surprise we have more people searching for “how to lose belly fat” and struggling for a solution to the obesity epidemic?

Delicious food has been shown to cause more cravings for delicious food, as this detailed research describes. The problem with short-term weight loss is that most people will go back to making the same choices for tasty foods that they were making before they followed a weight loss diet. These choices will lead to more eating, and calorie intakes go up once again to previous levels.

In order to put a real dent in the obesity epidemic, controlling cravings may be a powerful weapon. But in his proposed solution, Dr. Ludwig demonizes and targets a false enemy in glycemic carbohydrates. Yes, limiting them might be a part of the way forward, but rhetoric suggesting that calories don’t matter for weight loss doesn’t serve any beneficial purpose.

Ultimately, (barring a pharmaceutical cure) successfully countering weight gain and obesity and is a combination of many nutrition and behavioral principles that keep the fundamentals (like calorie balance) in mind. Catch-phrase demonization of a single nutrient and a magic-bullet cure is unlikely to ever be the solution, and–in fact–more likely to create more problems and confusion about how to fight obesity.

READ MORE: 

Big Meals vs. Small Snacks: What’s Best For You?

Faster Fat Loss: How to Add Workout Finishers

How Many Eggs are Safe to Eat?

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Challenging the Belly Fat Hypothesis appeared first on Born Fitness.

Weight Loss Research on Glycemic Index

Almost no difference in outcomes for 36 weeks of low-glycemic load diet in obese

No difference on health outcomes of high or low GI diet over 5 weeks

Relationship of GI to markers of health unclear

No differences in outcomes between low and high GI diets over 10 weeks (including satiety)

Review indicating some benefit in weight loss for low glycemic diets

2013 review indicating no anthropometric (fat loss included) differences between high and low glycemic index and load diets (This is the biggest nail in the coffin right here, as it’s a comprehensive review and is recent)

Weight Loss Research On Food Reward

Overall review of the food reward hypothesis

Additional research here

Increased Hunger and Slowed Metabolism

Extreme levels of overeating when high palatability food is presented

Energy restriction (for a whole year) shows only small (yet significant) declines in metabolic rate

Weight Loss Research and Metabolic Changes

MASSIVE weight loss rates (18kg in only 12 weeks) resulted in 67% of the weight loss predicted from NO metabolic adaptations. Thus, the idea that a slowed metabolism could account for a stoppage of weight loss is not in evidence. Furthermore, not all of the difference is explained by metabolic rate slowdown, further weakening its explanatory role in preventing weight loss

Metabolic changes only account for 120 calories–on average–of difference in metabolism during dieting, on average

Study showing 230 calories lower metabolism for a diet of 700 calories lower than maintenance levels (obviously not enough to stall weightloss)

The Yo-Yo Effect: Weight Regain

Weight regain occurs often, strategies to help it unclear

Review of behavioral interventions on weight regain show only small benefits

Weight regain for most diets highly common, solutions unclear

Weight Loss and Blood Sugar

Obese people have HIGHER blood glucose levels and HIGHER blood fat levels, not lower

Low-Carb Diets vs. Low-Fat Diets vs. Calorie Intake

Both low-fat and lowcarb nutrition plans work, no clear winner in this study either

Possible slight edge to low-carb, but results largely equivocal

No meaningful difference in weight loss of low-fat and low-carb

In controlled settings, most popular diets work about the same if they restrict energy to the same extent

The Science of Obesity

Fat went down only a small amount over time, carbs and calories up by a bunch

Percent of energy from fat decreased by only 3% from 1971-2006, but obesity went up 20%

Vegetarians and vegans take in much more carbohydrate, but are less overweigh than omnivores

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Weight Loss Research appeared first on Born Fitness.