"The Men Who Made Us Fat" and Leptin

HappilyLifts

I am starting a food plan today (scary since I've not done this since high school, and when I lost the bulk of my weight it was sheerly by making right choices, not being guided through each step.

That being said, it is a mainly Paleo diet that includes a very high % of good fats... It is designed to reset the body's leptin and insulin sensitivity to help regulate my hormones. I never thought I would get to a point where I thought this would be important; and now I can't imagine NOT focusing on these key elements...

I have gone from obese and depressed, taking waay too much pain medication and not moving. Now I consider myself an elite athlete! Training for my 2nd marathon (this year)... and at some point, not always or forever, you gotta buckle down and really see what these machines called our bodies can really do when omptimized!!

I would be interested to read about your food plan. Is it published anywhere?

ZeroWoIf

And here I am losing weight eating a large cookie and a glass of wine every day.

My body must be weird.

(IIFYM)

I don't think anyone's saying you can't lose weight eating sugar - the issue being discussed is that sugar impairs the function of the leptin hormone (which is basically a fact).
If people count their calories and plan on doing that for the rest of their lives, they shouldn't have a problem.

The thing is that many people don't count calories and listen to their body to eat, so if their body is telling them they're hungry, they overeat.

It's easy to say the problem is overeating and people just need to have more willpower. It's also easy to do it for a few months and lose some weight, but if your body is telling you it's hungry when it really shouldn't be, then you run into maintenance issues in the long run because you can't just ignore hunger for the rest of your life.

EXACTLY!! I can become phobic about refined sugars in foods, and then become phobic about the naturally occurring sugars in foods such as bananas and Tropicana Pure Premium OJ...and then become maniacal about every single morsel that goes into my mouth...but all of that is not how I managed to KEEP MY WEIGHT OFF FOR OVER 20 YEARS...more and more I'm staying away from processed foods and have been going back to REAL food but I'm not maniacal about it either. I have MccyD's prolly once per month. I ate a hoagie roll with homemade soup the other night for dinner. Guess what? I'm still thin and I didn't die yet lol I eat well about 90% of the time but realistic enough to not overcomplicate the weight loss/maintenance issue and am realistic enough to allow "cheats" b/c I'm human. I've also slowed down my eating...what good is all of this knowledge if you eat so fast that you've eaten beyond the "full" point b/c you haven't registered the "satiated" feeling yet? The most important thing, because too much of anything is never a good thing, is get down to the root of why you're overeating and eating when not hungry. The overeating is just a symptom of a bigger underlying problem. And as for knowing what works for you? You will know when you've maintained your weight loss for a long period of time..

I agree, Overeating is a bigger problem than processed food, or what is inside processed food.

I stay away from processed food as much as my mind lets me; however, not all processed food is the devil. Problem with most processed food out there is that they lack of things like fiber, and nutrients for example. Eating this as a regimen is what makes it bad regardless if its fatty or not. Either how I am not here to preach what I do with my body since I know what works and doesn't' work. The whole concept of cheating and rewarding yourself for eating a good nasty burger is a positive one to the mind. I have a weakness for Pizza for example, and I do have my slice at least once a month to remind myself that I am not programmed to eat a few things only.

toque88

Thanks for sharing.

nammer79

sure there are some bad things out there but I gotta say I am who made me fat

Acg67

Metabolically speaking, how is processed sugar different from natural sugar?

I'm not totally sure if that's a relevant point. I'm think she's saying all kinds of sugar that is included in processed foods. It can be natural cane sugar or high fructose corn syrup and it's still not great for you. Not to mention HFCS doesn't get processed the same in the body as other sugars for some people. For some people HFCS wreaks havoc on insulin compared to less processed sugars. Also, on the related topic of artificial sweeteners... they pass through your body without even being metabolized (hence, 0 calories) which effects your insulin levels.

It was asked because she said she eats no processed sugars whatsoever, by making the distinction of processed it would imply she eats natural sugars. Why avoid one but not the other?

Who are these" some people" that you talk about?

Annette_rose

I watched the documentary. I couldn't get past how it blamed America for all of Britain's weight problems. The series has a low-carb angle, for sure. Robert Lustig and Gary Taubes are both interviewed, but no counterpoint voice to the idea that sugar and corn aren't the devil.

To be fair, you've exported some amazing stuff abroad. Krispy Kreme, McDonalds, Grape Fanta, Oreos, Burger King, that really good prawn chain place in HK. For heaven's sake bring it to Aus RIGHT NOW. I always say the reason I will never ever ever travel to the US is because I'd have to be flown back as cargo.

Downloaded the doco and basically it was a lot of "it's not your fault, you're a victim". Fair enough, maybe some people ate larger and larger meals and bought larger and larger trousers because of advertising and an incredible lack of self awareness of their rapidly expanding frame. Maybe. But you'd have to be a bit dull to be that sort of person. Still, entertaining in the style of most tabloid news shows.

Your comment on being cargo made me laugh. I live in the U.S. and had visited France several years back. My French host family said in their awesome French accent "You Americans eat, eat, eat all the time". They walked so many places and they did not snack between meals. It was definitely a totally different world than we have over here. My host family sat down to three meals a day and took a long time eating them. It was just a great experience. I love exploring other cultures!

CJK1959

Oh... I guess I'll add one more thing for people to chew on.

Endocrinology is complicated. Our bodies are complicated. Any time someone (doctor or not) pin-points one single hormone signaling pathway as the 'broken' pathway responsible for all our problems.... well... I'm pretty damn sure they are wrong.

We can't blame leptin for the obesity epidemic.

We can't blame insulin for the obesity epidemic.

We can't blame <insert hormone of your choice here> for the obesity epidemic.

Occasionally, some RARE individuals might actually, honestly, have a malfunction of one or two pathways that cause uncontrolled weight gain. The average person, however, does not have a deficiency. Their bodies are behaving exactly the way they were programmed to behave by God and/or evolution.

We gain weight because we're eating a surplus of calories and our bodies are storing that surplus for the famine it's sure is just around the corner. To store these calories, to survive and thrive and function the way our bodies are made to function, we are activating a plethora (love that work >.>) of signaling pathways (aka hormones acting on the cells of our body).

In my opinion, it just doesn't do any good to obsess over which hormone is 'at fault' when we can solve the problem by reducing our calorie intake.

Absolutely....as an old employee of mine put it "it's not science rocket".....or you could always put the KISS principle on it...keep it simple stupid ( and no, I am not suggesting that anyone debating this is stupid, it's just a saying) As long as we continue to put more calories in than we burn...we increase our weight. Basic...simple

placeboaddiction

I'm no science geeeenius, and I know little of organics and all that.... But... Doesn't protein send the signal of being full?... so.. um.. Leptin undoes protein? Or am I trying to compare oranges with quantum science?

bcattoes

I watched the documentary. I couldn't get past how it blamed America for all of Britain's weight problems. The series has a low-carb angle, for sure. Robert Lustig and Gary Taubes are both interviewed, but no counterpoint voice to the idea that sugar and corn aren't the devil.

We Americans make everyone fat apparently. I read an article the other day about Asians getting heavier because of American fast food companies.

We do make everyone fat. The Western Diet is the worst on the planet... fact...

Agree about the Western Diet, which I why I strive for the Mediterranean diet, But just because we were fat first doesn't mean we are making others fat.

FTClown

I love you guys.

I nevergave up sugars, I still have my mcdonalds and pizza from time to time and soda and I are just so addicted to each other. I eat late night and I eat like 6 or 7 times a day and most are not "small" portions.
Yet since being here I have lost 40 lbs, increased my heart health been more energetic and flexible.

Explain these so called FACTS on me, please!

AbbsyBabbsy

I watched the documentary. I couldn't get past how it blamed America for all of Britain's weight problems. The series has a low-carb angle, for sure. Robert Lustig and Gary Taubes are both interviewed, but no counterpoint voice to the idea that sugar and corn aren't the devil.

We Americans make everyone fat apparently. I read an article the other day about Asians getting heavier because of American fast food companies.

We do make everyone fat. The Western Diet is the worst on the planet... fact...

Agree about the Western Diet, which I why I strive for the Mediterranean diet, But just because we were fat first doesn't mean we are making others fat.

Not to mention, Britain is a Western country with a Western diet, so blaming America for its obesity problems is pretty silly.

akaOtherWise

I love you guys.

I never gave up sugars, I still have my mcdonalds and pizza from time to time and soda and I are just so addicted to each other. I eat late night and I eat like 6 or 7 times a day and most are not "small" portions.
Yet since being here I have lost 40 lbs, increased my heart health been more energetic and flexible.

Explain these so called FACTS on me, please!

Some people will never learn, man.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17536194

‎"The pattern of nutrient and hormonal response was similar for a given subject to each of the 3 meals [(1) Fast-food meal consisting of a burger, French fries and root beer sweetened with high fructose corn syrup; (2) an organic beef meal prepared with organic foods and a root beer containing sucrose, and (3) a turkey meal consisting of a turkey sandwich and granola made with organic foods and an organic orange juice.] The only statistically significant acute difference observed was a decrease in the AUC of LDL cholesterol after the organic beef meal relative to that for the other two meals. Other metabolic responses were not different."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3190220

"An evaluation of the effect of aspartame on weight loss."

issystclaire

I do not subscribe to the "I'm just a victim in all this" mentality either. It is our own choices that ultimately lead to our state of health, be it good or bad. Especially nowadays when so much infomation is readily avaiable to people, people really no longer have an excuse to not understand what they are putting into their bodies.

That being said though, I live in the UK now but I am American and was raised there. Growing up in the 90's, I was raised on foods like McDonald's, Kraft Mac and Cheese, Spaghettios, Cheetos, Kool-Aid, and the list goes on. My mom did cook for us as well, but the other stuff was just as prevalent in my diet. I was a kid, so I didn't know any better, and when you are a kid you more or less take what is given to you.

So fast forward about 20 years - after high school I gained weight at a rapid pace. By the time I was 20-21, I weighed more than I ever had in my life at that point. I finally got to my breaking point at about 23 and did something about it. I radically changed my lifestyle to gluten free and 100% organic - I quit smoking, cut down my drinking and eating out. I worked out regularly. The weight came off dramatically.

Then I moved to the UK and gained it all back - I am now back on my lifestyle change track again.

So, what I have found now, as a young adult, is that all that crap, processed sugars included, that I was fed as a kid, had totally screwed up my system. It had basically prgrammed me to want and crave only bad things. I have also personally felt the very thing they described in the docu, where I physically feel full, but my brain is still telling me, eat, eat, eat, and it is indeed a very hard thing to fight against.

So I guess my point is, it was good for me to learn about the sugar leptin thing, bc it helped me understand, that while I now have the freedom to make the changes in my life I want to, there were other factors contributing to my unhealthy eating habits that I didn't realise.