Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss (Why Intermittent Fasting Is the Key to Controlling Your Weight)
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Introduction
In this best-selling book, The Obesity Code, Dr. Jason Fung sets out an original and well-supported theory of obesity. Traditional thinking was that obesity is a function of calorie intake and exercise. However, Dr. Fung shares new insights into how proper nutrition and weight loss are functions of hormones. He focuses on insulin and how this powerful hormone appears to be the key to regulating metabolism. We can develop “insulin resistance,” which makes us fat.
Dr. Jason Fung’s theories use the latest scientific research into nutrition and obesity. This book is a step-by-step guide on losing weight and rebooting your health.
We face an obesity epidemic. Despite all the diet advice available, we seem to get fatter. Dr. Fung brings a new perspective to the conversation on obesity with his bestseller, The Obesity Code.
“Not only full of insights but also surprisingly funny. Read it to understand why the world became fat, how to reverse the epidemic—and how to stay thin yourself.”
– Andreas Eenfeldt, MD, Founder of Dietdoctor.com
About Dr. Jason Fung
Dr. Jason Fung is the world’s leading expert on intermittent fasting and a low-carb diet. He specializes in treating type 2 diabetes. He has written three best-selling health books and co-founded the Intensive Dietary Management Program. He runs thefastingmethod.com, which advises on weight loss and managing blood sugar, focusing on low-carbohydrate diets and intermittent fasting. The Daily Mail has credited him as “the doctor who invented intermittent fasting.”
He is also the scientific editor of the Journal of Insulin Resistance and the managing director of the nonprofit organization Public Health Collaboration (Canada), an international group dedicated to promoting sound nutritional information.
Dr. Fung’s goal is to share knowledge to help with weight loss to improve general health.
StoryShot #1: We Face an Obesity Epidemic
Obesity is an ever-present epidemic. Kidney specialists define obesity as being overweight to the point that it has negative health consequences. To reverse those negative effects, you must lose weight.
Dr. Fung notes that most doctors and dieticians prescribe eating fewer calories and burning even more calories to lose weight. These calories originate from food. A calorie is a unit of energy, calculated by burning foods in the lab and measuring the amount of heat released.
StoryShot #2: Don’t Focus on Calories
We begin with the history of counting calories. The practice began in the early 1900s with a series of bestsellers that claimed calories were responsible for weight gain. These books advised that the best way to lose weight was to cut calories.
This idea couldn’t be more far-fetched. These earlier theories are known as calorie-focused diets or caloric diets. They claim that the reasons you can’t lose weight are that you eat too much and are lazy.
In truth, this is far from the case.
StoryShot #3: Don’t Focus on Fat
In the late 1970s, fat became the new thing to avoid. Eating too much fat was linked to heart disease and is a key cause of obesity.
Everyone seemed to adopt a low-fat, high-carb diet in response to this new finding. The basis of the food pyramid soon shifted to bread, pasta, and potatoes. For decades, this high-carb diet has been considered the healthier solution. But this is also a mistake.
StoryShot #4: Focus on Hormones
Dr. Jason Fung argues that neither calories nor fat are the main causes of weight gain. Rather, hormones are the primary driver of weight gain. The foods we eat contribute significantly to our hormones. There are also genetic factors in weight gain.
Hormones regulate your body fat. They control how much fat you store, where it gathers, and how your body ends up using it in the future.
So weight management goes beyond keeping tabs on calories in and out.
StoryShot #5: There Are Five False Assumptions About Calories
Five assumptions underlie “the calorie deception”.
The first is that you can cut calories by exercising. This calorie-deficit diet is often not sustainable, and most will fail at it. While you are likely to experience an initial weight loss, you are likely not to experience any long-term changes. If you cut incoming calories, you will eventually have to cut the calories you burn.
The second fallacy is how your metabolic rate is steady. This false idea comes from the common belief that you regularly burn a certain number of calories. But this belief cannot consider all the variables of your metabolism. You need to be aware of your total baseline energy expenditure, which can vary by 50%.
The third assumption is that we cannot control calorie storage. We assume we can control our eating habits. However, our bodies are the primary driving factors in when we eat and how much we consume. Body-fat regulation is automatic, like breathing.
The fourth is that fat grows inexplicably. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Nothing in our bodies happens by accident. Hormones control everything within your body.
The biggest of the five assumptions is that all calories are alike. Proteins, fats, and carbs all contain calories, and your body uses these building blocks in different ways. Each stimulates a different hormone, thus uniquely contributing to obesity.
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Rating
We rate this book 4.4/5.
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Editor’s Note
This article was first published in April 2022. It was revised and expanded on 13/1/2023.
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Thank you for your summary helped me alot.
Thanks for reading it!
Thank you for your summary helped me alot.
We’re glad to read your comment. Thanks for your feedback, Rhoda!
My psychiatrist/MD recommended your book. I’ve ordered it based on the summary plus the cookbook. I don’t believe I understand, at this point, how long a person is to fast? 24 -36 hours seems too long?
You start from Four Hour, slowly add time. I started from 4 hour now a days i am doing 200 hour fast. no issur