You Can’t Starve Your Fat Away…Here’s Proof

It’s undeniable…I would be stupid to even question it…

You eat more than you burn then you gain weight. You burn more than you eat then you lose weight, right? 

Not so fast, if you’re new to Cut the Fat Podcast, you should know that I’m a bit of a geeky rebel, I don’t like to accept stuff just because it sounds right.

Let’s look at the science…

In 2000, researchers split a bunch of willing subjects into two groups, they then fed one of the groups 65,000 more calories than the other group. Almost like magic, the group fed the extra calories lost 141% more weight than the group who ate 65,000 fewer calories during the course of the study. 

Hmmm…How is that even possible?

Extra Calories Don’t Always Mean More Body Fat 

Let’s look at another study, this one performed by a little hospital called the Mayo Clinic.  In this study, researchers fed a bunch of people 1,000 extra calories per day for a total of 56,000 calories above their metabolic needs. Based on the “calories in/calories out” model, everyone in the study should have gained 16 pounds…the only problem was, they didn’t.

In fact, the most that anyone gained during the course of the study was about 8 pounds. Some subjects gained less than 1 pound of fat! According to all of those “experts” that you see on TV, it who say, “It’s all about calories”, these are impossible results! So…here’s the take home message…. 

You’re Starving Yourself for no Reason

Your body is an amazing adaptive machine. It can increase or decrease calorie burning on command; it can increase or decrease appetite on command as well. The secret is…it isn’t taking commands from you; it’s taking commands from your hormones. Starving yourself doesn’t work, it never works. You may lose weight but you won’t lose fat, at least not for good. You’re just making your life difficult. 

How to Use This Info…

This research proves that your body has a metabolic switch, either that switch is set to “On” or it’s switched to “Off”. When it’s switched to off, your body is in store mode; you feel sluggish and weight loss is virtually impossible regardless of how many calories you’re consuming. When the switch is “On”, your metabolism is raging, your energy is boundless, you sleep better, and you have a natural “motivation” to do stuff! 

Starving yourself turns the metabolic switch to “Off” every time. So, eat…eat real food, but eat!

References:

1. Journal of Adolescent Health 26:91, 2000
2. QJM 1: 331-352.