Reddit mentions of The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss (The Wellness Code)

There's a lot of speculation (evidence?) that CICO isn't a great way to measure and it's largely about insulin (I'm by no means well educated here, just some things I've read). There are people who track, eat MORE than their TDEE and drop the weight. Check out Dr. Jason Fung - I just read his book, very enlightening.

YES!!!!

Here is the good news - /r/Keto and IF are powerful tools for controlling blood sugar and managing diabetes.

Two years ago my A1C was 13.4 and I was in losing toes/kidney-damage territory. I went hardcore Keto 18:6 IF and frequently OMAD. MY doctor put me on Metformin and blood-pressure meds.

9 months later, my A1C was 4.9. Technically non-diabetic. I asked my doctor to take me off Metformin which she didn't like the idea of, but she agreed. 6 months later my A1C had stabilized at 5.3 and has stayed there. I'm off all diabetes and blood pressure meds and my last BP was 110/60. I lost 40 pounds. I'm 53.

Here are the most important things I can share with you;

• If you don't want sugar in your blood, don't put it into your mouth.
  
  
• Bread, pasta and rice are all basically complex forms of sugar.
  
  Eat all the meat and vegetables you want and give your body a break from high insulin levels. You've caught this early and there is no reason you can't reverse the symptoms of diabetes with delicious food and skipping a meal or two a day.
  
  It's really that simple.
  
  I recommend Dr. Jason Fung's book The Complete Guide to Fasting which will give you all science behind low carb diets and intermittent fasting for treating diabetes. His other book The Obesity Code is even more in depth if you want more science.
  
  Now here is the bad news. Doctors will likely fight you about this. I was sent to a class at a hospital after my diagnosis. The nutritionist said diabetes was progressive and irreversible and medication could only slow it down. Their goal of management is an A1C of 7.0 which means they want to keep you diabetic.
  
  Why? Healthy people don't make doctors any money.
  
  You need to take this seriously and do your homework. You can absolutely manage this and do it with food alone. But there are a lot of people who will tell you it's impossible or too hard to do. I've read that at least 80% of T2 diabetics could manage the disease with diet alone, but only 5% choose to do so.
  
  It breaks my heart when T2 diabetics I know will have a slice of pie and say "Well, I'll just up my meds tonight".
  
  F*ck that. I'm not going to inject insulin years from now for pie today.
  
  You got this. You can do it. I'll gladly answer any questions you have here or by direct message.

The book “The obesity cure” started me on the path Dr Jason Fung has a lot of info, it’s what started me down the path. Lots of footnotes

> One of the primary predictors of obesity is the palatibility of a given food/diet of individuals and a population

I'd buy the following assertion: one of the primary predictors of obesity rates in a population is the consumption of hyperpalatable foods.

> As for the aforenoted Palatibility, it mainly interferes with the brain's hedonic circuitry and sets course for hypothalamic inflammation which eventually leads to both leptin resistance and compulsive reward behavior with respect to food.

Sounds about right. (I've heard of that Guyenet guy before, but I haven't read anything directly by him.)

> And let's say you were comparing an avocado to a cookie, for carbs vs fats - that merely demonstrates my same point about palatibility and snacking, which is what's so funny about all of the intermittent fasting and keto types. They (and probably you) systematically change to lower palatability, whole food diets with higher protein and experience lower hunger, and then claim it's the carbohydrates.

You're strawmanning (I never said that), but you raise a good point that's nevertheless not quite right. I certainly agree that it's easier to eat a half gallon of cookies than it is to eat a half gallon of guacamole. On the other hand, by lowering my net carbs to the ketosis-inducing range, I'm able to kill my cravings for cookies, ice cream, and shakes. Contrariwise, if I've been on a keto diet and I eat a large quantity of baked sweet potato fries, I'll be fighting off cookies/ice cream/shakes cravings for a few days to a few weeks unless I fast for 24 hours or more. It's on this basis that I claim it's the carbohydrates.

I think the discussion around (hyper)palatability is a bit muddled. In particular, I think "most people think this tastes good" is conflated with "most people can eat a lot of this without feeling full". My fathead pizzas are delicious, but I start feeling full 3/4 of the way in. If I were eating the equivalent volume (or weight) as a large cookie, I wouldn't have trouble finishing the whole thing in one sitting.

> > Avoid snacking, this spikes your insulin and ghrelin and makes you want to eat more.
> Citation needed.

I intended to claim:

• snacking (eating just about anything other than pure fat) increases your insulin levels.
  
• snacking increases your ghrelin levels (after looking at my resources, this claim seems to be in error: ghrelin seems to not respond quicky to food intake like insulin does)
  
• ghrelin makes you want to eat more (Fung, referencing "Suminthran P. Long-term persistence of hormonal adaptations to weight loss. N Engl J Med. 2011 Oct 27; 365(17):1597–604.")
  
• snacking when I'm hungry doesn't seem to relieve hunger for me; it seems to merely stoke my appetite.
  
  This could've been much less ambiguous. My error.
  
  > What's more likely is simpler, whole food diets have less variation, and snacks tend to stray from the primary meals and add palatable variation
  
  I think we might have different definitions of "palatable variation", but when I was eating a nuts-and-honey-and-a-little-bit-of-chocolate bar every day after dinner, that stopped my weight loss stone cold. At that point, it's just part of my diet, and not contributing to much variation.
  
  Nevertheless, I'd still agree that whole-food diets, especially if you're mostly cooking at home, tend to exhibit less variation than diets rich in fast food.
  
  > If you really want to lose fat mass
  
  I have fat-loss goals with a weak preference to preserve muscle mass. My fat amounts were pretty much stalled until I was able to cut my eating down to 7 meals/week or fewer. This sort of thing is made much easier if you're already fat-adapted, which you yourself advocate (although not quite down to keto levels).
  
  > Of course IF and Keto can be useful to some, but don't go around parroting bullshit about insulin and fasting as the holy grail, they are small tools and the reality with respect to weight loss and maintenance is much more complex than that.
  
  I only mentioned a couple things because I'm too lazy to condense every single tip I know into a five-paragraph reply.
  
  At any rate, lifting is probably the least useful thing one can do to lose weight, although it might help preserve muscle mass if you're worried about losing any.
  
  I'd love to see you post a review of The Obesity Code. It's helped me improve my weight-loss strategies. However, if Fung's off his rocker, I'd like to know. You seem like just the guy to do it.
  
  > You sound like one of those StrongLifts 5x5 dinosaurs doing GOMAD.
  
  (Translator's note for the audience: he's calling me a monomaniacal lifter who primarily does leg exercises and neglects upper-body work (imagine the arm/leg mass ratio of a T. Rex), drinks a gallon of milk a day, and thinks all other possible fitness goals are stupid.)
  
  ---
  
  Now then.
  
  I have no problems with a combative writing style, but Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ on a pogo stick, do you have a shrine to Walter Sobchak that you pray to for guidance and inspiration before you write comments on the Internet?

Jason Fung is really good at explaining how fat became a villain to most of the world. Sorry this video is an hour long but it worth years of healthy living. His book is also really good.

I used the following books as a guide [I also got them on Audible so I could listen to them as I did work around the house - I have have ended up listening to them multiple times]:

​

"The Obesity Code" by Dr. Jason Fung -

https://www.amazon.com/Obesity-Code-Unlocking-Secrets-Weight-ebook/dp/B01C6D0LCK/ref=sr_1_2?crid=LSU3CFYKY9XS&keywords=the+obesity+code+jason+fung&qid=1557083150&s=gateway&sprefix=The+Obesity+%2Caps%2C869&sr=8-2

​

"The Big Fat Surprise" by Nina Teicholz

https://www.amazon.com/Big-Fat-Surprise-Butter-Healthy-ebook/dp/B00A25FDUA/ref=sr_1_2?crid=NPSMOJQNP5PB&keywords=big+fat+surprise+book&qid=1557083290&s=gateway&sprefix=big+fat+%2Caps%2C832&sr=8-2



"The Grain Brain" by Dr. David Perlmutter

https://www.amazon.com/Grain-Brain-Surprising-Sugar-Your-Killers-ebook/dp/B07C9ZS682/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2G9YRAPJEI8MV&keywords=grain+brain+by+dr.+david+perlmutter&qid=1557083584&s=gateway&sprefix=grain+brain%2Caps%2C771&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1

It's helped me to focus on the NSVs. I started this less about weight and more about health. I was on the very high end of pre-diabetes due to my PCOS and poor diet. There are no symptoms for prediabetes, and I've seen some studies suggesting 30-40% of Americans are prediabetic due to our sugary lifestyle. I started taking my glucose every morning, and it was exciting to watch it go down along with my weight. It motivates me more to stay healthy than to be thin because I worry about the long-term effects of sugar addiction and diabetes.

Have you read The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung? I listened to the audiobook during my commutes, and I'd definitely recommend it. It changed my whole perspective. Now that I know what's going on in my body when I eat sugar and carbs, I actually fear it. Of course I have cheat days and meals every now and again, but I don't fear one meal. As my doctor says, it's not Thanksgiving and Christmas that give us diabetes or make us obese. It's what we eat everyday. The day after I mess up or cheat, I look at it as a new day. Yesterday does not impact the choices I make today. For example, I ate a donut hole last night in a moment of weakness, but I didn't beat myself up.

I also combat snacking by meal planning. I'll come up with three meals to make during the week and eat the leftovers for the other days. I also have a list of go-to snacks or keto friendly restaurants like Jimmy Johns and Mad Greens for when I don't have time or feel lazy. It's a lot harder to reach for the chips when I have an alternative keto solution that takes as little time. I know these things are failsafe, but it's helped get back up whenever I stumble. I hope this helps!

Stop asking yourself Fat. Read this book, thank me later

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C6D0LCK/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

I follow pretty much the same routine for IF sans the bulletproof coffee. I eat dinner at about 8pm and then straight lunch at 12:30'ish with some tea in between. I do add a very tiny amount of cream but from the sounds of it, would have to stop that too :)

I'd recommend Jason Fung's The Obesity Code - it was a fascinating read.

r/fasting r/intermittentfasting

https://smile.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Fasting-Intermittent-Alternate-Day-ebook/dp/B01MF8SC2X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503450150&sr=8-1&keywords=fung

https://smile.amazon.com/Obesity-Code-Unlocking-Secrets-Weight-ebook/dp/B01C6D0LCK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1503450150&sr=8-2&keywords=fung

https://smile.amazon.com/Keto-Clarity-Definitive-Benefits-Low-Carb/dp/1628600071/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Jason Fung has spent a lot of time with fasting and low carb diets. Toronto-based physician treating many obesity related issues especially diabetes - https://www.amazon.com/Obesity-Code-Unlocking-Secrets-Weight-ebook/dp/B01C6D0LCK

He's got good youtube videos as well.

It's never a "cure-all" easy answer and it almost always has to do with what you eat and how much, calories in/calories out but his work is very encouraging. We've become too focused on treating symptoms rather than fixing causes (because money, of course) so it's a step in the right direction. It's astonishing how many people don't understand nutrition and calorie intake and how the body adapts. We expend very little energy but still eat like we're working on a farm for 14 hours per day...

Apparently IF is a good way to avoid a lot of loose skin and whatnot when it comes to major weight loss and forcing your body to consume itself, so to speak, has also shown that it may also mean your body is turning on pre-cancerous cells and other free radicals because that's what's available. I think this sort of thing is still in the beginnings of being officially studied though.

You brought up a good point that sadly, my parents use to justify why they eat like pigs from 2pm-8pm... Sure they're doing IF and while you don't have to restrict what you eat, you do have to still keep portions sensible. My dad especially hasn't exactly gotten his body used to less calories, he just overeats in less time now :-(

If you want to learn some of the science behind how fasting affects metabolism, check out Dr. Fung's book "The Obesity Code":
https://www.amazon.com/Obesity-Code-Unlocking-Secrets-Weight-ebook/dp/B01C6D0LCK?ie=UTF8&keywords=the%20obesity%20code&qid=1464184111&ref_=sr_1_1&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

I mean both. Americans snack constantly, most people always have some sort of refined carbohydrate snack at hand. We never give our bodies the time necessary to do things like reduce insulin levels, or increase metabolizing of fatty acids into ketones.

The "when your bored" part is almost always about snacking, and yes that needs to be cut out. But more than that, I think that for many Americans living on a "typical" American diet, they have a very VERY hard time differentiating between hunger and boredom -- most Americans can go upwards of 30 or 40 days without eating, as long as they get water and electrolytes regularly. This is due to excess body fat being stored for just that very purpose.

In addition, it's also important to give your body extended periods of no food, which can improve self-healing aspects of the body, including the process of autophagy, research into just recently won a Nobel Prize.

I'm merely a citizen who's worried about maintaining his own weight and health, so I'm by no means a professional on this. However there has been some really fascinating studies and renewed interest into the science of fasting and meal timing, and if you find this interesting I highly recommend you go out and independently research it. If I had a recommendation of where to start it would be the book The Obesity Code, by Jason Fun.

http://www.amazon.com/Obesity-Code-Unlocking-Secrets-Weight-ebook/dp/B01C6D0LCK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1458671183&sr=1-1&keywords=the+obesity+code

You are now cherry-picking little bits of the abstracts that support your claim, and straight up ignored the conclusion in the first paper.

I guess I can just straight up copy+paste that for you:

>A significant decrease in serum T3 concentrations and resting metabolic rate occurred as a result of a 6-week weight reduction programme in an obese child population.

The second paper straight up says that metabolic rate is causally impacted by caloric intake? Here's another quote from that paper:

>Since the metabolic rate at rest is the primary component of daily energy expenditure, its reduction with caloric restriction makes it difficult for obese individuals to lose weight and to maintain weight that is lost.

And from the third paper, which you conveniently ignored:

>Optimized body composition provides a competitive advantage in a variety of sports. Weight reduction is common among athletes aiming to improve their strength-to-mass ratio, locomotive efficiency, or aesthetic appearance. Energy restriction is accompanied by changes in circulating hormones, mitochondrial efficiency, and energy expenditure that serve to minimize the energy deficit, attenuate weight loss, and promote weight regain.

With that said, I'm not going to continue arguing with someone who's basically clamping their hands over the ears and cherry-picking facts because they don't want to accept anything different.

Here are two books by Dr. Jason Fung that can help your misunderstanding of obesity by exploring the relationship between hormonal imbalance (primarily insulin) and the accumulation of fat.

Obesity Code


Diabetes Code