Latest Science on Losing Weight | Calories Not Important
Woman lost weight with raw foods diet
Losing Weight | Calories Do Not Matter
If the current theory of eating less calories and exercising more were right, we would not have an epidemic with our society gaining weight, instead of losing weight, where 35% of Americans are obese.
Olive oil is pure fat yet consuming extra calories from it helps you to lose weight. The omega-9 unsaturated fat in EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) reduces your number of fat cells so olive oil helps in losing weight.
Nutritionist Sonny Bowden (Dr Bowden has a PhD in nutrition) says that exercise itself is not enough to reduce weight since you do not burn enough calories. Although if you do some exercises, like resistance exercises, they increase muscle causing you to burn more calories 24 hours a day and lose weight. Body fat does not burn any calories. Also exercise has an anti-inflammatory effect. What does that have to do with losing weight or anything?
Recently I wrote an article about The Great Cholesterol Myth. The book by this name was written by an M.D. and Dr Sonny Bowden (whenever I hear this I wonder what they are a doctor of-- see above for that answer). They were on the Dr Oz TV show talking about this. On the show Dr Bowden gave an analogy about cholesterol. He said that being concerned about cholesterol is like taking lettuce off of a hamburger to lose weight.
Now taking lettuce off of a hamburger will reduce the number of calories in it. So does that help in losing weight? Using that old theory lettuce has fiber and little calories. So you get less calories but you are less full. So if you replace that with a high calorie food, then that makes it worse. So for losing weight, add a lot of lettuce to the hamburger so you feel more full with less calories.
They said on the Dr Oz show that what damages the arteries is inflammation, not cholesterol. Also another theory is that not all calories are the same. The calories from sugar that enters your body is more fattening the quicker the sugar goes into your blood causing an increase in insulin. So low glycemic load and glycemic index foods are better for losing weight.
The latest theory about losing weight is in the book, The Fat Resistance Diet: Unlock the Secret of the Hormone Leptin to: Eliminate Cravings, Supercharge Your Metabolism, Fight Inflammation, Lose Weight & Reprogram Your Body to Stay Thin by Leo Galland M.D. He has a great article in the Huffington Post about how cherries are better for pain than aspirins. It says:
Cherries are important for their ability to control inflammation. A growing body of scientific research indicates that inflammation contributes to diseases such as heart disease, arthritis, and obesity.
Cherries Better Than Aspirin for Pain
It is a great article whenever you want to read it. I love eating fresh cherries so much that I can make that a meal. So we already know about heart disease and inflammation from the above, but what does inflammation have to with obesity, losing weight and what is the hormone leptin mentioned in the title of the above book. Dr Leo Galland says in a 2007 article called The Fat Resistant Diet in Bottom Line's Ultimate Healing Volume II (a 560 page book):
Surprisingly, we gain weight when natural weight-control mechanisms are disrupted by inflammation, a low-grade inflammatory response caused by poor diet and environmental toxins.
When people gain weight, the extra fatty tissue produces leptin, a hormone that suppresses appetite and speeds metabolism. In theory, this should cause people to lose the extra weight.
Instead, inflammation in fat tissue and blood vessels stimulate the production of anti-inflammatory chemicals. Those chemicals disable leptin's ability to suppress appetite and speed metabolism. This is called leptin resistance.
So calories and cholesterol is not important to losing weight and clogging arteries, but inflammation is what is important according to 2 different books by MDs. Now Megan Elizabeth in the pictures above switched to a raw vegan diet and besides losing weight, lost severe adrenal fatigue, leaky gut syndrome, falling hair, acne, anxiety, headaches, insomnia and allergies. So is it possible that those things are also associated with inflammation besides losing weight. Well we do know that people take aspirin (or now cherries) for headaches and it reduces pain and inflammation.
Also on Youtube you can see lots of videos of Leelee (leelea) who lost a lot of weight. She is thin and eats more food than any woman on the planet. She eats 30 bananas a day and had a 22 pound watermelon for breakfast. All the foods that she eats are raw and 97% of it is fruit.
So Dr Leo Galland has a diet to reduce inflammation for losing weight. He says that fiber (in plant foods) control appetite and reduce inflammation. He suggests eating colorful fruits and vegetables, crucifers like cabbage and kale, alliums (like onions and garlic) and herbs and spices. Also he explains that egg yolks that are broken before cooking creates oxidized cholesterol and inflammatory by-products so avoid scrambled eggs and omelettes (or omelets).
Note that the spice turmeric has curcumin in it making turmeric the most anti-inflammatory food. Also green tea may be the second most anti-inflammatory food. It also contains EGCG that helps people in losing weight. Also it is important to get enough omega-3 in our diet to reduce inflammation. Also it is known that not getting enough omega-3 essential fatty acids contributes to many health problems.
A great exercise for losing weight and general health is yoga. Dr Oz has all of his patients doing yoga. I have been doing yoga since age 12. Yoga is the best exercise to reduce inflammation and it can also increase muscle depending on the type of yoga. Bikram's hot yoga appears to be the most therapeutic for the body. Note that yoga has also been used with mental or emotional problems like anxiety, depression and insomnia.
A 2004 Time Magazine article entitled, The Secret Killer, suggests inflammation may be the engine that drives many of the most feared illnesses of middle and old age including cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's.
Here is a website (MetabolismAdvice.com) with more information about this with a list of anti-inflammatory foods. It says:
Three of the hormones that play a role in metabolism are leptin, resistin and adiponectin.
- Leptin is involved in appetite control.
- Resistin is a hormone that increases insulin resistance.
- Adiponectin lowers the blood sugar by making your body more insulin sensitive.
The fact that it is the fatty tissue that produces these hormones makes the fat self regulating, as the hormones should act to bring the increased fat under control. Bodies with more fat will produce more leptin bringing the appetite under control. However in cases where the body is inflamed there is often a problem with leptin resistance, and the self regulation of fat does not occur. Leptin resistance is where [the] body stops responding to the appetite controlling effects of the hormone.
Here is a list of 70 anti-inflammatory foods that I found to help in losing weight: alfalfa, alfalfa grass, almonds, almond butter, artichokes, asparagus, avocado, barley grass, basil, bee pollen, bell peppers, black radish, bok choy, Brussels sprouts, buckwheat, cabbage, caraway seeds, carrots, cauliflower, cayenne pepper, celery, cherries, chives, cilantro, coconut (fresh), cucumber, cumin seeds, eggplant, endive, fennel seeds, figs, garlic (fresh), ginger (fresh), green cabbage, horseradish, jicama, kale, kamut, leakes, lemons (fresh), lentils, lettuce, limes (fresh), mustard greens, navy beans, onion, oregano, parsnips, peas, pumpkins, red beets, red cabbage, red radish, rutabaga, savoy cabbage, sea vegetables, seaweed, sesame seeds, spelt, spinach, sprouted seeds, squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, turnip, wheat grass, white radish, yams and zucchini.
Many years ago I knew the calorie theory was wrong since my mother and I could eat massive amounts of fattening foods or eat very little with no significant change in body weight. So I knew that the body had the ability to burn up all the calories consumed. Please note that it is the same with blood sugar. If someone is healthy then if they consume a lot of food or go all day with no food then their blood sugar stays the same within the normal blood sugar range. That is to address the idea of eating many meals a day for losing weight. For many years I have eaten only 1 meal a day. That is the same with Buddha and Bernarr Zovluck D.C. who is 84 now and never overweight, but is muscular. [D.C. is doctor of chiropractic.]