It’s not hard to understand why people gain weight, right? If we consume more calories than we burn, we will gain weight. Do you want to lose weight? Eat less and move more. It’s what we’ve heard for years, but researchers recently offered a new perspective that changes that thinking. Could it be that overeating doesn’t actually cause weight gain?
Dr. David Ludwig, an endocrinologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School, co-authored a paper published this month in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that challenges the prevailing wisdom about what is behind the obesity epidemic in this country.
According to the article, co-authored by a team of 17 internationally recognized scientists, clinical researchers and public health experts, it is than we eat, rather than how much, that has the biggest impact on our weight.
More than 40 percent of Americans are obese (defined as having a Body Mass Index, or BMI, of 30 or higher). Obesity puts people at higher risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetesand even certain types of cancer. That’s why it’s so important to find the root cause of weight gain and help people figure out how to manage their weight more effectively.
Do we need to rethink traditional weight loss advice?
The weight loss advice that most of us have heard for years follows the “energy balance model,” which is the thinking of calories in and calories out that says overeating, coupled with a lack of adequate physical activity, makes people gain weight.
However, Ludwig proposes a new perspective, the “carbohydrate-insulin model”, which explains obesity as a metabolic disorder caused by overeating the wrong kinds of foods, rather than overeating. “Conceptualizing obesity as a disorder of energy balance reaffirms a principle of physics without considering the biological mechanisms that underlie weight gain,” she says.
While the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 states that to push the number on the scale down, “adults [need] to reduce the number of calories they get from food and drink and increase the amount expended through physical activity,” says Ludwig, we’d better take a closer look at our daily diet and reduce the amount of processed carbohydrates we consume. we eat and drink.
Can you eat all you want and still lose weight?
Foods with a high glycemic load, particularly processed carbohydrates such as pastries, pizza, packaged pasta (unless whole-grain), breakfast cereals, white bread, and white rice, elicit responses hormones that fundamentally modify our metabolism, according to this new study. way of thinking And it is this change in metabolic rate that is the real culprit in weight gain and obesity.
So what does this mean for someone trying to lose a few pounds? “Reducing consumption of the fast-digesting carbohydrates that flooded the food supply during the low-fat diet era decreases the underlying drive to store body fat,” says Ludwig. “As a result, people can lose weight with less hunger and struggle.”
In other words, overeating isn’t something you need to worry about if you’re eating the right types of food. Do you want to put on your skinny jeans before the pandemic without feeling deprived and moody? Just skip the “low calorie” packaged foods and anything made with white flour or refined sugar. Instead, look for whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. That way, you can feel good about helping yourself with seconds, thirds, and even fourths.
to that we say Bon Appetite!
