The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss (Why Intermittent Fasting Is the Key to Controlling Your Weight): 1

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Chronic inflammation has many adverse health effects. One way that it affects your metabolism is by contributing to insulin resistance. This means your body can no longer use insulin to efficiently lower blood glucose and blood lipid levels (sugars and fats in your blood). High blood sugar and blood lipids ( cholesterol and triglycerides) also contribute to high blood pressure. Additionally, US Senator from New Jersey and current presidential candidate Cory Booker has been open about his intermittent fasting vegan diet, placing intermittent fasting closer to the mainstream. Intermittent fasting is recommended in the last chapter of the book (although a vegan diet is not). TOC received a healthfulness score of 3 out of 4, indicating that is likely to cause weight loss in most people who carry excess body fat, and it is probably healthier than how most people currently eat. The dietary intervention proposed in TOC is described in the last two chapters in the book titled “What to Eat” and “When to Eat.” The former consists of relatively simple guidelines, such as: reduce your consumption of added sugars, reduce your consumption of refined grains, “moderate” your protein intake (the actual recommendation is high-protein at 20-30 percent of calories), increase your consumption of natural fats, and increase your consumption of fiber and vinegar. In general, these strike us as sound guidelines for a healthy diet. They also don’t come across as extreme or dogmatic; for example, TOC considers the natural sugars in whole fruit to be acceptable. That said, some of the recommendations are better supported than others. The second claim received a score of 1.7 out of 4, indicating that it is weakly supported by current evidence. Although some people in the research community believe that insulin is the primary cause of obesity, it’s a minority view that is hard to reconcile with the evidence as a whole, and it certainly is not not well-enough established to warrant the strong claims in TOC. One key problem is that most studies report that people with elevated insulin levels do not gain more weight than people with lower insulin levels, making it hard to understand how elevated insulin could be the primary driver of weight gain. That said, there is some evidence that supports the idea, some of which is cited in TOC, and the concept has enough legitimacy in the scientific community that we gave it a middling score. We review the evidence for and against the idea in greater depth in the scoring section.

This item receives a score of 0, indicating that the reference undermines the claim. The cited study seems to offer nothing to support the claim of birthweight increasing by half a pound over the last twenty-five years. In fact, it seems to investigate a related but distinctly different topic, which is the prevalence of neonatal macrosomia in Berlin. Neonatal macrosomia is a term used to describe newborns with a birthweight of greater than 4,000 grams (or 8 pounds, 13 ounces). The results of the study indicate that prevalence of neonatal macrosomia increased in Berlin between 1993 and 1999. This item would have only received a score of one had the study itself not contradicted the claim of birthweight increasing by 200 grams. According to the Bergmann paper “The prevalence of a birthweight of ≥4000 g increased significantly from 9.1% to 10.1%, although the mean birthweight remained relatively constant (3325 g in 1993, 3322 g in 1999).” Additionally, following the quote above in TOC, the book goes on to suggest that the reason for the increased weight gain in newborns could be due to pesticides in the food supply and cites a rodent study as evidence. However, the Bergmann paper also investigates the risk factors that are associated with neonatal macrosomia and pesticides are not mentioned; rather, other factors such as maternal age, height, smoking status, and diabetes, were mentioned as the potential risk factors. Reference 5 ReferenceThe best way to treat insulin resistance is with a low-calorie, low-carb diet and exercise. However, this can be difficult in some people with excess body weight (Freeman, 2021; Furmli, 2018). Inc, Indigo Books & Music. "The PCOS Plan: Prevent and Reverse Polycystic Ovary Syndrome through Diet and Fasting". indigo.ca. {{ cite web}}: |last= has generic name ( help)

This claim received a score of 0, indicating that the references tend to undermine the claim. In most cases the references undermine the claim, while in others they simply do not support it. TOC also spends several paragraphs discussing case reports, which are one of the least reliable forms of evidence. We certainly do not dispute that not eating causes fat loss, and that the longer one doesn’t eat, the more fat is lost. The studies cited in TOC support this. But a water-only fast can’t be continued indefinitely, and prolonged fasting is not really what TOC recommends for long-term fat loss. The book focuses on intermittent fasting and time-restricted feeding, which can be continued indefinitely. Yet over longer follow-up periods, the amount of weight loss shrank, and after ten years it evaporated altogether. This could be due to the fact that the intervention officially ended years earlier, so the volunteers were no longer necessarily trying anymore. But it nevertheless shows that calorie restriction does not necessarily lead to durable weight loss over the very long term. However, it’s critical to note that no other weight loss strategy, including those recommended in TOC, has been shown to produce weight loss over such a long period of time. Criterion 1.2. Are the references cited in the book to support the claim convincing? Sugar is the chief villain. Its most common forms are glucose and fructose. Glucose drastically drives up blood sugar levels. Your body is then forced to churn out more insulin, which contributes to sugar getting into the cells. Fructose has a different effect. It goes directly to the liver instead of being stored in the cells. The liver then breaks the fructose down and ultimately stores the excess as fat. The result is often a fatty liver, which contributes to insulin resistance.

How we misunderstand obesity and weight-loss

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. A key question is whether intermittent fasting as a strategy for weight control is sustainable over the long-term,” said Silver.

The Cleveland Clinic says that when the body stops expecting food regularly, it may adapt to use the fat that a person already has and the sugar that it receives when someone does eat more efficiently. Examples of limitations include bodybuilders and athletes, who have more muscle and may have higher BMI scores even though their fat levels are low. It’s also possible to have obesity at a “normal” weight. If your body weight is average but your body fat percentage is high, you may have the same health risks as somebody with a higher BMI. What about the diet of the Chinese in the 1980s? They were eating tons of white rice. On average, over 300 grams per day, compared to a low-carb diet of less than 50 grams and all highly refined. Yet they had virtually no obesity. Why? This item received a score of 2, indicating the claim is weakly supported by current evidence. Fasting of the type advocated in TOC can certainly cause fat loss, but current evidence does not suggest that it is a unique or superior method, and we are unaware of evidence of its long-term effectiveness. If we want to evaluate this hypothesis, the first question to ask is whether people with higher insulin levels gain more weight over time than people with lower insulin levels in the general population. If elevated insulin is the primary cause of obesity, we should see a clear and consistent pattern whereby people with higher insulin gain more weight over time than people with lower insulin. If we do not see a clear and consistent pattern, it’s hard to understand how elevated insulin could be the primary cause of common obesity.

Change When You Eat

We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic, but despite being inundated with diet advice we are only getting fatter. We count calories and exercise regularly, yet still the pounds won't budge. Why? This item received a score of 3, indicating the reference offers moderate support for the claim. This study was designed with three arms: one group ate a moderately calorie-restricted diet for 20 weeks while the other two groups ate the same moderately-restricted diet, but with periods of a very low-calorie diet. The difference in the last two groups was the varying days on which those very low-calorie diets were consumed. All groups lost weight, but the very low-calorie groups lost more weight than those simply on the moderately-restricted diet because they ended up consuming between 18,000 and 28,000 less calories. So if you assume that the days of very low calorie consumption were equivalent to fasting then the claim is true. But according to this study it is also true that you can lose weight without the fasting, just not as rapidly. Overall (average) score for reference accuracy CFP MFP: This study found that intermittent fasting could help with the treatment of obesity under supervision. Gallstones. Higher blood cholesterol levels can cause cholesterol to accumulate in your gallbladder, leading to cholesterol gallstones and potential gallbladder diseases. This item received a score of 2 indicating the references are weakly convincing. TOC generally cites reputable journals and texts, but focuses on lower-quality evidence that is more consistent with its claims. As previously discussed, the highest-quality evidence available (randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses of them) suggests that fasting of the type recommended in TOC is not uniquely effective for weight loss, and long-term evidence is scarce.