Most calories restrictive diets fail because they do not address the cause of weight gain. There is little evidence to suggest that greed and laziness on the part of the individual are in any way to blame for obesity. Forced calorie restriction and forced physical exercise are therefore not effective treatments for obesity. However, despite this fact the ‘eat-too-much, do-too-little’ theory of obesity has become ingrained in the minds of most individuals, professional and layperson, alike. The continued promotion of forced calorie restriction and physical exercise to treat weight gain in overweight individuals is surprising because the literature clearly demonstrates they are not effective in the long term. Further, the presence of a large number of well designed studies presenting evidence of effective treatments for obesity through mechanisms other than energy restriction and physical activity is ignored, particularly by those with a vested interest in the weight loss industry.
A number of studies have reported effective weight loss using traditional diets. In most cases, weight loss occurred without the need for either physical activity or energy restriction. Understanding why these regimens were effective requires an understanding of the underlying causes of obesity. Although obesity is not fully understood, it is becoming clear that overloading the liver with energy is intimately involved with the development of obesity. Dietary fructose can only be processed by the liver, and so high intakes overload the liver with energy. In response, the liver increases production of fatty acids through the de novo lipogenesis pathway. These fatty acids accumulate in muscle and liver tissue where they interfere with the insulin signal cascade and lead to the development of insulin resistance, a primary driver of weight gain. In addition, trans fats from processed foods interfere with essential fatty acid pathways, and this derails energy regulatory pathways, as well as inflammatory and immune pathways.
Effective weight loss strategies have to address the underlying insulin resistant state, and its associated metabolic aberrations, before any meaningful improvements in body composition can occur. A common theme of many diets that have caused weight loss is that they all decrease the energy burden upon the liver. High protein diets, high fibre diets, diets containing beans, diets low in refined carbohydrates, the Mediterranean diet, increased meal number and frequency, and low carbohydrate diets are all effective at causing weight loss without forced calorie restriction. All such diets limit the intake of sugar, and this limits the nutrient overload experienced by the liver. Both protein and fibre also slow digestion rates, with the result that energy is absorbed at a slower rate. The Mediterranean diet is high in both fibre and protein which explains its weight loss effects. Smaller more frequent meals also slows the total energy load processed by the liver. Low or no carbohydrates diets eliminate the problematic refined carbohydrates.
Dr Robert Barrington’s Nutritional Recommendation: Some people are successful at losing weight using forced calorie restrictive diets. However, often much of this weight is in the form of skeletal muscle which has detrimental health effects. In addition, most low calories diets are also restrictive of the foods that cause obesity, such as sugar and trans fats. Therefore it is not possible to attribute the success to the weight loss to restricting total energy intake. The key to weight loss is to reduce the nutrient overload on the liver and to eliminate metabolic poisons from the diet, the combination of which cause detrimental metabolic changes that leads to insulin resistance. Restricting calories is pointless if low quality foods containing fructose and trans fats continue to be consumed as any underlying metabolic problems will remain.
RdB
