As someone who consciously lost 76 kilograms sitting in a wheelchair, I habitually pick apart poor arguments that teach people falsities about weight loss (partly based on my own example). This video not only constitutes in a smaller part as a collection of every single thing I've kept telling people for two plus years nobody else seemed to tell them about weight loss, it contains information I've never even come across, which is surprising, considering how much effort I've had to dedicate to extending my knowledge about how to do weight loss right, to account for my extremely limited options of doing so (the right way, without endangering my health, and without losing muscle mass). This video is simply mind blowing in its accuracy and educational value.
I have my own theory on why we are getting fatter. Perhaps more and more people are acquiring the "FAT FETISH" gene, so we all got fatter to satisfy that dominant sexual gene!
I think for the vast majority of cases, it comes down to one simple reason - they don't want to put in the work to lose the weight. They're much more comfortable eating what they like and how much they like instead of eating better or taking care of their bodies. It's kind of sad, when it's really not much effort at all, just a little bit each day every day. But I agree, Sabine is great 👍🏻
@@SabineHossenfelder Thank you for delivering quality content that consistently proves to be accurate enough that it can be taken at face value without hesitation. I'm looking forward to your video specifically about treatment options for obesity like you suggested doing toward the end of this video. I find it near impossible to lose the last 10 or so kilograms so I'm sure it would be helpful.
I cut out all processed food, and especially sugar (or any kind of sweetener) and lost lots of weight (about 25%). I was not obese, but overweight. I am in my md-sixties now and am getting back to where I was in my mid-twenties. I have a friend, same age as me, who had type 2 diabetes and was overweight. He changed his diet a little and started exercising (dead lifting). He lost over 70 pounds, and his diabetes went away. Obesity is truly a massive health problem. Many people who died of COVID had obesity as a comorbidity.
The medical profession is pretty adamant that diabetes does not "go away". Type 2 diabetes can be controlled with diet, exercise, and medication, but that's different from "going away".
@@jeffryphillipsburns Well, that is how he put it. I expect that the real situation is that his blood sugar levels are normal, and no treatment is required. The effect is the same.
@@jeffryphillipsburns The medical profession claims all kinds of ludicrous nonsense to sell treatments. Where T2 diabetes is caused by constantly high insulin levels, it's only natural that it reverses once you drop the levels. My neighbor had this problem, I told him to try IF, biomarkers improved promptly. This isn't rocket science.
How did you manage to find enough food to make a diet out of? I try to eat healthier, mostly limiting snack foods to fresh fruit and dinner to rice, vegetables and chicken, but there's very few breakfast and lunch foods that don't require food preparation while still not being processed
@@CSDragon Well, for breakfast I have oatmeal with butter and cinnamon. For dinner I have vegetables (I usually get frozen, which are more nutritious and convenient), then I might make a soup with lentils with the veggies. I will have a snack most, but not all, days. This will be olives (sometimes with some feta cheese) or nuts. I only drink water (usually with a splash of lemon juice), brewed coffee and brewed tea. Sometimes I will have red lentil pasta. I buy it made, but now have an attachment for my KitchenAid to make it myself. I am also pescatarian and will have fish a couple times a week. Hope that helps.
As someone who lost 29kg (27 in the first 9 months of not very strict keto diet) I can say that one major factor Sabine missed (and she rarely does so) is depression. Depressed people are not only trying to find "bites of happiness" when eating something tasty, but also lack the positive attitude that's required to follow good health habits, like eating proper foods & amounts, exercising at least a little, and in more extreme cases depressed people just don't give a #### about what happen with them, and is quite easy to knowingly maintain bad habits. If left unchecked for a long time and/or to extreme cases obesity is a type of suicide. Of course it's spectrum, but knowing the extremes gives better idea of what's in the middle.
Thank you! I've done the working poor thing for most of my life, and I can assure you that most of us engage in self-destructive behavior like overeating and smoking because we fricking WANT to die! If we could plug our brains directly into a machine that would make us forget our worry, stress, debt, humiliation, exhaustion, shame, and hopelessness for a few moments before putting a bullet through our brains, we would do it in a second! Many of us are fully aware that the only reason we're even kept alive is to make our employers rich and to buy property for someone else. So, yeah...
@@AmanoJack , You're right. Though I believe in most cases the self-destructive behavior has the purpose to temporarily forget some problem we've had, and keep the hope for the tomorrow. I don't think that anyone have kept alive just to make our employers rich :) But most of us are not stupid, and when we start to go to extremes in our self-destructive behavior we usually notice it and can quickly extrapolate where it leads. From that moment on we're knowingly playing on the edge of that fragile balance act. And for me personally having hope and some (realistic imo) plan for the future is what used to keep me from going over the edge. Sometimes I had to invent that hope from scratch and chase it. But sometimes some people just get robbed of it, and potentially all future attempts to rebuild their life. I would say that no matter how hard it seems if you're in normal health it's up to you to push ahead and grab some piece of happiness (even if you've had to give up on some of your dreams already) - there's a sort of bargaining that we do in order to get at least part of what we want (even if we have to redefine what we want). But I have no idea what one can do to keep pushing ahead when the deck is stacked against him/her :/
That's very close to what I fell into over the last year+ Gained back all the weight I managed to lose before, in a brief period where I had a clear goal and confidence in myself, heh. And even a bit more. My body mass index is just a little over the normal range, but it does feel worse... Among many other things that I experience in my current state. Self-sabotage and lack of self-value due to seeing no way to achive the future I was dreaming of, and going towards, anymore.
Another big part is “incentive”. Processed foods are much more easily available for a quick meal and with a culture that seems focused on minimizing free time outside of work it’s often the low effort and cheap option
Yeah no, citing work culture is really not convincing, Japan is a very large highly developed country with a relatively low obesity rate for its level of economic prosperity and toxicity of working culture.
Japan has an abundance of healthy fast options that the West just doesn't. Also, their society doesn't have "the car is king" attitude. Their neighborhoods are much more walkable and bikable than most.
My roommate once had a block of cheese fall out of the fridge due to it being overstuffed, and it hit her toe. So external fat actually could be a health and safety issue as well as internal.
It's when you're chasing the cheese down a steep hill FATALITIES and BROKEN SPINES occur...I'm amazed the Health & Safety nuts didn't ban the annual Cheese Rolling Festival just down the road (and up a hill) from me. I was meaning to win it some day but never even got round to entering.. But I would have won, no doubt, in my younger days! ua-cam.com/video/qjSUk9o-D6E/v-deo.html
Went to Denmark for a business trip last week and I didn't see one obese person all week. Every one was cycling, and the lunches we had were all real, colourful food. Back to Birmingham airport obese people were abundant! It's rare to see anyone cycling - and our work canteen serves beige processed food!
I visited there in 2019. They are very health conscious. On their menus in restaurants there are warning for sugary beverages like side. Everybody walks or bikes it was fascinating!
Brits are beyond saving now. Millions visit countries with amazing food just to comment how they miss Greggs sausage rolls for lunch. This country is a joke.
I don't think working out at the gym once/twice a week beats cycling/walking to work each day. I normally get about 12.000 steps / day by commuting with bus, more if I run errands on my way home. I started doing this about a year ago and have lost 18 kg since. Before I had to take my car to work. Walking every day is far more enjoyable than going to the gym so I'll take it :-)
Thank you for this wonderful video as it gives me much to discuss in my forthcoming appointment with my endocrinologist. I have multiple mental illnesses and prior to receiving my first medication some 30 years ago, I was very skinny. At 182 cm with a weight of 69 kg I had a BMI of 20.8. Not exactly underweight, but close. Within ten weeks of going on my antipsychotics, antidepressants and other meds that helped negate some side effects (I even had meds to counter side effects of some side effects-countering drugs) I ballooned up to 135 kg. This gave me a BMI of 40.8. So a virtual doubling of weight and of BMI over ten weeks! Subsequently my weight went up and down, I tried really hard but have had a lot to fight with my mental illnesses as well. Bipolar, schizophrenia and C-PTSD don't play nicely together and battling things that scream at you as they crawl inside your head that may or may not really be there as you must relive the suicides of others you have known and loved in the past takes up a lot of time leaving very little for such time-wasters as living, defending oneself from jibes like "I hate fat people" or "Hey, fatso!" and getting a good night's sleep. I have tried my best to lose weight sustainably. I sought nutritionist advice via referral from my doctor, went on a keto diet and joined a gym to try to lose weight and ended up putting more weight on. At my peak I was 151 kg with a reduced height of 181 cm (thanks to spinal compression, chronic weight and ankylosing spondylitis). That translated to a BMI of 46.1. So I sought the advice of an endocrinologist as my psychiatrist had told me my meds would have done a lot of hormonal damage and I wanted to see if that would lead to a new approach. It did. My endocrinologist prescribed a few medications (yes, I take meds to help reverse damage made by meds and by the meds that reduced the damage caused by other meds) and I have lost a little over 13 kg (BMI now 42.2) over 22 weeks. I am still losing weight very slowly but this is all head-liquefyingly complicated. And I think in my roundabout way this is what I want to thank you for. This vid really lays out the sheer complexity of this subject in a way that is not too complicated.
@d.robertdigman1293 I have some similar struggles to yours - multiple meds for bipolar and more meds to counter ill effects of first meds plus weight gain that seemed uncontrollable, etc. I have lost 20 lbs in less that a year and continue to loose with improving health ‘indicators’ (blood pressure, BMI, cholesterol, etc) and no ill effects or even adjustments to medication. NO ONE SHOULD FOLLOW ANY OF THESE RECOMMENDATIONS WITHOUT FIRST CONSULTING THEIR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER Based on the information in the book I list below I eat: vegetables (mostly greens & some roots), nuts & seeds (oily ones: walnut, pecan, almond, sesame, peanut - tuber not a nut, sunflower…). fruits (LOTS of apples - older less sugary varieties, avocados, olives, figs…). meat/fish in small portions, ~3 oz.(grass fed meats with the fat, some organs, cheeses, sardines-because the fat isn’t removed). water 4 qt+ /day (a lot of very weak teas with whole milk & very little sweetening) and NO GRAINS except I have a small portion of ‘cake’ every evening & 4-6 crackers with hummus when ‘peckish’. NO RESTRICTIONS on quantities except for the cake and crackers. I live in a northern temperate zone - 4 seasons, temperatures range from 100F to -10F and my ‘physiological adaptation’ to this climate has not been noticeably affected by this diet. I have studied biochemistry & physiology and read many books about “nutrition” or diet (all claiming to have the ‘answer’, ‘magic bullet’ or whatever) to “fix” poor health. Most of the books had some value but none of them address the fact that nearly every human has something about their physiology and their ‘situation’ (ie: ancestry, geographic location, life style, medications) that must be allowed for in order for the “diet program” to work. Recent research (the last 10-12 years) has revealed much that is contrary to what the ‘medical establishment’ has to say (including the “food pyramid” so often displayed). Also, I can say from personal experience that doctors of medicine receive little training in ‘nutrition’ and whatever they get is at least 10-15 years out of date. SO HERE IS WHAT I HAVE FOUND THAT MAY HELP YOU: “Nourishing Diets - How Paleo, Ancestral and Traditional Peoples Really Ate.” by Sally Fallon Morell, 2018. Her research reveals that humans ‘evolved’ eating plants, fruits, animals, all the fats they could find and almost no grains. She shows that the “Paleo” and “Mediterranean” diets are dumbed-down or even fake representations of what was actually in the ancient /traditional diets. PLANTS & FRUITS= wild herbs & greens, wild tubers & roots, wild fruits that could be reached/found. ANIMALS, vertebrates & invertebrates= fat, organs, skin, bone marrow and muscle with all of its fat content. SOME wild grains were consumed but there is no evidence they were important food until ‘villages’ begin to appear and the grains were ‘domesticated’. (many10s of thousands of years into Homo sapiens’s evolution) My reading decades ago lead me to understand that ‘modern first world’ diets are lacking in sufficient vitamins and minerals to sustain health. So I have been taking supplements for decades. Within a year of beginning to take various ‘vitamins’ I stopped getting colds and flues every few months so I knew I was on to something. We typically can’t eat enough food and the food isn’t nutritious enough to get all the ‘micro-nutrients’ we need. I take a MULTI-VITAMIN(any brand will do until you learn enough to choose one that ’suits you’ best) and add to that some “boosters” for those ‘vitamins’ the multi’s skimp on or don’t include. VITAMIN C with bioflavonoids (2 doses/day @ 500mg each) boosts the immune system, VERY IMPORTANT vit’ D3 (2+ doses TOTALING 4000 IU that’s 100mcg =micrograms) aids the immune system and assists fat metabolism, VITAMIN K2 (MK-7 =menaquinone-7 totaling ~200mcg, MK-4 is metabolized very fast so must be ‘dosed’ several times a day with greater quantities but can be substituted for MK-7, ie: better than nothing. K2 is very lacking in our diets and is VERY IMPORTANT working with vit’ A to move cholesterol and other fats out of our ‘soft tissues’ into our bone marrow where it should be. There are other supplements I take and other books to recommend but I’ll stop there. If you want more references to follow this up, respond to my comment with a way to reach you and I’ll get in touch. You can “fact check” some of this in Wikipedia.com NO ONE SHOULD FOLLOW ANY OF THESE RECOMMENDATIONS WITHOUT FIRST CONSULTING THEIR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.
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After 10 years trying to lose my Dad weight I simply stopped eating dinner, or anything at all after 4pm. I lost 20 pounds in 2 months, then stabilized. My life-long (since age 5) heartburn/stomach issues went away. And my anxiety dropped tremendously (biofeedback loop cut-off when stomach issues were resolved?). All these problems were caused just because I was eating more than I needed. I still eat what I want, otherwise.
Timing of eating is quite important as you've found out. I've found that eating after 5pm wasn't good for me. Going from 225 to 189, exercising, meal timing and only two meals a day worked for me. As a test, I stopped the exercise, timing and number of meals to see what would happen. Zoom, back to 225 in no time. Now that I know what the problem is, for me, I'm starting on heading back down. I feel better too.
Another possible explanation: Because you don't eat anything after 4 p.m., your brain was forced to rebuild the enzyme production for metabolizing ketone bodies. In other words, your brain is now also connected to fat metabolism, as it should be for a healthy person, and as it was for all people during the Paleolithic era.
Overeating causes a lot of problem, Even what is considered 'normal' is massive overeating. You got heartburn cuz your stomach was literally near overflowing and no room for that stuff to go but up. Normal meals consist of way too much stuff. I eat a single yogurt a day usually and wake up energetic, don't drink coffee or, don't smoke and don't drink. I don't understand why so many drink coffee
Does this mean people who have liposuction are potentially doing themselves more harm? i.e. removing fat cells from certain areas for cosmetic reasons will encourage more fat to be stored in areas where it can do more harm.
I guess the necessary condition is: if they put back weight. If not, then there is no new fat to store. If yes, then they may (if this hypothesis is true, for which we do not have an answer to) indeed.
The odds are that post liposuction weight will be put back on. The question is when - months, years or decades later. If the added fat eventually goes to fatty liver instead of subcutaneous fat; then it is doing more harm than good. Sabina raises a good question - there isn’t enough research to know if fat cells would grow back post liposuction or post freeze therapy.
Here's the thing, I was obese before at around 220+ lbs and now at around 156 lbs, at around 20% body fat with defined muscle mass. What I've learned on my weight loss journey is that "most" processed foods and sweets are calorie dense like 1 candy bar is around 250-300+ calories per piece, and fast food are less filling when eaten so you tend to eat more. What I did was switched to Less Calorie Dense foods that makes you feel full with less calories. I've done some cooking experiments that uses less calorie dense ingredients to make foods like pizza, cake, and other meals. My weight results speak for itself. Also try to put in mind that food is a fuel and not something for stress suppressant so, workout on cardio with Moderate intense steady state (fast walking) for 2 hours a day and walk for 30min -1 hours after eating, instead of doing HIIT cardio because let's be honest here, who wants to do HIIT cardio every single day? maybe 15% of the world likes it, but the rest doesn't. So, I suggest doing Cardio that you can do every day. Strength training is also very important so it can assist you to burn more calories (Muscle is a metabolic engine) and make your body more have a balanced look.
Green beans is an example of an extremely low density food. I used to open a can when I was insatiably hungry. To be honest, reading the rest of your comment makes me want to be fat instead. I would rather die a happy fatass than a miserable fit person. Suggesting they have to have a miserable existence to be fit is precisely why most are discouraged from even trying. I suggest nothing other than eating fewer calories(not even eating less, just fewer calories). After losing the initial weight, the energy will come, and they can put that towards getting more fit if they want. It's their life, not someone elses.
I lived the exact same nutrition path, but with a significant difference in weight. I lose like 40 lbs, and only do a bit of cardio. HIIT is for the insane
Thanks for the thorough review Sabine. In the section on Stress, it’s perhaps worth noting that 15~17% of the adult population are taking prescribed antidepressant medication, which has a causal link to metabolic syndrome which commonly results in weight gain. The prevalence of use is also higher in older age groups. Use of antipsychotic medications (e.g. clozapine) commonly result in the onset of obesity and type 2 diabetes. To be clear , weight gain is not a reason to discontinue use of such medication - changes should only be made after consulting your doctor. It was particularly interesting to hear that new fat cells are not produced, but instead store larger amounts with weight gain.
Oh yes, 100%. After having been on and off various of those types of meds for the last several years, I can say with confidence that they have those effects (never got diabetes though). The worst part was the partial muscle paralysis feeling while taking them. It was impossible for me to fully contract any muscles, which made exercise next to impossible, and I got exhausted almost immediately. So I quit them all. Instead, after several years of being fat and sedentary, I changed my diet to high fat/protein and low carb, and the weight started melting off. The lighter I got, the more I naturally wanted to move and exercise... something I couldn't do before. This accelerated the loss even more. In the last 9.5 months, I went from 275 lbs to 204 lbs (as of this morning). Funnily enough, fixing my body caused all of the medical problems that made me take those other meds in the first place, to simply vanish. Meds keep you fat, which keeps you sick, which keeps you on meds. Just like the pharmaceutical industry wants.
Unfortunately, there is an unholy alliance between Big Pharma and the Food Processors. They profit from the poor health of the citizens of the developed countries !!
So there's still a question about cause and effect. The people who take these medications are already mentally distressed, and even before taking antipsychotics they may experience sensory and other wise bodily/somatic distress, so how could you tell them apart? From my experience, people with serious mental illnesses tend to be overweight or underweight, hardly anything in between. Now before you cancel me, I have schizophrenia myself and fall into the overweight category 😂 Add the medication on top and you have a perfect recipe for obesity; lethargy, exhaustion, lack of energy, hunger/appetite disruption, further depression, and so on
The current theory is that these medications impact the gut microbiome in multiple ways. In fact, there's one theory that much of the antidepressant activity alluded to SSRI's neurological Serotonin action-which, given the fact that the Serotonin theory of depression is DEAD, albeit it's zombie corpse still causes havoc, would explain why patients still often find these medications helpful, at least initially-actually stems from it murdering fungi in the gut which have negative psychiatric impacts. But perhaps they also murder microbes with more helpful activity.
The idea that the body doesn't product new adipocytes in adulthood was disproven a while ago. What actually happens is some fat deposits expand via hypertrophy and others expand via hyperplasia.
After using Doctor Alued on UA-cam herbal treatment i was cured from Obesity after living with the Stigma for years, i highly Recommend his UA-cam channel [ Doctor Alued ] if you are living with Obesity After two months HE also sent my SON Herpes cure now his HSV FREE ,,,
Just discovered you. Just finished watching this video. Watched a few others, and I have to say: you are amazing and just what I need in my life! Cheers!
I am a nurse specializing in nutrition and this lecture is a perfectly scientific and objective approach to exploring the causes of obesity. Brilliant! Thank you.
I laughed at the remark, "Books aren't the problem, the lack of book shelves is the problem." I recognize the problem, going to eBooks solved that problem for me. Now the problem is making that solution available for fat.😁
We're on track to e-bodies, no doubt, and maybe one day we'll also have e-snacks to stuff our digital avatars with. Unfortunately focusing on the care of our virtual bodies at the expense of our boring old physical husks will likely mean yet more cheap, ultra-processed food. After all, it's well known that obesity is positively correlated with low socio-economic status. Incdentally, I found it odd that this correlation isn't mentioned in the video; anectodally speaking, as a citizen of a first-world country that isn't the US, it seems to me the most immediately striking feature of the obesity phenomenon.
@@asdu4412 In developed countries, obesity is widely considered a condition that affects people of lower socioeconomic status (SES) more so than those of higher SES (1). In developing countries, however, the debate continues as to whether obesity primarily affects the poor or the rich. In their comprehensive review published in 1989, Sobal and Stunkard (2) found a positive relationship between SES and obesity in developing countries: obesity appeared to be a problem predominantly of the more affluent in those countries. Subsequent reviews covering publications from 1988 through 2003 found mixed associations (3,4): McLaren (3) found that a positive association between higher SES and obesity tended to turn into an inverse association as one moved from countries with lower human development index (HDI) to countries with higher HDI (3). HDI seeks to capture the level of socioeconomic development of a country by combining three indicators - income per capita, literacy rate and life expectancy - into one composite measure.
One other study I read about hunger which I find fascinating : why don't have 1 appetite, but 5 (proteins, carbohydrates ("glucides"), lipids, calcium and sodium). It totally make sense : if a animal had only 1 appetite, it wouldn't for instance be able to select a food with the nutriments it need (for instance, if we only eat fruit because there's a lot of fruits tree around, we could be lacking lipids and salts).. eating each of the 5 different categories is enough in nature to provide us all the other micronutrients, so we don't need more than that. That's why we sometimes crave cheese or salty food, and some other time meats. The study also assert that the most important one is "proteins" because we need a regular intake to maintain cellular integrity.. That's another reason why "process food" and "fast food" is bad : it give us a lot of sugars and lipids, while lacking proteins, so in the long term we have to eat more to get enough proteins.
Society is people and you are people. I have a brain which allows me to recognise and disregard stupidity. Headlines sell news. It's a business model for businesses to profit, which is the point of a business. That's not society that's capitalism.
Well... I was absolutely thin when I was 13. Then the doctors discovered I had a tumor (benign) between my pituitary and pineal glands... So I went through surgery and... Well, when I got out of the hospital absolutely none of my pants fitted me anymore. That was December 1991. I tried everything to lose weight, without any success. At one point I was going to the gym 6 times a week and swimming 3 times a week... And eating diet food I used to buy. I only got "thin" (or at least close to) in 1999, when I went through another surgery... Bariatric surgery. So... I think it could be a hormone issue, because I need to take basically all of them since 1991. But who knows, perhaps I'm wrong. Anyway, thanks, Sabine! 😊 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
@@SabineHossenfelder well, you know... I had other issues as well because of the surgery... Like, I lost 75% of my field of view (I'm absolutely blind of the left eye and the right half of the right eye)... But I'm alive. You know? I can't complain. 😊
Liebe Sabine, dein Humor ist großartig und deine Arbeit ein wertvoller Schatz, der effektiv zur Bildung und damit zur Zivilisierung der Menschheit beiträgt. Liebe Grüße aus Hessen.
Who else heard her talking about the discovery of a virus that makes chickens fat, and immediately thought "industrial chicken farms are going to start infecting their chickens".
I didn't think "they'll start". I thought "they already do". Fat chickens will develop some more muscle, and industrial chickens are so fatty it's ridiculous
Everyone is commenting about the trans-fat joke but the one that killed me was the one about your bottom not fitting on the screen 😂 I had to double take… “did Sabine really just say that?!” 🤣
@@shroud1390 ADENOVIRUS DOESN'T EXIST I RECENTLY FOUND OUT CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE THAT IT IS ACTUALLY A BACTERIA YOU CAN FIND ON THE GROUND AND ALWAYS YOU HAVE TO TOUCH IT TO GET IT INTERNALLY
I have done a lot of research on this topic for personal reasons, so I thought I would chime in on what I see is the biggest cause. Sabine touches briefly on this, but I think much more needs to be said. In the mid-20th century, researchers wanted to find the cause of heart disease. They found a link between hypertension, so they went looking for a smoking gun and found diets high in fat. The US government recommended diets low in fat, and food companies were more than happy to go along because fat has a short shelf life compared to sugar. And it worked! Prior to the 1970s, the average percentage of caloric intake from fat was around 30% to 40% (IIRC) while sugar was around 10% to 15%. However, by the 1990s fat intake had declined to less than 15%. Any guesses on what replaced it? Yep, sugar went to 40%. As a result, the incidence of not only obesity went up but so did diabetes and a host of other ills associated with being overweight. And here is the real kicker, heart disease did not decline, at least not by the amount one would expect if fat intake was slashed by more than half. Now, if you go to the grocery store and want to buy pre-packaged food that is sugar-free, good luck. Read the nutrition facts. You will be shocked to find that EVERYTHING has added sugar. How much you might wonder? Well, that strawberry yogurt has as much as a couple of chocolate chip cookies. You might as well have a couple of cookies for breakfast. That glass of Vitamin C packed OJ has as much sugar as a can of Coke. I remember quite vividly the building that I worked in had a "health fair" for all the tenants where they were offering "healthy choices" like yogurt, OJ, granola bars, etc. IOW, dessert in disguise.
Sabine, definitely interested what you might present as treatment options for obesity. Your typical rigorous research and clear explanation of findings on this topic would be appreciated!
Eat less. Losing weight is a complicated thing and requires a lot of mental willpower besides technique. The math is pretty straight forward. First find out how much you wish to lose in weight. Each kilogram of body fat is around 7800 calories so it takes about of 4 days of total fasting (not recommended) to lose only one kilo. This is just to serve as a reminder that losing weight takes a lot of time. Compute your daily calorie consumption, online, apps, library, hard math, whatever and multiply by 0.75. It is a decent weight losing factor meaning you would need16 days for one kilo. Start a food diary and weight your food with a nice calorie table. Reduce portions, skip a meal, do whatever is necessary to be in line with that God given number you came up with, and this way you can literally eat anything you want, just not how much you would want. It is tedious at first but after a couple of weeks you will be able to ditch the diary and food scale to just eyeball calories in the portions you get served, a skill that will last you a lifetime. Continue until satisfied, remember as you are losing weight your calorie intake should reduce accordingly. Sport is useless unless you insist on it. Generally obese people have more muscles than their slim versions, because they carry weights everywhere they go. Micro-nutrients will adjust naturally, as a hypo-caloric diet will adjust your food cravings to get more nutritious food. If you insist get the minimal containing vitamin and mineral pills and take one form time to time. Do weigh yourself every so often, but be advised that weight can vary from a lot of things from, bowel movements to diseases (colds included), to giving your micro-biome less food and slimming it too down, so it is not good to fixate on anything other than an average. Edit: And give yourself a pause every weekend from this grueling diet, it does take a bit longer to lose weight, but it is necessary just to not give up completely.
@Toroidal Zeus Insulin is just a hormone. If you consume more than you stuff yourself with, insulin cannot do jack about it. Or you just found a way of creating infinite energy out of thin hormones. i am hoping for the later but am highly skeptical of it :P
Depending on your current weight trend, eating marginally less is likely the ideal path; It will avoid you developing cravings and facing the side-effects of strict dieting, making it possible to maintain long-term and quite possible flip your weight trend towards losing weight. It won't be a 1-week wonder, but it would likely end up as a solution you can keep yourself to. Of course, that only really works if you are only slowly gaining weight or are stagnant with it.
"Acedemia wouldn't be acedemia if everyone could just agree on a definition and move on." Amen, Sabine! 😁 Here in the US, junk food is all too easy to come by, there is candy, snacks, sugary drinks in places there never used to be twenty and thirty years ago. Snacks are now available in auto parts stores, pet stores, department stores that don't sell any other food; they are usually placed by the checkout lines or service desk, so while you are waiting in line, bored, you will take a snack to eat in the car on the way home.
Impulse purchasing, baby! They know a whole bunch of people are gonna see those candies and impulsively buy one, because their ape brain says "I LIKE THAT" and it's already over, it's already in their hand ready to scan at the register 👌🏻
A friend of mine looked into the viability of opening and alternative fuel station in our area. He did lots of research but the most telling came from interviewing owners of gas stations. They make very little money off of selling gas, their profits come from all the items they sell in the store. The gas price is just the hook of getting customers to stop at that store vs another one. One owner interviewed said that he owned a candy, beer and cigarette store that also happened to sell gas.
I would do anything to hear Sabine say “your mothers weight is such a medical concern that when she sits around the house, she in fact, sits AROUND the house”
Sabine: I fought the battle of the bulge for many years, when I was 40 I had been around 175lbs, trim etc from running and Atkins diet. Crap happened and I stopped exercise. Over the next 28 years or so I gave up and reached the 220+lbs state of rotundness. Then at age 68 or so I had had enough. Going thru UA-cam videos on weight loss I came across a number of MD's Dr. Jason Fung being an example. These are the leaders in the Keto diet idea. I am an engineer and much of the message made sense. #1 it is not how much you eat but rather 'what' you eat. In the course of about 18 months I lost more than 50lbs. Mostly by strictly avoiding carbohydrates, especially sugar. I did this from my recliner without any exercise. When I saw the title for this video I thought oh no, she is a physicist - here comes the calorie argument again,... So thank you for not doing that and giving an excellent overview of the science. I suspect that the problem is as simple as too many carbs and too much processed foods including the 'seed' oils etc. It is easy to make this way to difficult and scientists love to explore - write papers and argue. They also get paid by the food industry etc in order to make foggy supportive reports that keep the scientist in money and the government out of the food industry. The processed food industry is huge and does control people like those at the American Heart Association, and others. They do so to maintain profit just like the tobacco in the past. The one aspect of your analysis that I find missing is the timeline of the growth of obesity. One only needs to look at pictures from the 60's and 70's to see that we Americans were more fit back then. What the difference ? Please explore the packaged food industry, the Senate support for the food pyramid, and the response of the Soda people like Coke and Pepsi. Final note: if everyone turned the food pyramid upside down, we would all be better off. Everyone go back to bacon and eggs, leave the donuts alone and thumbs up it will be. -- P.S. Now at 70 and 170lbs I actually feel like exercise, and I am now doing so daily.
Good comment, however I have a couple of things to point out. One is that there are plenty of independent studies done on obesity that are not biased by the food industry. The other thing is that the calorie argument is fundamentally correct, but what someone is eating and their genetics/age etc will all influence how much energy is extracted and consequently stored from food. At the bottom line, if you are in a calorie defecit each day, there is physically no way you won't lose weight. Like I said before however, this will happen at different rates for different people based on the aforementioned factors.
@@HolyMith many disagreements - but I am not gonna waste my time trying to convince you. Except the calorie argument is bull shit. The human body is not a linear system. It's 'what' calories you eat that is important. Not how many as per convention. cheers
You mentioned the puzzling case of Nauru. In fact, other Polynesian nations like Tonga also range very high. The explanation is that the polynesian expansion by boat travel over many weeks gave an genetic advantage to people that are particularly good in storing carbos.
Exactly, fat people survived long sea vogages to breed more survival fatties. Now they are paying for it. Lots of islanders in my neighbourhood, not many skinny ones. Great rugby players though. Never pick a fight with one either, very tribal.
There is an alternative explanation: these two islands eat highly-processed foods that were introduced during the Colonial Era. Luncheon meat, evaporated milk, and pork flaps are all part of the diet and excessive consumption of these calorie-dense foods is implicated in the excessive weight gain. The Pacific Islands and Mexico constitute a natural experiment for studying the effect of the introduction of processed foods.
@@marcowen1506 In my suburb with islanders and African refugees, only the Africans have any skinny ones but they are tall too. Also some chubbies. The few whites skinnies are obvious smokers, nicotine not food addicted.
For the first time ever, in my 60 years of life I gained weight. 32lb in one month (March 2020), correlating with COVID-19 infection, and a work furlough. Initially a curiosity, my humor turned darker now buying 'fat' clothes. And breathing much harder with even regular walking and climbing subway stairs. Whatever the inciting cause: I struggled for 18 months to figure out how to lose the now unwanted fat package. Three key bullet points: 1. I cut my calorie intake by 30% 2. I walk 10,000 steps a day. 3. I quit alcohol. My body mass index dropped from 29.5 to 22.9 within 3 months. I sympathize much more now with the obese. The road to a healthier body isn't easy. But it's do-able.
It also gets harder to lose weight the more you keep it on....your body tends to gravitate to what it was before - if you're newly overweight, that helps you. If you've been overweight for decades, that works against you. Glad you were able to make a change early!
@@rashkavar Physically speaking it's no different, losing 1kg of fat is exactly the same no matter how long someone's been in an unhealthy situation. It's that person living a lifestyle that puts them in a calorie surplus, they need to change the lifestyle to put themselves in a calorie deficit instead. That sucks because they've become addicted to the dopamine hit that happens whenever the stomach is full and there is a surplus of sugar in the blood. Or prehistoric brains do this to encourage us to retain as many calories as possible because we didn't know when our next mean would be.
@@palladin9479 That would be true if we didn't have an endocrine system, but we do. The body regulates metabolism to maintain weight at a set level over a long term. This is why dieters have their weight plateau and then go back up while keeping on their diet.
@@rashkavar Again unless there is a white hole in the stomach spewing new mater into existence, the carbohydrates had to get inside you somehow. It really is just a matter of calorie in vs calorie out. Everything else is just why some folks feel hungrier then others or want to eat more then others. Super easy and time proven experimentation proves this. Take an overweight human, put them in a room and feed them lower calories then their BMR, observe the results over six to eighteen months. They always lose body fat, as observed from medieval dungeons.
After using Doctor Alued on UA-cam herbal treatment i was cured from Obesity after living with the Stigma for years, i highly Recommend his UA-cam channel [ Doctor Alued ] if you are living with Obesity After two months HE also sent my SON Herpes cure now his HSV FREE ,,,
While getting checked in for surgery I was weighed and all that, I'm in athlete shape at the time. Nurse looks at me and says, " you're obese". I flexed my near zero fat arm and popped out my neck muscles and replied "Bruh,,,," He just looked at me and said "yeah I know, the chart says I'm supposed to say that" lol.
@@michaelblacktree Back in the day when i was 19-20 i was 'morbidly obese', i could bench twice my weight, deadlift 700lbs, i'd beach run about 5 miles a day, swim about as far, and bike about 20 miles a day in between skateboarding and other stuff. But since i'm like 250lbs and 6' tall, according to the chart i'm way over. But the chart doesn't account for large frames, i've got massive bones like tree trunks, size 16-17 feet, extra tendons, literally 'built different'. I skateboard downhill, once i had my buddy who is about 140lbs blow a line and run right into my shins at about 30mph. He wrapped around me like a tree trunk and ragdolled down the mountain a bit more while it didn't budge me a single bit. I felt bad, for him it was like hitting a concrete post planted in the road, zero give lol. The charts are an average taken like a hundred boomer years ago when the 'average' person was smaller and slimmer, now the average is like 40% body fat and diabetic, and the charts are pretty much unattainable goals for most unless they don't eat anything but a fresh, non poisoned and irradiated diet of nonprocessed foods, sensible portions, fresh air, clean water and exercise. But we all know y'all don't roll like that, that's why the 'average' is your walmart shopper.
About 10 years ago my GP looked at my BMI and said, "I've never told anybody this before, but you could stand to gain some weight." So I did. Got a little pudgy, but I didn't like how it felt, so kicked up the exercise and dropped my weight back down and won't listen to a doctor staring at a BMI chart about nutrition advice again 🙃
@@thefaboo Hmm... some of the old tables about mortality risk are distorted by a correlation between low weight and consumption (being the old word for tuberculosis). Actuarial science is about averages across all policyholders not about what is right for the individual. There is an old joke about the Actuary drawing a map by looking out of the back window of the car - in life the back window of the past is the only one with a big field of view.
@@andrewharrison8436 Yeah BMI is bollocks. It assumes you have a trivial amount of muscle mass. It's like talking of speed causing accidents on the roads. It's easy to measure and do demo stats. The reality is life is more complex and the thing to measure is probably not easily measurable, like the persons attention to the road while driving.
I've had 3 weight loss surgeries. (My weight peaked twice at about 170KG. For reference I am 170cm tall.) A laparoscopic band, followed several years later with it's removal as it had become blocked and I could even get water down. This did get get my weight down to about 90 to 95KG. After it's removal my weight ballooned to about 170KG again. Then I had a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery. Again my weight again got down to 90KG but has again snuck up to 140 to 145 KG. I am now 58yo. I eat only small portions over food but the weight just gradually goes on over time. I don't regret having had the Roux-en-Y surgery as it at least gave me a 10 year reprieve. P.S. I enjoy your videos.
Good video! I didn't find any false information in it, although I wish it delved a bit more deeply on the issue of carbohydrates and insulin resistance, and how they affect fat storage and retention. Modern dietary guidance tells us to eat primarily carbohydrates, and that eating fat makes us fat. When in actuality, eating carbohydrates causes the body to spike insulin production, which prevents burning stored body fat, and tells the body to convert glucose in the blood stream into more body fat. Plus we eat constantly nowadays, which never gives our bodies a chance to enter a low insulin state and actually burn off stored fat. Going low carb, or using a time-restricted eating schedule helps do that. As for fat around the organs (visceral fat), it's worth mentioning that fructose can only be processed by the liver, so when we eat fructose-heavy foods, or foods with high-fructose corn syrup, it puts the entire metabolic load onto the liver itself. This also causes the liver to become fatty. And a fatty liver cannot properly regulate sex hormones, leading to all sorts of systemic problems throughout the body, including lethargy. And if you're lethargic, you're exercising less, which makes the problem of obesity even worse.
This is what i have learned from Dr Ekberg's videos. I am convinced that with this knowledge i can control my weight en health for the rest of my life, maybe even extend my healthspan, live longer and with good health. I'm very grateful and empowered.
According to the Insulin Hypothesis, people with insulin resistance would lose more weight in a low carb diet compared to a high carb diet, but research indicates they lose the same amount of fat. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35088407/ And about HFCS, foodsciencebabe explains it well and even links some studies, but TLDW its all about marketing, making people scared about cheaper foods so we'll buy their expensive foods, same with "non-gmos" and "organic" foods ua-cam.com/video/DX0Vx1AxtC4/v-deo.html So maybe this is why Sabine didn't mention carbs as being the sole reason for us getting fatter, but rather processed foods (which tend to be denser in carbs and fats alike).
Oh yeah Dr Ekberg is awesome. Check out the channel "low carb down under" too. Really incredible long form presentations there. Some of their stuff is life changing.
If my career counselor had pitched to me that having a STEM degree would mean I could dryly tell people "I am just a [physicist] but..." then I would have chosen one of those as a career path.
What a great video Sabina, thank you. I first became aware of diet after stumbling across an amazing lecture by Robert Lustig which was posted 13 years ago titled "Sugar, the bitter truth" which has gained 24m views to date. I was totally flabbergasted how he managed to explain the real reasons we have a World crisis concerning obesity today. Since retiring 6 years ago, I got arthritis in my hips and ability to walk became painful. I rapidly started gaining weight and have reduced my diet to under half. I now eat no processed food including bread, crisps (the list goes on!). My diet consists mostly of some red meat, fish and lots of steamed veg which I cover in hot butter (Kerrygold) including potatoes. I am 71 years old and weigh 130lbs. 4lbs heavier than in my 20's. I will have to add that in many deprived areas in the World, people have no option but to buy cheap, processed JUNK because they don't have the funds (or knowhow) to seek healthier options. This is an issue that should be seriously addressed by governments in all countries and the blame can only be pointed to the "Big Fat Food Giants" because they simply don't care!!
As a cardiologist I appreciate that you've appraised several hypotheses or contributors to obesity. This emphasizes the fact that obesity is a multifactorial problem. I think that every obese person's story has unique elements which have to be taken into consideration while not losing sight of what realistically are the biggest causes. In my patient population I've observed that excessive carbohydrate intake is a common theme and for those that are able to address this the results are quite positive (not just weight loss but also a reduction in blood pressure, blood sugar and LDL cholesterol and triglycerides). I don't think there are specific "magic" foods that people need to add or subtract that will suddenly result in weight loss. Psychological factors that influence eating and excercise/activity level are also very important.
I'm not sure why carbs didn't get more mention in this video. All the other things she talks about are peripheral at best. If you cut out the carbs, which by definition cuts out nearly all processed food, those other things simply do not matter.
@@BuckMulligan72 The difference is in this video she cited the major scientific studies that explored the various possible causes of obesity and to be fair she did say the scientific evidence linking excessive intake of sugars (or carbs if you insist) and obesity are so overwhelming. You on the other hand, claimed that those other factors that she mentioned were "peripheral at best" and your source is trust me bro. I understand that this is just a UA-cam comment but no one has ever won a Nobel Prize for this method of inquiry. But since you appear comfortable with anecdotal claims, I'd like to make one myself: for a lot of people (citation unneeded) "cutting out the carbs" would mean the woman in a traditional family will not be able to work because she has to spend time cooking for the husband and children 3 healthy unprocessed meals a day. Vegetables and fruits don't last long in your fridge (assuming you have one) and that means more frequent trips to the grocery store. Good breads (that meet the definition of breads per EU regulations) cannot be pleasantly consumed past the second day of purchase, so she has to rise earlier than everyone else every other day just to get that wholemeal sourdough from the baker. Shall we eat that bread with shelf-stable margarine? Yikes that contains trans-fat and it's "processed". So no jams and no Nuttella either. If hand-churned butter is out of the question too, then she shall need to prepare stew too. One without bacon for that extra umami because that's a lot of nitrites as preservatives. That's just for breakfast. If you'd like to make exceptions for bacon, Nutella or American sandwich loaf, then congratulations you're like most of us who don't really have realistic choices when it comes to "cutting out the carbs". And then you might begin to look at things which may worsen obesity in your family with a full awareness that you can't just cut out the carbs as a simple one-size-fits-all solution.
@@tetleydidley What a bizarre comment. I'm aware that she briefly mentions sugar. The actual science, not anecdote, is very clear that carbs are the cause of obesity. The other things she mentions are either peripheral (lack of exercise, genes, lack of sleep, stress), are actually caused by the intake of carbohydrates (microbiome issues, micronutrient deficiency), or they simply don't even matter at all (viruses, plastic). You (and she) are missing the forest for the trees.
If I look at old movies, I notice that leisure time was spent differently. Most people danced at least once a week. Fewer people owned cars, so there was more walking, too.
I was always thin and ate whatever I wanted and my weight never varied by more than a pound or two.. In my 40's I developed symptoms that were associated with allergy to glutens, so my doctor advised abstaining from wheat products. Within 6 weeks I lost 10 lbs even though I didn't restrict or alter my diet in any other way. It surprised me how many food products contain wheat, many of which we refer to as "processed" foods.
There's a lot here. It makes me appreciate the complexity of the problem. Endocrine disrupters... hormones are critical on&off switches for our bodies. The body's hormone balance is incredibly sensitive.
I switched from Imperial to Metric just to make my waistline measurement become 1.0. And mom smoked from her teen years until she died of lung cancer in her seventies.
This has by far become one of my favorite channels. The joke about why a certain part of you is never on the screen is just hilarious, especially in the dry way it was told 😂
Using a "percent increase" as a marker is a bit like saying a certain city is the "fastest growing". It's meaningless without knowing the starting point, and it's probably being used because the actual increase is insignificant. A 50% increase from 0.1% is... 0.15%; pretty much exactly the same.
I have to wonder what role incomplete medical data plays in this. Like, Hashimoto disease affects thyroid, which is going to affect various metabolic processes, but not all Hashimoto disease cases are diagnosed, which means that a lot of the corresponding metabolic effects simply don't get accurately traced.
I am overweight, not obese but on the edge of being so. Why? Because I eat too much, as I wrongly see food as a reward and a reassuring partner when I'm stressed or sad. I also eat way too quickly without realising that I eat more than I actually need to.
Hi Sabine. The people of Naru weren't fat until the bread and sugar came along. Spiking their insulin and addiction to sugar is, I believe is the root of the problem.
It's the same with a lot of Pacific islands (Guam, Philipines etc), and it mostly relates to the end of WWII when their markets were suddenly flooded with goods from the US and cheap meat like "spam" which is high in fat and low in nutrition but with a long shelf life, there's a reason a generation of Baby Boomers from those islands knows how to make a spam and rice style dish. A lot of their diet consists of white rice, instant noodles, other imported Westernized foods and soda with very little fruits and vegetables. So yeah the "westernisation" of the food available that occurred during globalisation damaged their relationship with food.
Lol. Do Nauruvians sit around with bags of sugar stuffing their mouth? If not, they're not addicted to sugar. All people have a propensity to seek sweetness in food.
Thank you for leaving out the common response the medical community falls back on “lack of willpower.” I equate this unmeasured, untreatable cause to blaming witchcraft.
I'm a fat guy that is learning about fasting. I learned something just last week I found incredibly interesting. The body can be fooled. No calorie flavored water can fool the body to produce insulin and make you feel hungry. Diet pop can fool the body and make you feel hungry. The body gets keyed up to think more food is on the way. While fooled it won't burn fat. The information I read said that if you go cold turkey on food and just drink water, the body will not be fooled and burn fat after your stored fuel is depleted. I've been drinking diet pop for years. I found that tiny piece of information amazing. I hope they ain't lyin' again. (You also feel less hungry without the diet pop.)😊
@@daniellarson3068 If you haven't come across it already, I highly recommend the book "The Obesity Code" - it's a quite in depth analysis of the insulin hypothesis that goes pretty much as technical as you can get without needing in depth medical training in order to understand it. Side note: if you're anything like me, it will make you incredibly angry at the traditional dietary establishment. There's a bunch of studies the author dug up that were unpublished because the results violated the calorie counting strategy that the medical community largely assumed was accurate...effectively burying the scientific evidence that calorie counting is a fool's errand.
That's a silly equivalency. Willpower is generally used as a catch all term for things like lifestyle choices, habits, the ability to build habits, and the priority one gives to their own health. All of which measurably affect weight gain and are necessary components to treat problems associated with weight gain.
@@La0bouchere But it's equally lacking in understanding and application in solving the problems that need to be solved. By your argument, willpower is equally an important part of treating heart disease or asthma. Technically it is, but it's the doctor's job to provide understanding of the condition and how to manage it, not just say "be better at managing it!"
I like how we express a personal problem in economics. Because we do not care about the individual but do care about losing abstract amounds of money. Humanity at its best.
She would last 10 seconds as a stand up comedian, I started off thinking, heck she should not bother with the jokes….but now I rather like it ..maybe should could do stand up. (Mind you I am a lot worse…just ask my wife)
I will disagree on this one, not because it's wrong but rather because it's misleading. I think this should be rather titled "What to blame obesity on?" While there is a lot of factors that contirbute to obesity, most of these are either minor or indirect (and could be categorized as why people are inactive and overeating). We could easily add here the modern media trend of encouraging people to not care about their appearance and promoting oversize model aesthetic, leading to some simply not wanting to lose weight. Reasons why someone feels lazy, hungry or simply does not have time or will to exercise are countless and blaming it on those can be a bit distracting from the main solution to the problem. Or we should just be more bold and blame it on capitalizm, culture, education, democracy etc. Also some of the causation here also goes both ways - poor health leads to more obesity and more obesity leads to even poorer health... We could also just simplify it and say that controlling body weight is hard.
It's not hard. It's extremely easy. What's hard is ignoring the advertising and brightly colored boxes. Anyone who tells you it's hard is selling you something. Changing your grocery list is free (and will save you money as you buy less)
@@punchkitten874 the simple answer is ‘move to Japan’ [Slime Mold Time Mold - A Chemical Hunger], but most people can’t do that. Food and eating are very tied to psychology & changing habits can be extremely hard for some people. Even doing the Potato Diet is hard for some people.
@@punchkitten874 thankfully I’m not genetically or mentally predisposed to over-eat, but telling an obese person “just eat less!” is like telling a depressed person “just get out of bed!”
@@johnferguson4869 I never said eat less, I said eat differently. The reason you save money is because you're not trying to feed a carb habit anymore. When you get off the metabolic rollercoaster of carb-crash-carb-crash, you stop feeling like you gotta eat every two hours. Many low carb folks eat just once a day without hunger or nutritional issues. Buy the same amount of calories as you always do at the grocery store - just avoid filling that tally with carbs. Not hard. Not hard at all
Calories in vs calories out is all that really matters as far as weight loss/gain. Any competitive body builder knows that. Different things can affect hunger, but it’s the calorie balance that determines if you gain or lose weight. The easiest way to do this is consume less calories. Weight can mean fat or muscle depending on several factors.
It wasn't a problem 30 years back. So what exactly changed? The only answers I can find is, Except food habit and sedentary lifestyle, it's highly unlikely that other factors like genetics can cause this much deviation from standard as those others factors were there 30 years back as well.
More like 50 years - the obesity epidemic dates to the 1970s, and it's no longer 2000. Still way too short to be a variance in genetics - variance in generics might help predict which people get fat in a given population, but the cause of the increased obesity in the population as a whole is clearly not a sudden genetic shift.
Excellent video!! And Sabine, the "bottom" joke was perfectly timed and perfectly placed! Thank you so much for this video. My sons were unlucky enough to inherit their father's body build instead of mine, and I have worked for a long time to help them best that issue. I don't get to help their father any more, as he chose to leave me (us) after 40 years together. Long, painful story, but one I have yet to get over, after 2 years. Still, stress is absolutely a huge issue, especially the relationship trouble one... going through a painful divorce I never wanted made me have to do drastic things to beat that particular nightmare. The plastics and other pollution thing, I totally believe. The smoking thing? Nah, I was always skinny, until I got disabled, and that & stress wrecked my eating/exercise balance. And Mom smoked nearly her whole adult life. She lived to 83, was skinny her whole life, too, so I inherited being skinny from her.
@@gordonquickstad well, I wasn't talking about what _time_ in the video it was at. I was talking about timing in reference to humor, to how to tell a joke ‐ _that_ kind of timing! 😄
This raises an important question: Has it been scientifically proven that eating more makes us fat? If so, the primary cause of obesity is known, though I would argue we don't need additional research to explain to us that matter doesn't disappear. If not, obesity research is likely being derailed by popular sentiment, as the inference is iron-clad and an empirical study would take a week or two and a few extra meals to carry out. Of course, I'm just being facetious to make a point: People like to lie about why they're fat, which is why there's so much nonsense going around, which is why this video is necessary.
Something I have always experienced living in different climates is the effect of temperature in the house. When we had issues with our air conditioning or spent more time in the hot sun, I ate less. In the winter I tend to eat more and put on a little even if I am exercising in the house. Makes me wonder if A/C is the thing to blame. I remember a time before the A/C in the house and the suffering a hot house would impose. It took all your energy just to try to resist the unpleasantness. Central A/C wasn't common when I was a kid, nobody in town really had it. Now it is ubiquitous.
I'm from further north and similarly have always wondered about central heating. Houses used to be cold & we burned calories to keep warm. Now we all have central heating turned up to tropical temperatures, we eat more but burn less to warm ourselves. I have observed that the worst central heating addicts tend to be the roundest.
I lost 60 lbs. I dropped flours, sweeteners, additives, seed oils and potatoes. I also used intermittent fasting-- actual fasting along with spaced meals. In addition, I kept the calorie count under 1000 per day. Having tried these strategies individually, only the combination made a significant difference. Now, I can induce inflammatory gain of 5 lbs in 1 day by eating the wrong foods, even in a relatively small quantity .
GI diet + physical activity. Replace processed food with real food, and take staircase instead of escalator/elevator. If you work in office, take a 1hour high paced walk a day.
Poor diet and lack of physical activity. As soon as I changed that my health issues evaporated. It was like i was driving my body with the e-break on, and never changing the fluids. I found it was not about will, but desire, and what I was willing to pay for the body I wanted. Everyday I simply make choices that get me closer to my ideals. I will definitely add this knowledge to my metrics.
My own experience has been interesting. For my entire life, I have been as skinny as a rail - of course, I have also been a ball of energy, literally vibrating in place in some cases. This has slowed down as I got older and I got out of the military. I have always found weight gain (even in muscle mass) to be extremely difficult. No amount of food seemed to change the equation. Some how, or some way, my body used to burn it off without a second thought. The metabolism of envy.... Then, my weight increased into the "technically obese" range for my height category. Though, frankly, I am still very thin relative to my peer group. Regardless, I also noticed changes in my energy levels and general sleep cycle. It became difficult to wake up and I started developing pains in my ankles - like the sensation of a tendon recovering from workout strain.... that just never seemed to go away. After I decided to go on a short fast and had my energy levels almost immediately adjust after a 24 hour fast and pains in my ankles go away, I extended my fast to 3 days and went on a nutritive ketosis based diet for 3 weeks. While I didn't have any lab work done, I have my suspicions that it was rooted in insulin resistance and inflammation from high blood sugar (and possibly higher urea levels as well, if my kidneys were inflamed and not doing what they should). I am back on a more normal diet (just easier on the carbs), now - but plan to generally adopt a ketogenic diet for a month starting in January every year, just to give my body a break from having carbohydrates slam insulin levels into the stratosphere and restore sensitivity. I've lost a good 10-15lbs, since. I suspect a significant factor in obesity in America, at least, is that our diet is so high in carbs and this causes generally high insulin levels. I read, but have not confirmed, that muscle tissue develops a resistance to insulin far more quickly than fat - if our insulin levels are high, muscles do not take in sugar nearly like fat does, which could throw off perceptions of energy levels (and therefore activity - which results in fat gain being preferential and more difficult for people to work off without focus).
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing. What was your fast like for that first day and the three after? How many hours did you fast and did you drink water, or consume nothing at all? And for carbs, did you just eliminate foods made with flour, or potatoes and fruits too? I've always avoided even trying keto because I'm not committed to eating that way for the rest of my life, but I might try your method of a few weeks and see how it works.
@@vanityshop5155 My reading on things suggests that keto is probably not, in the long term, healthy for most people. The reason is in the reliance on ingestion of trans fats, which counteract the benefits seen in keto after about three months (give or take). The diabetic community is a good one to look into as they have regular blood sugar level monitoring and insulin response metrics. You can do keto without trans fats... but that's just not economically realistic for most people. My first 24 hours was just water. It was rather odd, as I did not really feel hungry. I found myself waking up ahead of my alarm and being clear headed when doing so. The second day, I was mostly water, but got a can of V8 at work. By this time, I was starting to get a bit of hunger/crave for food. Because I hadn't prepared for this decision at all, I got some salami sticks out of the vending machine at work the next day. I basically set a target of less than 20 carbs per day and removed effectively all starches and grains from my diet. I tried a few keto bread alternatives and stocked up on mozzarella cheese. Even made a pizza with one (it wasn't too bad and the recipe had a cooking down of the sauce that my friends and I all agreed was a better way to go about making one). At first, I was mainly on water, but I expanded into some zero sugar offerings to keep myself sane. I deduced that Wendy's caesar salad was not breaking my carb budget and would get that when I needed fast food. When I worked at said wendy's several years ago, we used to have a lady come through an ask for a cheeseburger without the bun, and we served it in the half-salad container (not sure if they still have those). Though I didn't resort to that, myself. Technically, dietary fiber and carbs are supposed to cancel out in keto, so you can deduct dietary fiber from carb intake, but I just took aim at removing carbs in all forms. A point of caution - many artificial sweeteners are still likely to trigger an insulin response and therefore ne a bit counterproductive. I love tea and I like it sweet (I like a bit of tea with my sugar), so this was a challenge to resolve as aspartame both triggers a mild insulin response and blows out your gut microbes, but many of the others that don't damage your gut also trigger an insulin response. I ultimately settled on xylitol because it neither prompts an insulin response nor damages the gut biome.... but is a mild laxative. I couldn't ever get it to taste quite right with tea, but that could be because I was using too much. It is, however, toxic to dogs (and I have one) ... extremely so. She's a great pyrennes that gets into everything, so I made sure to keep it up and in a latched container as well as to rinse any dishes used with it. Cooking with it was out of the question because almost invariably, the dog would end up eating it when she destroys the trashcan or raids the sink. It just takes one moment of neglect, there. Xylitol does produce an extremely intense insulin response in dogs and they basically go hypoglycemic, comatose, and die as all the sugar gets pulled out of their blood. Not all sugar substitutes are zero calorie, either. Stevia, for example, comes with carbs. If you're like me and enjoy having a sweet liquid to consume in potentially unhealthy quantities - these can add up pretty quick. There are bread-like alternatives you can make with mozarella cheese, a bit of butter, cream cheese, baking powder, and either coconut flour or almond flour. You can use these for making a hamburger, pizza, etc. I wouldn't worry too much about the carb count of the veggies on a burger - but you do want to consider what sauce you're putting on a pizza. This pseudo-bread is extremely high calorie relative to normal bread and I mainly used it for the likeness of bread, functionally. IE - for a burger. You could use it as something like a biscuit or bread with a roast-like-thing - but its caloric density and cost are probably a bit much for that role. Pizza crusts, burger buns.... maybe some kind of taco or burrito shell (never tried making a hard shell with one) - but a dinner biscuit/roll, toast, etc is probably not on the menu, even though you can make it, it's not really what this type of bread is for. From my local diner, I'd order a hamburger steak and cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is one of those that can vary widely between brands as to exactly what it is, so I didn't go full ham on incorporating cottage cheese into my diet. Cheese is generally 'safe,' but lactose is a sugar and so dairy is not generally 'safe.' Fruits... generally a no. They usually have way too much sugar. We are talking -a- grape or -a- blackberry (well... mine are as big as grapes, but that's another story). Even -a- strawberry will put most people over budget for their keto diet. There is some research that shows after people enter a ketogenic diet for a period of time, they can avoid being kicked out of ketosis with carb intakes up to around 60 grams per day, possibly even higher - but most people can't afford to accurately test blood ketone levels to determine whether or not they are in ketosis, either... I did not experience the keto flu. My brother, who tried keto while in the marines under dietary supervision, could not get past the keto flu and always broke down. There is no definitive research I am aware of on exactly who experiences keto flu or what can be done to limit it, but I suspect it is coupled to weight. My brother has significantly greater fat reserves than myself and there was some research I ran across years ago that discussed how fat, particularly visceral fat (the type marbled into our muscles) releases hormones and other chemical signals when it is forced to remit its fat reserves. Effectively, fat gets upset when it shrinks and tries to convince the body to conserve calories. I suspect the keto flu is tied to this - people with more visceral fat are probably much more prone to the keto flu than those who are thinner or have cutaneous fat. I also can't say I really experienced strong cravings for "the real thing", either. After about 3 weeks, I did finally decide I wanted a zebra cake - but it wasn't as part of a craving so much as it was me having done what I set out to do and was tired of not allowing myself the option. It's worth noting that I don't think I am particularly normal in how I handle 'self control' in that regard. I'm not sure how to describe it - but when I do things like that, I just don't give myself the option to do the things I am not supposed to do. I'm not denying myself a thing I want, the thing I want does not allow me to choose certain options, even if I have a desire for them. If that makes any sense. I'm not sure if it is a learned ability that can be explained and passed along, or if it's somehow rooted in a gene expression. When I see the zebra cake, it's a thing I can't have, not something I want. The thing I want requires that to be excluded as an option. Or maybe that was normal and people just don't normally develop control? I dunno.
@@psi9899 Generally skeptical. I have seen a number of studies indicate that a keto diet relieved liver damage from fatty liver diseases. Although I could understand how there could be problems over a long period of time or with a more "faddish" take on the diet for that period of time. Having someone eat steak and salad for 9 months is very different from having someone eat baccon and cheese for 9 months. Since the liver is responsible for processing fats into glucose as well as some ketones, it stands to reason that being on keto for a long period of time could cause some liver damage or see the liver skew toward being a fat store (which makes sense if it is now mediating your blood glucose and ketone levels). To put it into context, soda and sugar/hfcs consumption is probably the biggest contributor to non-alcaholic fatty liver disease, which is "a silent pandemic" according to health articles I am seeing in my review of some stuff to make sure I haven't missed anything glaring as a study. Also, it may not make sense to you... but does the number 7 or the ringing of a telephone have any particular meaning to you outside the mundane? Strange question if not, but ... sometimes things seem to happen and it's impossible to not connect dots. It's difficult to explain... but let's say you are reading a book... then, you get into a discussion on one part of the internet and see some references to something only a few people would know about you - or who seem to signal you. Then, someone named after a rather unique place in the book makes a comment. It is more interesting if it is not part of a witting plan than if it were, no?
Thank you for taking on these difficult topics. Obesity is such a difficult topic. The changes in the western world's diet has to be a factor. Your analysis is very helpful. A follow up video on treatments would be very welcome. Thank you.
Hilarious how effortlessly you drop such dry humor! Keep it coming! At a certain age, it becomes *very difficult to lose intra-abdominal fat. While I can’t pinch more than ½ inch on my waist, my waist remains 44”. Tho I’m nearly as strong as ever, I tire quicker and with labored breathing --due to the pressure in my abdomen, I can puff and blow after *2 flights of stairs that I take 2 at a time, age 70. Tho I lost 25# with a high-protein, lowered carb diet, I’m now *struggling to get smaller, despite caloric deficit and aerobic exercise to fatigue 3x+ per week, and low-output exercise 7 of 7 DPW. I’m the size my dad was at this age and want to live longer than he did!
I wouldn't have expected anything less from you, Sabine, but thanks for being thorough and then summarizing your findings concisely. I especially appreciate that wasn't a video that boiled obesity down to simply too many calories and not enough exercise.
That in reality is what it is at the end of the day. You can claim many factors make you over-eat if you like. However at its basic form, the laws of thermodynamics apply 100% of the time. It is impossible to gain additional body tissue without extra energy to do so.
@@Ryan_DeWitt Yes, the laws of thermodynamics apply 100%. But one question remains: Why do even people who keep so many calories in their fat depots that they could supply their entire body with energy for more than 6 months still feel hungry, often even ravenously hungry? And the answer is: Because their brain is no longer connected to fat metabolism, the most powerful metabolism of the human organism. Their brain is no longer able to use ketone bodies for energy supply, even if they are offered by the organism.
One potential (and I think significant) cause is not mentioned: psychological factors. In my case, if I'm feeling stressed, fatigued, or ill I feel a strong craving to eat. Eating makes me feel better, and as I grow older, I find I am more fatigued than earlier, and so I eat more. My wife, on the other hand, is naturally thin. When she feels stressed, fatigued or ill she finds the idea of eating repulsive. The urge to eat to overcome feeling uncomfortable is something I acquired at a young age, and today many years later it is very difficult to resist. The cause was probably sociological, likely my entire family would eat when they felt badly. The solution for me is elusive: Just wanting a solution evaporates when I feel poorly. It means even though I badly want to eat, I have to resist the temptation, and my emotional want contradicts that. That is, I need to replace a powerful emotional want with a distracting rational want. My experience is that people who don't feel the need to eat to combat stress, fatigue or feeling badly because of illness have no idea how it affects the rest of us. There is precious little help on the internet in how to have your rational "shoulds" overpower you emotional "wants". Most of us would agree, I think, that if at an early age we had learned how to resist emotional urges with reason, that today our lives would be immeasurably improved. Something for schools to consider.
She did mention stress as a factor. Social or psychological conditioning will absolutely affect a person's relationship with food. Over consuming was the first suggested cause though, even if it didn't get into the reasons why too much food is consumed. My best suggestion for your predicament is doing your best to make better choices when you are buying the food, or have your wife get the groceries. That way when the cravings/stressful emotional wants drive you to eating, you are at least making better choices for your body to try and sate those feelings. Fresh fruits, vegetables, beans, and other foods rich in fiber can both leave you feeling more satiety, and also boost your micronutrient consumption.
One theory regarding stress and eating is inflammation. Stress causes a sort of mild inflammatory stomach ache. Eating soothes that stomach ache. Some foods cause higher levels of inflammation and some temporarily reduce it. When I'm stressed I have 100% cooking chocolate. It doesn't taste great, but a few bites and it, for me, significantly reduces physical inflammation within a few minutes. It doesn't help with the psychological side of stress, but it helps when I have a mild stomach ache caused by stress or other causes. 100% chocolate is a lot like a bitter peanut butter, so it coats the inside of the stomach lining, and it's an antioxidant, an anti-inflammatory. Some foods (ultra highly processed and fast food) increase inflammation in the long term, but can reduce inflammation in the short term. This can turn into a cycle of eating to feel better.
Whenever I'm feeling down or stressed out, I isolate and sleep.. I just won't have an appetite and I would never have an energy to do anything. I would just lie down on my bed until feeling better. So instead of becoming fat, I've become a sleepy head lol. My reaction/response to a stressful stimuli is freezing and flight than fighting..
Yeah, I had the same issue as a kid. Facing the problems that were causing me stress helped. Not all stressors can be instantly removed from life so a therapist helps.
Try replacing the things you eat with healthier options. Replace sugary biscuits with vita weats or a savoury snack instead. It quells that sensation of needing to eat something while also not inducing extra sugar in your diet. When you go to the pub, instead of having a side of chips, ask for a side of salad instead. All these tiny little adjustments will have a large affect on your health and in 6 months time you'll start to feel better. Combine that with regular exercise (not always achievable depending on the weather and where you live etc) and you'll start to lose weight. It's also not a large change. If you try and completely eliminate every sugary food immediately you'll go into withdrawal
The relationship between weight and exercise is complex. I agree that doing a lot of exercise does not directly cause you to loose weight, but it can help prevent you from gaining fat weight, especially if it causes you to have high muscle mass. The relationship between stress and obesity is probably indirect. In my experience, low-grade chronic stress tends to increase my appetite, but more intense stress reduces my appetite. The gut microbiome probably plays a large role in regulating the sensations of hunger and satiation.
No. The gut microbiome is there to help digest food. There is a different microbiome depending on what and how much you eat. I eat just meat. No veggies at all. My micobiome has adjust for this. I now rarely, get gas build up. I just never fart. When I was an omnivore though, I could clear a room. Regulation of hunger comes from the hormones Lepton and Ghrelin. One says you're hungry the other says you're satiated. Having high levels of insulin, throughout the day will seriously screw up those hormones (along with nearly all hormones). Don't eat plants. Have steadily low levels of insulin, and never be hungry again. Eat only meat. Real meat.
@@Technichian462 Extreme diets make no sense. Our ancestors ate whatever they could to survive, and what they ate probably depended on geography and the seasons. We are omnivores. The only thing just about everyone agrees upon is we eat to many refined carbs and not enough fiber, too many trans-fats and sodium and highly processed foods. Also most people do not eat sufficiently diverse diets. Only certain animals such as cats are true carnivores, and even they will occasionally eat plants.
Thank you for the awesome videos. Current weight is 124.7KG. Weight where I really felt good, 99.79KG. US military BMI weight while I served 84.82KG. At the military weight I was always hungry. Also in the Military you eat poorly, with little or no time to get a decent meal. After I got out of the military, I went up to the 99.79 KG weight and I felt good. I had energy and hiked, always doing something with my daughter when she was little, she loved hiking with me. Also sports and time spent at the city park. In the process of this, I found out I hurt myself when I was in the military, and it was getting worse by the year. As the pain got worse, my activity slowed down and my weight went up. My jobs at the time were good for my soul but also not good for my body, assisting the elderly and disabled people. I also had the energy to do extra work for them as well. So my question is, how do I get back to my good weight? When I have tried to get back there to that weight, my body feels like I am torturing it. Especially when I cut carbohydrates, these foods seem to be set up to keep you addicted to them, and in a big way. I could never understand drug addiction, until I cut the carbohydrates and then I realized what it must be like for a person trying to quit drugs. I did gain a whole new sympathy for those poor people. But never once thought it would be from a plate of pasta and a doughnut.
Again a great video. Thanks Sabine. I would be interested in a video on why obesity is a problem. It obviously is more than the extra load you have to carry or the deviation from how we want to look like. As far as I know the fat is not just passive load but is metabolically active and leads to a sort of inflammation. Would be nice to hear in more detail what the fat does to the body.
Basically the size of an adipocyte determines what its adipokine profile is. If you have a fat deposit which is full of small adipocytes, it'll be metabolically healthy. If you have a fat deposit which is full of large adipocytes, it'll be metabolically unhealthy(secreting inflammatory cytokines, insulin resistant, releasing a lot of free fatty acids, etc.). Subcutaneous fat(except for some sub-compartments) expands via hyperplasia(cells number increases, size stays the same)(even in adults). As such, excess subcutaneous fat is metabolically benign. Visceral fat, and metabolically similar sub-compartments of subcutaneous fat, on the other hand expand via hypertrophy(cells size increases, number stays the same). As such, excess visceral fat is metabolically detrimental. I wish Sabine mentioned this stuff more in the video.
Is it inflammation that leads to excess fat being held by the body, or does the excess fat cause inflammation? I suspect inflammation is the underlying problem and fat accumulates as a result
21:02 "If you are interested in a video on possible treatment options for obesity let us know in the comments" Hereby I am letting you know in the comments my interested in a follow up video in possible treatment options. Especially as there is so much half-baked knowledge out-there.
All these reasons contribute i'm sure, but what about the fat, "the fat you eat is the fat you wear" is what dr. Mc Dougall likes to say. The seventh day adventist study also shows this, the vegans in that group being the only ones in normal bmi range. My husband is overweight and is losing weight gradually as we moved away from eating fat and animal products and are eating more starches, whole grains, legumes, veggies and fruit.
Great video as always, Sabine. You forgot to mention isolation and lack of strong human connections (family, friends, community) as a factor (covid lockdowns were a massive example of that for a lot of people). Also, certain forms of child abuse and neglect can have impacts on stress and people's relationship with food and body image in adulthood. We're also learning more about addiction and how similar it is to some people's relationship with food. Big hugs to all doing their best to find ways to manage their food and emotions
Respectfully disagree. Your body image does not contribute to your body composition, only your perceived body composition. Body dysmorphia does not make you fat, it makes you think you are fat.
There are so many contingencies linked to obesity that it is impossible to list all of them, but an important one is politics. Neoliberalism is the primary cause (I believe) of obesity, because predatory capitalism is largely unregulated. Thus, the food industry is able to operate in a murderous fashion with no legal consequences. It is no accident that the US has the highest obesity rate of any large, industrial nation, and that societies that have more developed safety nets, and better medical care - Scandinavian countries, Germany, Netherlands - have relatively less obesity. Asian countries have very low obesity rates - probably related to dietary differences, particularly to resistance to industrial scale assault of fast food. Poverty is also a leading cause of obesity, as healthy foods are priced out of reach for the poor. Italy has one of the lowest rates of obesity of any wealthy, western nation. Traditional Italian food is not stuffed with fat and cheese, but the commercially mutated versions of Italian food marketed in the US will kill you.
Thats not a people relationships problem thats a bad coping mechanism problem. Im a hermit. If i get sad i dont eat my troubles away. I had a bad childhood, i dont eat. There is a difference between correlation and causation. Someone can have all those things and not be fat. Its those that cope with food that get fat. I smoke more weed personally.
@@orionx79 Completely agree Marc. Not everyone who has childhood trauma is going to be obese (me included), not everyone who has childhood trauma is going to get into crime or comit suicide either and I haven't done those things, but I can acknowledge that it's a contributing factor (among many) to such behaviours as suicidation and over-eating in some people. It's been particularly identified in women with childhood sexual abuse who, consciously or subconsciously, attempt to protect themselves by discouraging sexual attention from men by making their bodies less conventionally attractive (i.e. over-eating). Coping with emotional difficulties with substances (drugs, alcohol, food...) or behaviours (gambling, work, sex, obsessive cleaning, social media,...) are all examples of our growing understanding of addictions and what they may represent - a lack of connection, support, community and emotionally mature coping mechanisms. It's great that you've found a way through your difficulties, but it costs you nothing to allow for some empathy for others who are still finding their path.
@@dominic.h.3363 The reference to body image was specifically about certain forms of self-protection behaviours that can occur in some people, often women, who were sexually abused as children and, consciously or sub-consciously, develop over-eating behaviours to develop a less-conventionally physically attractive body in order to reduce sexual attention by men. Trauma protection behaviours are not all the same and there's no direct line saying 'everyone who has this type of trauma will develop this type of behaviour.' But it's a thing.
Putting it another way, my journey to 104kg was greatly assisted by unmedicated ADHD. Post medication saw the weight drop to 85kg - by design. It helps that I now avoid processed foods, although I still have to guard against the late night munchies. That's the time when Ritalin fades, and my brain reaches for a sugar hit - self medication 🤣
I do enjoy that Sabine is taking her citical sence, logic and ability to read scientific studies to cover a wide range of topics that are in dire need of clarification
Excellent thorough round-up by Sabine wth her priceless deadpan delivery of hilarious lines. I put on weight during the lockdown and would love to return to my previous weight, even less would be even better.
Genes don't explain nearly as much as people would like to think Heritable doesn't necessarily mean " genetic " See " the missing heritability problem " for the details
"You exhale it as carbon dioxide." That's about it. Everything else is transient. You eat food and poop it out, you drink fluids and excrete it in various ways. The energy obtained from food is stored/used to run your machinery and the byproduct is CO2. So the way to lose weight is to burn stored energy and exhale the byproduct. And/or store fewer calories. edit: actually I guess you can also lose weight by having a tooth pulled or your gall bladder removed etc.
Don’t wait for Sabine, she hasn’t a clue, judging by this video. You have to reduce the level of insulin in your blood so that the fat can come out of the cells. To lower insulin, you must lower you intake of carbohydrates. Look into low-carb, Atkins, ketogenic diets. Gary Taubes’ book Why We Get Fat would be a good place to start. And plenty of great videos on UA-cam from lots of people like Dr. Jason Fung and Dr. Ken Berry.
@@cure-eater Exactly. It really is that simple. But then again: not smoking is also very easy and still people struggle with it. But yeah: lower your carbs, preferably with intermittent fasting, and you will lose weight. That's it. You don't even actually need exercise, although it helps and it builds muscle.
I learned much of this stuff first from evidence-based bodybuilding channels. These people usually focus on the factors that influence energy intake and expenditure. Interesting to see how a physicist takes a slightly different approach to analyzing the situation. Never really considered that the same body fat % on two different people could have radically different health implications that was facinating.
You blew it when you got to the part about exercise. Most people can't eat enough to keep weight on during long distance hiking (hundreds of miles minimum). Eat all you want. You won't be able to keep the weight on. It works for everyone. But ya have to do it. A lot.
Most people don't have the time, resource or desire to do ludicrously long low intensity cardio sessions; even so its just because you burn a ton of calories over that long hike and likely can't stuff your face enough afterwards to makeup for the calories you burned. But you can also just exercise normally and stick with a consistent diet rather than eating more food after a workout. Studies just pointed out that if all you do to lose weight is exercise than the different is statistically significant but not a huge amount on its own.
One thing to keep in mind about any of these factors is that their effects can be cumulative. If you have two people who are equal in every way except one of them is predisposition to eat just 1% more calories per day, they're not going to look that different after a day, or a week, or a month, or a year. But given enough time, their weight will diverge significantly.
Indeed, and that's why one should avoid excess sugar in daily beverages (coffee, cocoa, tea, mate, or whatever). Increase water and decrease soda/alcohol consumption, etc
Not really. 1% is extremely tiny. In a 2000 calorie diet, thats 20 calories. And sure, given enough time this can add up to a lot, its less than you might think. Between ages of 18 and 60, American men go from an average 150 lbs, to 200 lbs. Most of this seems to happen before they are 40. And gaining 50 lbs over 20 years requires more than double the calories mentioned ealier which was 20 calories. It requires 50 calories extra every day. And 50 calories is only 1% when compared to a 5000 calorie diet. At only 20 extra calories, it would take more than 40 years to pack on 50 lbs of fat.
Really interesting to listen to Sabina ... and also because of nice jokes. The "international" English she speaks is much better than a native one: in the majority of the World - yes, also in USA, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Scotland, ... - everybody understands Sabrina! Many thanks!
"The Damn 'th', that l never learned..." - do you know her song "A Million Miles" ? I'm german too, can emphasize her problems. There's her great video "Speaking English like Einstein", I would recommend. All the best.
This was a very informative video. Thank you, Sabine, for applying your customary lucidity to a subject I've fought with my entire life, with all the associated stigmas and self-recriminations. I have lost 75 pounds (±34 Kg...cursed US obsession with Avoirdupois) in the year that I've been retired. While the sample size is small, I think I'm as close to defining to yet another cause of obesity: your job is making you fat! Makes as much sense as those plastic wrappers I keep forgetting to take off of the Twinkies.
After using Doctor Alued on UA-cam herbal treatment i was cured from Obesity after living with the Stigma for years, i highly Recommend his UA-cam channel [ Doctor Alued ] if you are living with Obesity After two months HE also sent my SON Herpes cure now his HSV FREE ,,,
Obesity is caused by overeating and lack of exercise. Then you might inquire about the reason of overeating, and these are clearly: 1) most people in our modern western societies lead an unhappy a meaningless life and they have relatively easy access to low quality food, so they try to find solace and comfort in overeating. 2) capitalistic economies are fuelled by bombarding consumers with advertising that overstimulates them into unnecessary hyper-consuming of all products, food included.
My momma, family really, grew up country, consumed home grown foods, worked hard, and never knew what the internet was. Crock pot cooking is my key, well might include a few beers but at 75 what the hell!!! Absolutely enjoy your humor AND lack of nonsense.
I cut out all processed foods, foods with excess sugar (no sodas, no candy), or excess salt (no chips), and increased my fiber intake (lots of vegetables and legumes). I immediately started losing weight and "felt" healthier and then over the course of a year I've seen steady weight loss - a few pounds a month that adds up over time. I've been fortunate to be "thin" most of my life, but when I hit 50 it all changed seemingly over night. I let it slide for a while, but then realized my resting pulse was increasing and I wasn't feeling healthy... so I nipped it in the bud!! What I laugh at is that scientists are trying desperately to point the finger at anything but the food and beverage industries. However, this is where it all starts - you can't gain weight from the air you breathe or things you touch. You gain or lose weight based off volume and types of food you intake. In America, food is an industry just like car manufacturing. They put sugar and salt in **everything** for both preserving the food and making it task good. These industries make massive amounts of money off of these products - and their political lobby has significant sway over laws that are created. It's a difficult rock to crack.
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As someone who consciously lost 76 kilograms sitting in a wheelchair, I habitually pick apart poor arguments that teach people falsities about weight loss (partly based on my own example). This video not only constitutes in a smaller part as a collection of every single thing I've kept telling people for two plus years nobody else seemed to tell them about weight loss, it contains information I've never even come across, which is surprising, considering how much effort I've had to dedicate to extending my knowledge about how to do weight loss right, to account for my extremely limited options of doing so (the right way, without endangering my health, and without losing muscle mass).
This video is simply mind blowing in its accuracy and educational value.
I have my own theory on why we are getting fatter.
Perhaps more and more people are acquiring the "FAT FETISH" gene, so we all got fatter to satisfy that dominant sexual gene!
Thanks for sharing your story. I am happy you found the video useful.
I think for the vast majority of cases, it comes down to one simple reason - they don't want to put in the work to lose the weight. They're much more comfortable eating what they like and how much they like instead of eating better or taking care of their bodies. It's kind of sad, when it's really not much effort at all, just a little bit each day every day. But I agree, Sabine is great 👍🏻
@@SabineHossenfelder Thank you for delivering quality content that consistently proves to be accurate enough that it can be taken at face value without hesitation. I'm looking forward to your video specifically about treatment options for obesity like you suggested doing toward the end of this video. I find it near impossible to lose the last 10 or so kilograms so I'm sure it would be helpful.
@@jamesduncan6729 weight loss and fitness are hard, and I don't say that as a complaint just as a fact of life. They're definitely worth achieving.
I cut out all processed food, and especially sugar (or any kind of sweetener) and lost lots of weight (about 25%). I was not obese, but overweight. I am in my md-sixties now and am getting back to where I was in my mid-twenties. I have a friend, same age as me, who had type 2 diabetes and was overweight. He changed his diet a little and started exercising (dead lifting). He lost over 70 pounds, and his diabetes went away. Obesity is truly a massive health problem. Many people who died of COVID had obesity as a comorbidity.
The medical profession is pretty adamant that diabetes does not "go away". Type 2 diabetes can be controlled with diet, exercise, and medication, but that's different from "going away".
@@jeffryphillipsburns Well, that is how he put it. I expect that the real situation is that his blood sugar levels are normal, and no treatment is required. The effect is the same.
@@jeffryphillipsburns The medical profession claims all kinds of ludicrous nonsense to sell treatments.
Where T2 diabetes is caused by constantly high insulin levels, it's only natural that it reverses once you drop the levels. My neighbor had this problem, I told him to try IF, biomarkers improved promptly. This isn't rocket science.
How did you manage to find enough food to make a diet out of? I try to eat healthier, mostly limiting snack foods to fresh fruit and dinner to rice, vegetables and chicken, but there's very few breakfast and lunch foods that don't require food preparation while still not being processed
@@CSDragon Well, for breakfast I have oatmeal with butter and cinnamon. For dinner I have vegetables (I usually get frozen, which are more nutritious and convenient), then I might make a soup with lentils with the veggies. I will have a snack most, but not all, days. This will be olives (sometimes with some feta cheese) or nuts. I only drink water (usually with a splash of lemon juice), brewed coffee and brewed tea. Sometimes I will have red lentil pasta. I buy it made, but now have an attachment for my KitchenAid to make it myself. I am also pescatarian and will have fish a couple times a week. Hope that helps.
As someone who lost 29kg (27 in the first 9 months of not very strict keto diet) I can say that one major factor Sabine missed (and she rarely does so) is depression.
Depressed people are not only trying to find "bites of happiness" when eating something tasty, but also lack the positive attitude that's required to follow good health habits, like eating proper foods & amounts, exercising at least a little, and in more extreme cases depressed people just don't give a #### about what happen with them, and is quite easy to knowingly maintain bad habits.
If left unchecked for a long time and/or to extreme cases obesity is a type of suicide.
Of course it's spectrum, but knowing the extremes gives better idea of what's in the middle.
Very good point indeed.
Thank you! I've done the working poor thing for most of my life, and I can assure you that most of us engage in self-destructive behavior like overeating and smoking because we fricking WANT to die! If we could plug our brains directly into a machine that would make us forget our worry, stress, debt, humiliation, exhaustion, shame, and hopelessness for a few moments before putting a bullet through our brains, we would do it in a second! Many of us are fully aware that the only reason we're even kept alive is to make our employers rich and to buy property for someone else. So, yeah...
PS: I love these videos - they make me LoL all the time. Sorry for the off-topic rant.
@@AmanoJack , You're right.
Though I believe in most cases the self-destructive behavior has the purpose to temporarily forget some problem we've had, and keep the hope for the tomorrow.
I don't think that anyone have kept alive just to make our employers rich :)
But most of us are not stupid, and when we start to go to extremes in our self-destructive behavior we usually notice it and can quickly extrapolate where it leads.
From that moment on we're knowingly playing on the edge of that fragile balance act. And for me personally having hope and some (realistic imo) plan for the future is what used to keep me from going over the edge.
Sometimes I had to invent that hope from scratch and chase it. But sometimes some people just get robbed of it, and potentially all future attempts to rebuild their life.
I would say that no matter how hard it seems if you're in normal health it's up to you to push ahead and grab some piece of happiness (even if you've had to give up on some of your dreams already) - there's a sort of bargaining that we do in order to get at least part of what we want (even if we have to redefine what we want).
But I have no idea what one can do to keep pushing ahead when the deck is stacked against him/her :/
That's very close to what I fell into over the last year+
Gained back all the weight I managed to lose before, in a brief period where I had a clear goal and confidence in myself, heh.
And even a bit more.
My body mass index is just a little over the normal range, but it does feel worse... Among many other things that I experience in my current state.
Self-sabotage and lack of self-value due to seeing no way to achive the future I was dreaming of, and going towards, anymore.
Another big part is “incentive”. Processed foods are much more easily available for a quick meal and with a culture that seems focused on minimizing free time outside of work it’s often the low effort and cheap option
Yes, I entirely agree. It's very much baked into society, and it affects some demographic groups more than others.
Yeah no, citing work culture is really not convincing, Japan is a very large highly developed country with a relatively low obesity rate for its level of economic prosperity and toxicity of working culture.
Japan has an abundance of healthy fast options that the West just doesn't. Also, their society doesn't have "the car is king" attitude. Their neighborhoods are much more walkable and bikable than most.
@@UniquelyCritical Exercise does virtually nothing for weight loss
@@UniquelyCritical see 10:15
My roommate once had a block of cheese fall out of the fridge due to it being overstuffed, and it hit her toe. So external fat actually could be a health and safety issue as well as internal.
Imagine drowning in oil. At least you'd be glistening after.
@JZ's BFF Look up "Obesogenity of caseine coagulate induced trauma in lower extremities" by et Al.
:-P
God dude you made me laugh my ass off
It's when you're chasing the cheese down a steep hill FATALITIES and BROKEN SPINES occur...I'm amazed the Health & Safety nuts didn't ban the annual Cheese Rolling Festival just down the road (and up a hill) from me. I was meaning to win it some day but never even got round to entering.. But I would have won, no doubt, in my younger days!
ua-cam.com/video/qjSUk9o-D6E/v-deo.html
@@siquod I don't know who Al is, but he sure does a lot of research.
I absolutely loved the jokes in this episode! You really make these kinds of topics entertaining to learn about.
“Trans fats, fats that don’t identify with the hydrogen bonds they were assigned at birth.” That is classic!
Hydrogen bonds are something different in chemistry. It would be better to say they didn't identify with the isomerism they were assigned at birth.
Yes, so great! Everyone had a great laugh about it. Greatest joke of all time.
Just came here to write that. 😆
Went right past me 🤠
@@DrSpooglemon Even better yet, that they didn't identify with the double bond isomerism they were assigned at birth.
Went to Denmark for a business trip last week and I didn't see one obese person all week.
Every one was cycling, and the lunches we had were all real, colourful food.
Back to Birmingham airport obese people were abundant! It's rare to see anyone cycling - and our work canteen serves beige processed food!
I visited there in 2019. They are very health conscious. On their menus in restaurants there are warning for sugary beverages like side. Everybody walks or bikes it was fascinating!
Brits are beyond saving now. Millions visit countries with amazing food just to comment how they miss Greggs sausage rolls for lunch. This country is a joke.
I don't think working out at the gym once/twice a week beats cycling/walking to work each day. I normally get about 12.000 steps / day by commuting with bus, more if I run errands on my way home. I started doing this about a year ago and have lost 18 kg since. Before I had to take my car to work. Walking every day is far more enjoyable than going to the gym so I'll take it :-)
Ok, then you just have to colour your food.
As a dane I agree, around 50% of personal traffic im copenhagen is done by bicycles, otherwise we would have to tear down a lot of the city
Thank you for this wonderful video as it gives me much to discuss in my forthcoming appointment with my endocrinologist.
I have multiple mental illnesses and prior to receiving my first medication some 30 years ago, I was very skinny. At 182 cm with a weight of 69 kg I had a BMI of 20.8. Not exactly underweight, but close.
Within ten weeks of going on my antipsychotics, antidepressants and other meds that helped negate some side effects (I even had meds to counter side effects of some side effects-countering drugs) I ballooned up to 135 kg. This gave me a BMI of 40.8. So a virtual doubling of weight and of BMI over ten weeks!
Subsequently my weight went up and down, I tried really hard but have had a lot to fight with my mental illnesses as well. Bipolar, schizophrenia and C-PTSD don't play nicely together and battling things that scream at you as they crawl inside your head that may or may not really be there as you must relive the suicides of others you have known and loved in the past takes up a lot of time leaving very little for such time-wasters as living, defending oneself from jibes like "I hate fat people" or "Hey, fatso!" and getting a good night's sleep.
I have tried my best to lose weight sustainably. I sought nutritionist advice via referral from my doctor, went on a keto diet and joined a gym to try to lose weight and ended up putting more weight on.
At my peak I was 151 kg with a reduced height of 181 cm (thanks to spinal compression, chronic weight and ankylosing spondylitis). That translated to a BMI of 46.1.
So I sought the advice of an endocrinologist as my psychiatrist had told me my meds would have done a lot of hormonal damage and I wanted to see if that would lead to a new approach. It did.
My endocrinologist prescribed a few medications (yes, I take meds to help reverse damage made by meds and by the meds that reduced the damage caused by other meds) and I have lost a little over 13 kg (BMI now 42.2) over 22 weeks. I am still losing weight very slowly but this is all head-liquefyingly complicated.
And I think in my roundabout way this is what I want to thank you for. This vid really lays out the sheer complexity of this subject in a way that is not too complicated.
@d.robertdigman1293 I have some similar struggles to yours - multiple meds for bipolar and more meds to counter ill effects of first meds plus weight gain that seemed uncontrollable, etc. I have lost 20 lbs in less that a year and continue to loose with improving health ‘indicators’ (blood pressure, BMI, cholesterol, etc) and no ill effects or even adjustments to medication.
NO ONE SHOULD FOLLOW ANY OF THESE RECOMMENDATIONS WITHOUT FIRST CONSULTING THEIR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER
Based on the information in the book I list below I eat:
vegetables (mostly greens & some roots), nuts & seeds (oily ones: walnut, pecan, almond, sesame, peanut - tuber not a nut, sunflower…).
fruits (LOTS of apples - older less sugary varieties, avocados, olives, figs…).
meat/fish in small portions, ~3 oz.(grass fed meats with the fat, some organs, cheeses, sardines-because the fat isn’t removed).
water 4 qt+ /day (a lot of very weak teas with whole milk & very little sweetening)
and NO GRAINS except I have a small portion of ‘cake’ every evening & 4-6 crackers with hummus when ‘peckish’.
NO RESTRICTIONS on quantities except for the cake and crackers. I live in a northern temperate zone - 4 seasons, temperatures range from 100F to -10F and my ‘physiological adaptation’ to this climate has not been noticeably affected by this diet.
I have studied biochemistry & physiology and read many books about “nutrition” or diet (all claiming to have the ‘answer’, ‘magic bullet’ or whatever) to “fix” poor health. Most of the books had some value but none of them address the fact that nearly every human has something about their physiology and their ‘situation’ (ie: ancestry, geographic location, life style, medications) that must be allowed for in order for the “diet program” to work.
Recent research (the last 10-12 years) has revealed much that is contrary to what the ‘medical establishment’ has to say (including the “food pyramid” so often displayed). Also, I can say from personal experience that doctors of medicine receive little training in ‘nutrition’ and whatever they get is at least 10-15 years out of date.
SO HERE IS WHAT I HAVE FOUND THAT MAY HELP YOU:
“Nourishing Diets - How Paleo, Ancestral and Traditional Peoples Really Ate.” by Sally Fallon Morell, 2018.
Her research reveals that humans ‘evolved’ eating plants, fruits, animals, all the fats they could find and almost no grains. She shows that the “Paleo” and “Mediterranean” diets are dumbed-down or even fake representations of what was actually in the ancient /traditional diets.
PLANTS & FRUITS= wild herbs & greens, wild tubers & roots, wild fruits that could be reached/found.
ANIMALS, vertebrates & invertebrates= fat, organs, skin, bone marrow and muscle with all of its fat content.
SOME wild grains were consumed but there is no evidence they were important food until ‘villages’ begin to appear and the grains were ‘domesticated’. (many10s of thousands of years into Homo sapiens’s evolution)
My reading decades ago lead me to understand that ‘modern first world’ diets are lacking in sufficient vitamins and minerals to sustain health. So I have been taking supplements for decades. Within a year of beginning to take various ‘vitamins’ I stopped getting colds and flues every few months so I knew I was on to something. We typically can’t eat enough food and the food isn’t nutritious enough to get all the ‘micro-nutrients’ we need.
I take a MULTI-VITAMIN(any brand will do until you learn enough to choose one that ’suits you’ best) and add to that some “boosters” for those ‘vitamins’ the multi’s skimp on or don’t include.
VITAMIN C with bioflavonoids (2 doses/day @ 500mg each) boosts the immune system,
VERY IMPORTANT vit’ D3 (2+ doses TOTALING 4000 IU that’s 100mcg =micrograms) aids the immune system and assists fat metabolism,
VITAMIN K2 (MK-7 =menaquinone-7 totaling ~200mcg, MK-4 is metabolized very fast so must be ‘dosed’ several times a day with greater quantities but can be substituted for MK-7, ie: better than nothing. K2 is very lacking in our diets and is VERY IMPORTANT working with vit’ A to move cholesterol and other fats out of our ‘soft tissues’ into our bone marrow where it should be.
There are other supplements I take and other books to recommend but I’ll stop there. If you want more references to follow this up, respond to my comment with a way to reach you and I’ll get in touch. You can “fact check” some of this in Wikipedia.com
NO ONE SHOULD FOLLOW ANY OF THESE RECOMMENDATIONS WITHOUT FIRST CONSULTING THEIR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.
After using Doctor Alued on UA-cam herbal treatment i was cured from Obesity after living with the Stigma for years, i highly Recommend his UA-cam channel [ Doctor Alued ] if you are living with Obesity After two months HE also sent my SON Herpes cure now his HSV FREE ,,,
After 10 years trying to lose my Dad weight I simply stopped eating dinner, or anything at all after 4pm. I lost 20 pounds in 2 months, then stabilized. My life-long (since age 5) heartburn/stomach issues went away. And my anxiety dropped tremendously (biofeedback loop cut-off when stomach issues were resolved?). All these problems were caused just because I was eating more than I needed. I still eat what I want, otherwise.
Timing of eating is quite important as you've found out. I've found that eating after 5pm wasn't good for me. Going from 225 to 189, exercising, meal timing and only two meals a day worked for me. As a test, I stopped the exercise, timing and number of meals to see what would happen. Zoom, back to 225 in no time. Now that I know what the problem is, for me, I'm starting on heading back down. I feel better too.
Another possible explanation: Because you don't eat anything after 4 p.m., your brain was forced to rebuild the enzyme production for metabolizing ketone bodies. In other words, your brain is now also connected to fat metabolism, as it should be for a healthy person, and as it was for all people during the Paleolithic era.
Intermittent fasting promotes autophagy.
Digesting food takes energy and might affect sleep.
Overeating causes a lot of problem, Even what is considered 'normal' is massive overeating. You got heartburn cuz your stomach was literally near overflowing and no room for that stuff to go but up. Normal meals consist of way too much stuff. I eat a single yogurt a day usually and wake up energetic, don't drink coffee or, don't smoke and don't drink. I don't understand why so many drink coffee
Does this mean people who have liposuction are potentially doing themselves more harm? i.e. removing fat cells from certain areas for cosmetic reasons will encourage more fat to be stored in areas where it can do more harm.
That's a very good question and indeed I've been wondering the same thing. I don't know the answer unfortunately.
I guess the necessary condition is: if they put back weight. If not, then there is no new fat to store. If yes, then they may (if this hypothesis is true, for which we do not have an answer to) indeed.
Yes, yes, yes.
The odds are that post liposuction weight will be put back on. The question is when - months, years or decades later. If the added fat eventually goes to fatty liver instead of subcutaneous fat; then it is doing more harm than good. Sabina raises a good question - there isn’t enough research to know if fat cells would grow back post liposuction or post freeze therapy.
Sorry Kelly. That was your comment I was applauding.
Here's the thing, I was obese before at around 220+ lbs and now at around 156 lbs, at around 20% body fat with defined muscle mass. What I've learned on my weight loss journey is that "most" processed foods and sweets are calorie dense like 1 candy bar is around 250-300+ calories per piece, and fast food are less filling when eaten so you tend to eat more. What I did was switched to Less Calorie Dense foods that makes you feel full with less calories. I've done some cooking experiments that uses less calorie dense ingredients to make foods like pizza, cake, and other meals. My weight results speak for itself. Also try to put in mind that food is a fuel and not something for stress suppressant so, workout on cardio with Moderate intense steady state (fast walking) for 2 hours a day and walk for 30min -1 hours after eating, instead of doing HIIT cardio because let's be honest here, who wants to do HIIT cardio every single day? maybe 15% of the world likes it, but the rest doesn't. So, I suggest doing Cardio that you can do every day. Strength training is also very important so it can assist you to burn more calories (Muscle is a metabolic engine) and make your body more have a balanced look.
Green beans is an example of an extremely low density food. I used to open a can when I was insatiably hungry.
To be honest, reading the rest of your comment makes me want to be fat instead. I would rather die a happy fatass than a miserable fit person. Suggesting they have to have a miserable existence to be fit is precisely why most are discouraged from even trying.
I suggest nothing other than eating fewer calories(not even eating less, just fewer calories). After losing the initial weight, the energy will come, and they can put that towards getting more fit if they want. It's their life, not someone elses.
@@rich1051414 You're pointing out two extremes and claiming one is more happy than the other, they're both miserable.
I lived the exact same nutrition path, but with a significant difference in weight. I lose like 40 lbs, and only do a bit of cardio. HIIT is for the insane
HIIT cardio just sounds unpleasant: "what happened to you? you look awful!" "I was doing HIIT cardio" (breaks into tears).
Thanks for the thorough review Sabine.
In the section on Stress, it’s perhaps worth noting that 15~17% of the adult population are taking prescribed antidepressant medication, which has a causal link to metabolic syndrome which commonly results in weight gain. The prevalence of use is also higher in older age groups.
Use of antipsychotic medications (e.g. clozapine) commonly result in the onset of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
To be clear , weight gain is not a reason to discontinue use of such medication - changes should only be made after consulting your doctor.
It was particularly interesting to hear that new fat cells are not produced, but instead store larger amounts with weight gain.
Oh yes, 100%. After having been on and off various of those types of meds for the last several years, I can say with confidence that they have those effects (never got diabetes though). The worst part was the partial muscle paralysis feeling while taking them. It was impossible for me to fully contract any muscles, which made exercise next to impossible, and I got exhausted almost immediately. So I quit them all.
Instead, after several years of being fat and sedentary, I changed my diet to high fat/protein and low carb, and the weight started melting off. The lighter I got, the more I naturally wanted to move and exercise... something I couldn't do before. This accelerated the loss even more. In the last 9.5 months, I went from 275 lbs to 204 lbs (as of this morning). Funnily enough, fixing my body caused all of the medical problems that made me take those other meds in the first place, to simply vanish.
Meds keep you fat, which keeps you sick, which keeps you on meds. Just like the pharmaceutical industry wants.
Unfortunately, there is an unholy alliance between Big Pharma and the Food Processors. They profit from the poor health of the citizens of the developed countries !!
So there's still a question about cause and effect. The people who take these medications are already mentally distressed, and even before taking antipsychotics they may experience sensory and other wise bodily/somatic distress, so how could you tell them apart?
From my experience, people with serious mental illnesses tend to be overweight or underweight, hardly anything in between. Now before you cancel me, I have schizophrenia myself and fall into the overweight category 😂 Add the medication on top and you have a perfect recipe for obesity; lethargy, exhaustion, lack of energy, hunger/appetite disruption, further depression, and so on
The current theory is that these medications impact the gut microbiome in multiple ways. In fact, there's one theory that much of the antidepressant activity alluded to SSRI's neurological Serotonin action-which, given the fact that the Serotonin theory of depression is DEAD, albeit it's zombie corpse still causes havoc, would explain why patients still often find these medications helpful, at least initially-actually stems from it murdering fungi in the gut which have negative psychiatric impacts. But perhaps they also murder microbes with more helpful activity.
The idea that the body doesn't product new adipocytes in adulthood was disproven a while ago. What actually happens is some fat deposits expand via hypertrophy and others expand via hyperplasia.
I love Sabine's sense of humor :)
After using Doctor Alued on UA-cam herbal treatment i was cured from Obesity after living with the Stigma for years, i highly Recommend his UA-cam channel [ Doctor Alued ] if you are living with Obesity After two months HE also sent my SON Herpes cure now his HSV FREE ,,,
And perfectly executed.
Just discovered you. Just finished watching this video. Watched a few others, and I have to say: you are amazing and just what I need in my life! Cheers!
I am a nurse specializing in nutrition and this lecture is a perfectly scientific and objective approach to exploring the causes of obesity. Brilliant! Thank you.
It is a very long video for the simple fact that people eat more energy than their body consumes.
It’s carbohydrate
@@neuuser7071 I agree
there is a pretty much a single cause, consuming any amount of plants.
@@kapower06 No the cause is too much sugar. We eat 10 times more sugar than we did a hundred years ago. What do you think carbs turn into sugar.
I laughed at the remark, "Books aren't the problem, the lack of book shelves is the problem." I recognize the problem, going to eBooks solved that problem for me. Now the problem is making that solution available for fat.😁
We have e-bikes, e-scooters, e-books, why not e-fat?
Wouldn't it be great if we could charge our devices with the energy stored in our fat cells?
We're on track to e-bodies, no doubt, and maybe one day we'll also have e-snacks to stuff our digital avatars with. Unfortunately focusing on the care of our virtual bodies at the expense of our boring old physical husks will likely mean yet more cheap, ultra-processed food. After all, it's well known that obesity is positively correlated with low socio-economic status. Incdentally, I found it odd that this correlation isn't mentioned in the video; anectodally speaking, as a citizen of a first-world country that isn't the US, it seems to me the most immediately striking feature of the obesity phenomenon.
@@asdu4412 In developed countries, obesity is widely considered a condition that affects people of lower socioeconomic status (SES) more so than those of higher SES (1). In developing countries, however, the debate continues as to whether obesity primarily affects the poor or the rich. In their comprehensive review published in 1989, Sobal and Stunkard (2) found a positive relationship between SES and obesity in developing countries: obesity appeared to be a problem predominantly of the more affluent in those countries. Subsequent reviews covering publications from 1988 through 2003 found mixed associations (3,4): McLaren (3) found that a positive association between higher SES and obesity tended to turn into an inverse association as one moved from countries with lower human development index (HDI) to countries with higher HDI (3). HDI seeks to capture the level of socioeconomic development of a country by combining three indicators - income per capita, literacy rate and life expectancy - into one composite measure.
But if you solve the problem by purchasing more bookshelves, somehow or other more books gradually appear and you are back where you started.
One other study I read about hunger which I find fascinating : why don't have 1 appetite, but 5 (proteins, carbohydrates ("glucides"), lipids, calcium and sodium). It totally make sense : if a animal had only 1 appetite, it wouldn't for instance be able to select a food with the nutriments it need (for instance, if we only eat fruit because there's a lot of fruits tree around, we could be lacking lipids and salts).. eating each of the 5 different categories is enough in nature to provide us all the other micronutrients, so we don't need more than that. That's why we sometimes crave cheese or salty food, and some other time meats.
The study also assert that the most important one is "proteins" because we need a regular intake to maintain cellular integrity.. That's another reason why "process food" and "fast food" is bad : it give us a lot of sugars and lipids, while lacking proteins, so in the long term we have to eat more to get enough proteins.
“The headlines are bigger than the evidence.” That is a great line. Unfortunately, we are a headline driven society.
Society is people and you are people. I have a brain which allows me to recognise and disregard stupidity. Headlines sell news. It's a business model for businesses to profit, which is the point of a business. That's not society that's capitalism.
Well... I was absolutely thin when I was 13. Then the doctors discovered I had a tumor (benign) between my pituitary and pineal glands... So I went through surgery and... Well, when I got out of the hospital absolutely none of my pants fitted me anymore. That was December 1991.
I tried everything to lose weight, without any success. At one point I was going to the gym 6 times a week and swimming 3 times a week... And eating diet food I used to buy.
I only got "thin" (or at least close to) in 1999, when I went through another surgery... Bariatric surgery.
So... I think it could be a hormone issue, because I need to take basically all of them since 1991. But who knows, perhaps I'm wrong.
Anyway, thanks, Sabine! 😊
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Oh wow, thanks for sharing your story!
@@SabineHossenfelder well, you know... I had other issues as well because of the surgery... Like, I lost 75% of my field of view (I'm absolutely blind of the left eye and the right half of the right eye)... But I'm alive. You know?
I can't complain. 😊
Of course this is not going to cover every individual circumstance
@@jamesduncan6729 Of course not. Only my case.
@@SimonTmte Hormones don't regulate how much food I eat. In fact, I like that feeling you get when you are hungry. I'll only eat a single yogurt a day
Liebe Sabine, dein Humor ist großartig und deine Arbeit ein wertvoller Schatz, der effektiv zur Bildung und damit zur Zivilisierung der Menschheit beiträgt.
Liebe Grüße aus Hessen.
Who else heard her talking about the discovery of a virus that makes chickens fat, and immediately thought "industrial chicken farms are going to start infecting their chickens".
Why did the chicken cross the road?
Because it´s fucking hard to have food delivered to the chicken coop, so they have to go to McDonalds!
But you dont want fat chickens, you want buff chickens...
That's a different order of cynicism - yes, I'll put money (and an upvote) on you being right.
I didn't think "they'll start". I thought "they already do".
Fat chickens will develop some more muscle, and industrial chickens are so fatty it's ridiculous
Everyone is commenting about the trans-fat joke but the one that killed me was the one about your bottom not fitting on the screen 😂
I had to double take… “did Sabine really just say that?!” 🤣
CONFIRMED: Dr. Hosenfelder is thiccc.
I am going to need visual proof to support that claim. I can turn to landscape if needed.
@@shroud1390 ADENOVIRUS DOESN'T EXIST I RECENTLY FOUND OUT CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE THAT IT IS ACTUALLY A BACTERIA YOU CAN FIND ON THE GROUND AND ALWAYS YOU HAVE TO TOUCH IT TO GET IT INTERNALLY
@@PeachesCourage forgive me if I don’t put much weight into UA-cam comments and their conclusive evidence claims.
I can’t imagine. She looks slim, petite and athletic even.
I have done a lot of research on this topic for personal reasons, so I thought I would chime in on what I see is the biggest cause. Sabine touches briefly on this, but I think much more needs to be said. In the mid-20th century, researchers wanted to find the cause of heart disease. They found a link between hypertension, so they went looking for a smoking gun and found diets high in fat. The US government recommended diets low in fat, and food companies were more than happy to go along because fat has a short shelf life compared to sugar. And it worked! Prior to the 1970s, the average percentage of caloric intake from fat was around 30% to 40% (IIRC) while sugar was around 10% to 15%. However, by the 1990s fat intake had declined to less than 15%. Any guesses on what replaced it? Yep, sugar went to 40%. As a result, the incidence of not only obesity went up but so did diabetes and a host of other ills associated with being overweight. And here is the real kicker, heart disease did not decline, at least not by the amount one would expect if fat intake was slashed by more than half.
Now, if you go to the grocery store and want to buy pre-packaged food that is sugar-free, good luck. Read the nutrition facts. You will be shocked to find that EVERYTHING has added sugar. How much you might wonder? Well, that strawberry yogurt has as much as a couple of chocolate chip cookies. You might as well have a couple of cookies for breakfast. That glass of Vitamin C packed OJ has as much sugar as a can of Coke. I remember quite vividly the building that I worked in had a "health fair" for all the tenants where they were offering "healthy choices" like yogurt, OJ, granola bars, etc. IOW, dessert in disguise.
Sabine, definitely interested what you might present as treatment options for obesity. Your typical rigorous research and clear explanation of findings on this topic would be appreciated!
Dont eat plants. Enough said.
+1
Eat less. Losing weight is a complicated thing and requires a lot of mental willpower besides technique. The math is pretty straight forward.
First find out how much you wish to lose in weight. Each kilogram of body fat is around 7800 calories so it takes about of 4 days of total fasting (not recommended) to lose only one kilo. This is just to serve as a reminder that losing weight takes a lot of time.
Compute your daily calorie consumption, online, apps, library, hard math, whatever and multiply by 0.75. It is a decent weight losing factor meaning you would need16 days for one kilo.
Start a food diary and weight your food with a nice calorie table. Reduce portions, skip a meal, do whatever is necessary to be in line with that God given number you came up with, and this way you can literally eat anything you want, just not how much you would want. It is tedious at first but after a couple of weeks you will be able to ditch the diary and food scale to just eyeball calories in the portions you get served, a skill that will last you a lifetime.
Continue until satisfied, remember as you are losing weight your calorie intake should reduce accordingly.
Sport is useless unless you insist on it. Generally obese people have more muscles than their slim versions, because they carry weights everywhere they go.
Micro-nutrients will adjust naturally, as a hypo-caloric diet will adjust your food cravings to get more nutritious food. If you insist get the minimal containing vitamin and mineral pills and take one form time to time.
Do weigh yourself every so often, but be advised that weight can vary from a lot of things from, bowel movements to diseases (colds included), to giving your micro-biome less food and slimming it too down, so it is not good to fixate on anything other than an average.
Edit: And give yourself a pause every weekend from this grueling diet, it does take a bit longer to lose weight, but it is necessary just to not give up completely.
@Toroidal Zeus Insulin is just a hormone. If you consume more than you stuff yourself with, insulin cannot do jack about it. Or you just found a way of creating infinite energy out of thin hormones. i am hoping for the later but am highly skeptical of it :P
Depending on your current weight trend, eating marginally less is likely the ideal path; It will avoid you developing cravings and facing the side-effects of strict dieting, making it possible to maintain long-term and quite possible flip your weight trend towards losing weight. It won't be a 1-week wonder, but it would likely end up as a solution you can keep yourself to.
Of course, that only really works if you are only slowly gaining weight or are stagnant with it.
"Acedemia wouldn't be acedemia if everyone could just agree on a definition and move on."
Amen, Sabine! 😁
Here in the US, junk food is all too easy to come by, there is candy, snacks, sugary drinks in places there never used to be twenty and thirty years ago.
Snacks are now available in auto parts stores, pet stores, department stores that don't sell any other food; they are usually placed by the checkout lines or service desk, so while you are waiting in line, bored, you will take a snack to eat in the car on the way home.
Impulse purchasing, baby! They know a whole bunch of people are gonna see those candies and impulsively buy one, because their ape brain says "I LIKE THAT" and it's already over, it's already in their hand ready to scan at the register 👌🏻
On the way home? Usually done by the time l get to the cashier!
@@jamesduncan6729 Jesus you have a dim view of humanity
A friend of mine looked into the viability of opening and alternative fuel station in our area. He did lots of research but the most telling came from interviewing owners of gas stations. They make very little money off of selling gas, their profits come from all the items they sell in the store. The gas price is just the hook of getting customers to stop at that store vs another one. One owner interviewed said that he owned a candy, beer and cigarette store that also happened to sell gas.
Also american versions of some snacks and beverages have more sugar than their international counterparts.
Inactivity. People pre industrial revolution had to work hard to eat. Now a lot of people work sedentary jobs.
You always slay me with your science comedy. You got me with the trans-fat zinger. The delivery is just so casual.
Don't be trans-fat-phobic 🤣
How dare you rate her as < 3! She's a 10! 🤣
Yes the trans fats joke was genius
it took me 5 sec ... thinking what is she talking about, and then i paused the video and burst into laughter :)
Had to play it another four times before I got it. Must be getting old and dumb.
@@soptereancosmin1041 Me too. I had to listen again to make sure I heard it right.
I would do anything to hear Sabine say “your mothers weight is such a medical concern that when she sits around the house, she in fact, sits AROUND the house”
Sabine: I fought the battle of the bulge for many years, when I was 40 I had been around 175lbs, trim etc from running and Atkins diet. Crap happened and I stopped exercise. Over the next 28 years or so I gave up and reached the 220+lbs state of rotundness. Then at age 68 or so I had had enough. Going thru UA-cam videos on weight loss I came across a number of MD's Dr. Jason Fung being an example. These are the leaders in the Keto diet idea. I am an engineer and much of the message made sense. #1 it is not how much you eat but rather 'what' you eat. In the course of about 18 months I lost more than 50lbs. Mostly by strictly avoiding carbohydrates, especially sugar. I did this from my recliner without any exercise.
When I saw the title for this video I thought oh no, she is a physicist - here comes the calorie argument again,... So thank you for not doing that and giving an excellent overview of the science. I suspect that the problem is as simple as too many carbs and too much processed foods including the 'seed' oils etc. It is easy to make this way to difficult and scientists love to explore - write papers and argue. They also get paid by the food industry etc in order to make foggy supportive reports that keep the scientist in money and the government out of the food industry. The processed food industry is huge and does control people like those at the American Heart Association, and others. They do so to maintain profit just like the tobacco in the past.
The one aspect of your analysis that I find missing is the timeline of the growth of obesity.
One only needs to look at pictures from the 60's and 70's to see that we Americans were more fit back then. What the difference ? Please explore the packaged food industry, the Senate support for the food pyramid, and the response of the Soda people like Coke and Pepsi.
Final note: if everyone turned the food pyramid upside down, we would all be better off.
Everyone go back to bacon and eggs, leave the donuts alone and thumbs up it will be.
--
P.S. Now at 70 and 170lbs I actually feel like exercise, and I am now doing so daily.
Good comment, however I have a couple of things to point out. One is that there are plenty of independent studies done on obesity that are not biased by the food industry. The other thing is that the calorie argument is fundamentally correct, but what someone is eating and their genetics/age etc will all influence how much energy is extracted and consequently stored from food. At the bottom line, if you are in a calorie defecit each day, there is physically no way you won't lose weight. Like I said before however, this will happen at different rates for different people based on the aforementioned factors.
@@HolyMith many disagreements - but I am not gonna waste my time trying to convince you. Except the calorie argument is bull shit. The human body is not a linear system. It's 'what' calories you eat that is important. Not how many as per convention. cheers
You mentioned the puzzling case of Nauru. In fact, other Polynesian nations like Tonga also range very high. The explanation is that the polynesian expansion by boat travel over many weeks gave an genetic advantage to people that are particularly good in storing carbos.
Exactly, fat people survived long sea vogages to breed more survival fatties. Now they are paying for it. Lots of islanders in my neighbourhood, not many skinny ones. Great rugby players though. Never pick a fight with one either, very tribal.
There is an alternative explanation: these two islands eat highly-processed foods that were introduced during the Colonial Era. Luncheon meat, evaporated milk, and pork flaps are all part of the diet and excessive consumption of these calorie-dense foods is implicated in the excessive weight gain. The Pacific Islands and Mexico constitute a natural experiment for studying the effect of the introduction of processed foods.
@@marcowen1506 In my suburb with islanders and African refugees, only the Africans have any skinny ones but they are tall too. Also some chubbies. The few whites skinnies are obvious smokers, nicotine not food addicted.
@@marcowen1506 Mexico?
@@anameyoucantremember One of the fattest nations around.
For the first time ever, in my 60 years of life I gained weight. 32lb in one month (March 2020), correlating with COVID-19 infection, and a work furlough. Initially a curiosity, my humor turned darker now buying 'fat' clothes. And breathing much harder with even regular walking and climbing subway stairs. Whatever the inciting cause: I struggled for 18 months to figure out how to lose the now unwanted fat package. Three key bullet points: 1. I cut my calorie intake by 30% 2. I walk 10,000 steps a day. 3. I quit alcohol. My body mass index dropped from 29.5 to 22.9 within 3 months. I sympathize much more now with the obese. The road to a healthier body isn't easy. But it's do-able.
It also gets harder to lose weight the more you keep it on....your body tends to gravitate to what it was before - if you're newly overweight, that helps you. If you've been overweight for decades, that works against you. Glad you were able to make a change early!
@@rashkavar Physically speaking it's no different, losing 1kg of fat is exactly the same no matter how long someone's been in an unhealthy situation. It's that person living a lifestyle that puts them in a calorie surplus, they need to change the lifestyle to put themselves in a calorie deficit instead. That sucks because they've become addicted to the dopamine hit that happens whenever the stomach is full and there is a surplus of sugar in the blood. Or prehistoric brains do this to encourage us to retain as many calories as possible because we didn't know when our next mean would be.
@@palladin9479 That would be true if we didn't have an endocrine system, but we do. The body regulates metabolism to maintain weight at a set level over a long term. This is why dieters have their weight plateau and then go back up while keeping on their diet.
@@rashkavar Again unless there is a white hole in the stomach spewing new mater into existence, the carbohydrates had to get inside you somehow. It really is just a matter of calorie in vs calorie out.
Everything else is just why some folks feel hungrier then others or want to eat more then others.
Super easy and time proven experimentation proves this. Take an overweight human, put them in a room and feed them lower calories then their BMR, observe the results over six to eighteen months. They always lose body fat, as observed from medieval dungeons.
The variety of subjects Sabine covers is great. Such a scientific and intelligent job she does!
And the jokes! Education and humor at the same time.
After using Doctor Alued on UA-cam herbal treatment i was cured from Obesity after living with the Stigma for years, i highly Recommend his UA-cam channel [ Doctor Alued ] if you are living with Obesity After two months HE also sent my SON Herpes cure now his HSV FREE ,,,
While getting checked in for surgery I was weighed and all that, I'm in athlete shape at the time. Nurse looks at me and says, " you're obese". I flexed my near zero fat arm and popped out my neck muscles and replied "Bruh,,,,"
He just looked at me and said "yeah I know, the chart says I'm supposed to say that" lol.
I can sympathize. At 12% bodyfat, the BMI chart says I'm borderline overweight. LOL
@@michaelblacktree Back in the day when i was 19-20 i was 'morbidly obese', i could bench twice my weight, deadlift 700lbs, i'd beach run about 5 miles a day, swim about as far, and bike about 20 miles a day in between skateboarding and other stuff.
But since i'm like 250lbs and 6' tall, according to the chart i'm way over. But the chart doesn't account for large frames, i've got massive bones like tree trunks, size 16-17 feet, extra tendons, literally 'built different'.
I skateboard downhill, once i had my buddy who is about 140lbs blow a line and run right into my shins at about 30mph. He wrapped around me like a tree trunk and ragdolled down the mountain a bit more while it didn't budge me a single bit. I felt bad, for him it was like hitting a concrete post planted in the road, zero give lol.
The charts are an average taken like a hundred boomer years ago when the 'average' person was smaller and slimmer, now the average is like 40% body fat and diabetic, and the charts are pretty much unattainable goals for most unless they don't eat anything but a fresh, non poisoned and irradiated diet of nonprocessed foods, sensible portions, fresh air, clean water and exercise. But we all know y'all don't roll like that, that's why the 'average' is your walmart shopper.
About 10 years ago my GP looked at my BMI and said, "I've never told anybody this before, but you could stand to gain some weight." So I did. Got a little pudgy, but I didn't like how it felt, so kicked up the exercise and dropped my weight back down and won't listen to a doctor staring at a BMI chart about nutrition advice again 🙃
@@thefaboo Hmm... some of the old tables about mortality risk are distorted by a correlation between low weight and consumption (being the old word for tuberculosis).
Actuarial science is about averages across all policyholders not about what is right for the individual.
There is an old joke about the Actuary drawing a map by looking out of the back window of the car - in life the back window of the past is the only one with a big field of view.
@@andrewharrison8436 Yeah BMI is bollocks. It assumes you have a trivial amount of muscle mass. It's like talking of speed causing accidents on the roads. It's easy to measure and do demo stats. The reality is life is more complex and the thing to measure is probably not easily measurable, like the persons attention to the road while driving.
This channel, the content and your presentation style is amazing. informative, thought provoking and entertaining.
Never stop making these videos.
I've had 3 weight loss surgeries. (My weight peaked twice at about 170KG. For reference I am 170cm tall.) A laparoscopic band, followed several years later with it's removal as it had become blocked and I could even get water down. This did get get my weight down to about 90 to 95KG. After it's removal my weight ballooned to about 170KG again. Then I had a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery. Again my weight again got down to 90KG but has again snuck up to 140 to 145 KG. I am now 58yo. I eat only small portions over food but the weight just gradually goes on over time. I don't regret having had the Roux-en-Y surgery as it at least gave me a 10 year reprieve.
P.S. I enjoy your videos.
Good video! I didn't find any false information in it, although I wish it delved a bit more deeply on the issue of carbohydrates and insulin resistance, and how they affect fat storage and retention.
Modern dietary guidance tells us to eat primarily carbohydrates, and that eating fat makes us fat. When in actuality, eating carbohydrates causes the body to spike insulin production, which prevents burning stored body fat, and tells the body to convert glucose in the blood stream into more body fat. Plus we eat constantly nowadays, which never gives our bodies a chance to enter a low insulin state and actually burn off stored fat. Going low carb, or using a time-restricted eating schedule helps do that.
As for fat around the organs (visceral fat), it's worth mentioning that fructose can only be processed by the liver, so when we eat fructose-heavy foods, or foods with high-fructose corn syrup, it puts the entire metabolic load onto the liver itself. This also causes the liver to become fatty. And a fatty liver cannot properly regulate sex hormones, leading to all sorts of systemic problems throughout the body, including lethargy. And if you're lethargic, you're exercising less, which makes the problem of obesity even worse.
This is what i have learned from Dr Ekberg's videos. I am convinced that with this knowledge i can control my weight en health for the rest of my life, maybe even extend my healthspan, live longer and with good health. I'm very grateful and empowered.
According to the Insulin Hypothesis, people with insulin resistance would lose more weight in a low carb diet compared to a high carb diet, but research indicates they lose the same amount of fat. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35088407/
And about HFCS, foodsciencebabe explains it well and even links some studies, but TLDW its all about marketing, making people scared about cheaper foods so we'll buy their expensive foods, same with "non-gmos" and "organic" foods ua-cam.com/video/DX0Vx1AxtC4/v-deo.html
So maybe this is why Sabine didn't mention carbs as being the sole reason for us getting fatter, but rather processed foods (which tend to be denser in carbs and fats alike).
Oh yeah Dr Ekberg is awesome. Check out the channel "low carb down under" too. Really incredible long form presentations there. Some of their stuff is life changing.
If my career counselor had pitched to me that having a STEM degree would mean I could dryly tell people "I am just a [physicist] but..." then I would have chosen one of those as a career path.
What a great video Sabina, thank you. I first became aware of diet after stumbling across an amazing lecture by Robert Lustig which was posted 13 years ago titled "Sugar, the bitter truth" which has gained 24m views to date. I was totally flabbergasted how he managed to explain the real reasons we have a World crisis concerning obesity today.
Since retiring 6 years ago, I got arthritis in my hips and ability to walk became painful. I rapidly started gaining weight and have reduced my diet to under half. I now eat no processed food including bread, crisps (the list goes on!). My diet consists mostly of some red meat, fish and lots of steamed veg which I cover in hot butter (Kerrygold) including potatoes. I am 71 years old and weigh 130lbs. 4lbs heavier than in my 20's.
I will have to add that in many deprived areas in the World, people have no option but to buy cheap, processed JUNK because they don't have the funds (or knowhow) to seek healthier options. This is an issue that should be seriously addressed by governments in all countries and the blame can only be pointed to the "Big Fat Food Giants" because they simply don't care!!
As a cardiologist I appreciate that you've appraised several hypotheses or contributors to obesity. This emphasizes the fact that obesity is a multifactorial problem. I think that every obese person's story has unique elements which have to be taken into consideration while not losing sight of what realistically are the biggest causes. In my patient population I've observed that excessive carbohydrate intake is a common theme and for those that are able to address this the results are quite positive (not just weight loss but also a reduction in blood pressure, blood sugar and LDL cholesterol and triglycerides). I don't think there are specific "magic" foods that people need to add or subtract that will suddenly result in weight loss. Psychological factors that influence eating and excercise/activity level are also very important.
I'm not sure why carbs didn't get more mention in this video. All the other things she talks about are peripheral at best. If you cut out the carbs, which by definition cuts out nearly all processed food, those other things simply do not matter.
@@BuckMulligan72 The difference is in this video she cited the major scientific studies that explored the various possible causes of obesity and to be fair she did say the scientific evidence linking excessive intake of sugars (or carbs if you insist) and obesity are so overwhelming. You on the other hand, claimed that those other factors that she mentioned were "peripheral at best" and your source is trust me bro. I understand that this is just a UA-cam comment but no one has ever won a Nobel Prize for this method of inquiry. But since you appear comfortable with anecdotal claims, I'd like to make one myself: for a lot of people (citation unneeded) "cutting out the carbs" would mean the woman in a traditional family will not be able to work because she has to spend time cooking for the husband and children 3 healthy unprocessed meals a day. Vegetables and fruits don't last long in your fridge (assuming you have one) and that means more frequent trips to the grocery store. Good breads (that meet the definition of breads per EU regulations) cannot be pleasantly consumed past the second day of purchase, so she has to rise earlier than everyone else every other day just to get that wholemeal sourdough from the baker. Shall we eat that bread with shelf-stable margarine? Yikes that contains trans-fat and it's "processed". So no jams and no Nuttella either. If hand-churned butter is out of the question too, then she shall need to prepare stew too. One without bacon for that extra umami because that's a lot of nitrites as preservatives. That's just for breakfast. If you'd like to make exceptions for bacon, Nutella or American sandwich loaf, then congratulations you're like most of us who don't really have realistic choices when it comes to "cutting out the carbs". And then you might begin to look at things which may worsen obesity in your family with a full awareness that you can't just cut out the carbs as a simple one-size-fits-all solution.
@@tetleydidley What a bizarre comment. I'm aware that she briefly mentions sugar. The actual science, not anecdote, is very clear that carbs are the cause of obesity. The other things she mentions are either peripheral (lack of exercise, genes, lack of sleep, stress), are actually caused by the intake of carbohydrates (microbiome issues, micronutrient deficiency), or they simply don't even matter at all (viruses, plastic). You (and she) are missing the forest for the trees.
If I look at old movies, I notice that leisure time was spent differently. Most people danced at least once a week. Fewer people owned cars, so there was more walking, too.
I was always thin and ate whatever I wanted and my weight never varied by more than a pound or two.. In my 40's I developed symptoms that were associated with allergy to glutens, so my doctor advised abstaining from wheat products. Within 6 weeks I lost 10 lbs even though I didn't restrict or alter my diet in any other way. It surprised me how many food products contain wheat, many of which we refer to as "processed" foods.
There's a lot here. It makes me appreciate the complexity of the problem. Endocrine disrupters... hormones are critical on&off switches for our bodies. The body's hormone balance is incredibly sensitive.
I switched from Imperial to Metric just to make my waistline measurement become 1.0.
And mom smoked from her teen years until she died of lung cancer in her seventies.
Best info I've seen on obesity/diet, extremely comprehensive and inclusive. Excellent!
This has by far become one of my favorite channels. The joke about why a certain part of you is never on the screen is just hilarious, especially in the dry way it was told 😂
the trans fats joke really made me laugh, especially how she literally didn't acknowledge it whatsoever.
I had to pause and find someone who also acknowledged that gem of a joke.
Using a "percent increase" as a marker is a bit like saying a certain city is the "fastest growing". It's meaningless without knowing the starting point, and it's probably being used because the actual increase is insignificant. A 50% increase from 0.1% is... 0.15%; pretty much exactly the same.
I have to wonder what role incomplete medical data plays in this. Like, Hashimoto disease affects thyroid, which is going to affect various metabolic processes, but not all Hashimoto disease cases are diagnosed, which means that a lot of the corresponding metabolic effects simply don't get accurately traced.
I like that you differentiate between things that we know are causes and things that might also be effects. Precision is as important as accuracy.
@Brad Armstrong can you please explain to me the difference between precision and accuracy?
I am overweight, not obese but on the edge of being so. Why? Because I eat too much, as I wrongly see food as a reward and a reassuring partner when I'm stressed or sad. I also eat way too quickly without realising that I eat more than I actually need to.
Hi Sabine. The people of Naru weren't fat until the bread and sugar came along. Spiking their insulin and addiction to sugar is, I believe is the root of the problem.
It's the same with a lot of Pacific islands (Guam, Philipines etc), and it mostly relates to the end of WWII when their markets were suddenly flooded with goods from the US and cheap meat like "spam" which is high in fat and low in nutrition but with a long shelf life, there's a reason a generation of Baby Boomers from those islands knows how to make a spam and rice style dish. A lot of their diet consists of white rice, instant noodles, other imported Westernized foods and soda with very little fruits and vegetables.
So yeah the "westernisation" of the food available that occurred during globalisation damaged their relationship with food.
That and the fact that obesity was traditionally seen as a status symbol.
Lol. Do Nauruvians sit around with bags of sugar stuffing their mouth? If not, they're not addicted to sugar.
All people have a propensity to seek sweetness in food.
@@Yawgrimas
Having spam should be a reason to eat less, not more...
Thank you for leaving out the common response the medical community falls back on “lack of willpower.” I equate this unmeasured, untreatable cause to blaming witchcraft.
I'm a fat guy that is learning about fasting. I learned something just last week I found incredibly interesting. The body can be fooled. No calorie flavored water can fool the body to produce insulin and make you feel hungry. Diet pop can fool the body and make you feel hungry. The body gets keyed up to think more food is on the way. While fooled it won't burn fat. The information I read said that if you go cold turkey on food and just drink water, the body will not be fooled and burn fat after your stored fuel is depleted. I've been drinking diet pop for years. I found that tiny piece of information amazing. I hope they ain't lyin' again. (You also feel less hungry without the diet pop.)😊
Bad habits do cause obesity.
@@daniellarson3068 If you haven't come across it already, I highly recommend the book "The Obesity Code" - it's a quite in depth analysis of the insulin hypothesis that goes pretty much as technical as you can get without needing in depth medical training in order to understand it.
Side note: if you're anything like me, it will make you incredibly angry at the traditional dietary establishment. There's a bunch of studies the author dug up that were unpublished because the results violated the calorie counting strategy that the medical community largely assumed was accurate...effectively burying the scientific evidence that calorie counting is a fool's errand.
That's a silly equivalency. Willpower is generally used as a catch all term for things like lifestyle choices, habits, the ability to build habits, and the priority one gives to their own health. All of which measurably affect weight gain and are necessary components to treat problems associated with weight gain.
@@La0bouchere But it's equally lacking in understanding and application in solving the problems that need to be solved. By your argument, willpower is equally an important part of treating heart disease or asthma. Technically it is, but it's the doctor's job to provide understanding of the condition and how to manage it, not just say "be better at managing it!"
I like how we express a personal problem in economics. Because we do not care about the individual but do care about losing abstract amounds of money.
Humanity at its best.
How you told that transfat joke with a straight face is amazing. I was on the floor laughing.
She only has a straight face!
I did a double take when I heard it. Took me a second to realise it was a joke. I love scientists sense of humour.
@@markthomasson5077 She smiles sometimes, but yeah.
She would last 10 seconds as a stand up comedian, I started off thinking, heck she should not bother with the jokes….but now I rather like it ..maybe should could do stand up. (Mind you I am a lot worse…just ask my wife)
She's german🤣
I will disagree on this one, not because it's wrong but rather because it's misleading. I think this should be rather titled "What to blame obesity on?"
While there is a lot of factors that contirbute to obesity, most of these are either minor or indirect (and could be categorized as why people are inactive and overeating). We could easily add here the modern media trend of encouraging people to not care about their appearance and promoting oversize model aesthetic, leading to some simply not wanting to lose weight.
Reasons why someone feels lazy, hungry or simply does not have time or will to exercise are countless and blaming it on those can be a bit distracting from the main solution to the problem. Or we should just be more bold and blame it on capitalizm, culture, education, democracy etc.
Also some of the causation here also goes both ways - poor health leads to more obesity and more obesity leads to even poorer health...
We could also just simplify it and say that controlling body weight is hard.
It's not hard. It's extremely easy. What's hard is ignoring the advertising and brightly colored boxes. Anyone who tells you it's hard is selling you something. Changing your grocery list is free (and will save you money as you buy less)
@@punchkitten874 the simple answer is ‘move to Japan’ [Slime Mold Time Mold - A Chemical Hunger], but most people can’t do that. Food and eating are very tied to psychology & changing habits can be extremely hard for some people. Even doing the Potato Diet is hard for some people.
@@johnferguson4869 Sounds like you have all your excuses lined up...
@@punchkitten874 thankfully I’m not genetically or mentally predisposed to over-eat, but telling an obese person “just eat less!” is like telling a depressed person “just get out of bed!”
@@johnferguson4869 I never said eat less, I said eat differently. The reason you save money is because you're not trying to feed a carb habit anymore. When you get off the metabolic rollercoaster of carb-crash-carb-crash, you stop feeling like you gotta eat every two hours. Many low carb folks eat just once a day without hunger or nutritional issues. Buy the same amount of calories as you always do at the grocery store - just avoid filling that tally with carbs. Not hard. Not hard at all
Her "bottom doesn't fit on the screen?" That's so clever. You make the best videos!
I love the emphasis on effect size! So often overlooked.
Addressing serious issues with the perfect amount of irony and self-irony. Love it!
I was sipping coffee when she mentioned a petri dish, and I almost stained whatever was in front of my face by the time she finished the sentence.
Calories in vs calories out is all that really matters as far as weight loss/gain. Any competitive body builder knows that.
Different things can affect hunger, but it’s the calorie balance that determines if you gain or lose weight. The easiest way to do this is consume less calories. Weight can mean fat or muscle depending on several factors.
You must not have watched the video
It wasn't a problem 30 years back. So what exactly changed? The only answers I can find is, Except food habit and sedentary lifestyle, it's highly unlikely that other factors like genetics can cause this much deviation from standard as those others factors were there 30 years back as well.
More like 50 years - the obesity epidemic dates to the 1970s, and it's no longer 2000. Still way too short to be a variance in genetics - variance in generics might help predict which people get fat in a given population, but the cause of the increased obesity in the population as a whole is clearly not a sudden genetic shift.
Excellent video!! And Sabine, the "bottom" joke was perfectly timed and perfectly placed!
Thank you so much for this video. My sons were unlucky enough to inherit their father's body build instead of mine, and I have worked for a long time to help them best that issue. I don't get to help their father any more, as he chose to leave me (us) after 40 years together. Long, painful story, but one I have yet to get over, after 2 years.
Still, stress is absolutely a huge issue, especially the relationship trouble one... going through a painful divorce I never wanted made me have to do drastic things to beat that particular nightmare. The plastics and other pollution thing, I totally believe.
The smoking thing? Nah, I was always skinny, until I got disabled, and that & stress wrecked my eating/exercise balance. And Mom smoked nearly her whole adult life. She lived to 83, was skinny her whole life, too, so I inherited being skinny from her.
Ha, ha, the "bottom" joke was at 5:30.
@@gordonquickstad well, I wasn't talking about what _time_ in the video it was at. I was talking about timing in reference to humor, to how to tell a joke ‐ _that_ kind of timing! 😄
my favorite joke was about the many-worlds believers being stressed out. that was real clever, and the smooth delivery really got me
This raises an important question: Has it been scientifically proven that eating more makes us fat? If so, the primary cause of obesity is known, though I would argue we don't need additional research to explain to us that matter doesn't disappear. If not, obesity research is likely being derailed by popular sentiment, as the inference is iron-clad and an empirical study would take a week or two and a few extra meals to carry out. Of course, I'm just being facetious to make a point: People like to lie about why they're fat, which is why there's so much nonsense going around, which is why this video is necessary.
Something I have always experienced living in different climates is the effect of temperature in the house. When we had issues with our air conditioning or spent more time in the hot sun, I ate less. In the winter I tend to eat more and put on a little even if I am exercising in the house. Makes me wonder if A/C is the thing to blame. I remember a time before the A/C in the house and the suffering a hot house would impose. It took all your energy just to try to resist the unpleasantness. Central A/C wasn't common when I was a kid, nobody in town really had it. Now it is ubiquitous.
Seasonal
Yeah nobody wants to eat a lot when super hot
I'm from further north and similarly have always wondered about central heating. Houses used to be cold & we burned calories to keep warm. Now we all have central heating turned up to tropical temperatures, we eat more but burn less to warm ourselves. I have observed that the worst central heating addicts tend to be the roundest.
Thank you, Sabine, for laying out the science about a lot of the suppositions concerning obesity going around.
I lost 60 lbs. I dropped flours, sweeteners, additives, seed oils and potatoes. I also used intermittent fasting-- actual fasting along with spaced meals. In addition, I kept the calorie count under 1000 per day. Having tried these strategies individually, only the combination made a significant difference.
Now, I can induce inflammatory gain of 5 lbs in 1 day by eating the wrong foods, even in a relatively small quantity .
GI diet + physical activity. Replace processed food with real food, and take staircase instead of escalator/elevator. If you work in office, take a 1hour high paced walk a day.
Would love to see a follow-up on combating overweight/Obesity!
Seconded
just f*cking eat less. It is a personal responsibility issue
Poor diet and lack of physical activity. As soon as I changed that my health issues evaporated. It was like i was driving my body with the e-break on, and never changing the fluids. I found it was not about will, but desire, and what I was willing to pay for the body I wanted. Everyday I simply make choices that get me closer to my ideals. I will definitely add this knowledge to my metrics.
My own experience has been interesting. For my entire life, I have been as skinny as a rail - of course, I have also been a ball of energy, literally vibrating in place in some cases.
This has slowed down as I got older and I got out of the military. I have always found weight gain (even in muscle mass) to be extremely difficult. No amount of food seemed to change the equation. Some how, or some way, my body used to burn it off without a second thought. The metabolism of envy....
Then, my weight increased into the "technically obese" range for my height category. Though, frankly, I am still very thin relative to my peer group.
Regardless, I also noticed changes in my energy levels and general sleep cycle. It became difficult to wake up and I started developing pains in my ankles - like the sensation of a tendon recovering from workout strain.... that just never seemed to go away.
After I decided to go on a short fast and had my energy levels almost immediately adjust after a 24 hour fast and pains in my ankles go away, I extended my fast to 3 days and went on a nutritive ketosis based diet for 3 weeks.
While I didn't have any lab work done, I have my suspicions that it was rooted in insulin resistance and inflammation from high blood sugar (and possibly higher urea levels as well, if my kidneys were inflamed and not doing what they should).
I am back on a more normal diet (just easier on the carbs), now - but plan to generally adopt a ketogenic diet for a month starting in January every year, just to give my body a break from having carbohydrates slam insulin levels into the stratosphere and restore sensitivity.
I've lost a good 10-15lbs, since.
I suspect a significant factor in obesity in America, at least, is that our diet is so high in carbs and this causes generally high insulin levels.
I read, but have not confirmed, that muscle tissue develops a resistance to insulin far more quickly than fat - if our insulin levels are high, muscles do not take in sugar nearly like fat does, which could throw off perceptions of energy levels (and therefore activity - which results in fat gain being preferential and more difficult for people to work off without focus).
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing. What was your fast like for that first day and the three after? How many hours did you fast and did you drink water, or consume nothing at all?
And for carbs, did you just eliminate foods made with flour, or potatoes and fruits too?
I've always avoided even trying keto because I'm not committed to eating that way for the rest of my life, but I might try your method of a few weeks and see how it works.
@@vanityshop5155
My reading on things suggests that keto is probably not, in the long term, healthy for most people. The reason is in the reliance on ingestion of trans fats, which counteract the benefits seen in keto after about three months (give or take). The diabetic community is a good one to look into as they have regular blood sugar level monitoring and insulin response metrics.
You can do keto without trans fats... but that's just not economically realistic for most people.
My first 24 hours was just water. It was rather odd, as I did not really feel hungry. I found myself waking up ahead of my alarm and being clear headed when doing so.
The second day, I was mostly water, but got a can of V8 at work. By this time, I was starting to get a bit of hunger/crave for food. Because I hadn't prepared for this decision at all, I got some salami sticks out of the vending machine at work the next day.
I basically set a target of less than 20 carbs per day and removed effectively all starches and grains from my diet. I tried a few keto bread alternatives and stocked up on mozzarella cheese. Even made a pizza with one (it wasn't too bad and the recipe had a cooking down of the sauce that my friends and I all agreed was a better way to go about making one). At first, I was mainly on water, but I expanded into some zero sugar offerings to keep myself sane.
I deduced that Wendy's caesar salad was not breaking my carb budget and would get that when I needed fast food. When I worked at said wendy's several years ago, we used to have a lady come through an ask for a cheeseburger without the bun, and we served it in the half-salad container (not sure if they still have those). Though I didn't resort to that, myself.
Technically, dietary fiber and carbs are supposed to cancel out in keto, so you can deduct dietary fiber from carb intake, but I just took aim at removing carbs in all forms.
A point of caution - many artificial sweeteners are still likely to trigger an insulin response and therefore ne a bit counterproductive. I love tea and I like it sweet (I like a bit of tea with my sugar), so this was a challenge to resolve as aspartame both triggers a mild insulin response and blows out your gut microbes, but many of the others that don't damage your gut also trigger an insulin response. I ultimately settled on xylitol because it neither prompts an insulin response nor damages the gut biome.... but is a mild laxative.
I couldn't ever get it to taste quite right with tea, but that could be because I was using too much. It is, however, toxic to dogs (and I have one) ... extremely so. She's a great pyrennes that gets into everything, so I made sure to keep it up and in a latched container as well as to rinse any dishes used with it. Cooking with it was out of the question because almost invariably, the dog would end up eating it when she destroys the trashcan or raids the sink. It just takes one moment of neglect, there. Xylitol does produce an extremely intense insulin response in dogs and they basically go hypoglycemic, comatose, and die as all the sugar gets pulled out of their blood.
Not all sugar substitutes are zero calorie, either. Stevia, for example, comes with carbs. If you're like me and enjoy having a sweet liquid to consume in potentially unhealthy quantities - these can add up pretty quick.
There are bread-like alternatives you can make with mozarella cheese, a bit of butter, cream cheese, baking powder, and either coconut flour or almond flour. You can use these for making a hamburger, pizza, etc. I wouldn't worry too much about the carb count of the veggies on a burger - but you do want to consider what sauce you're putting on a pizza. This pseudo-bread is extremely high calorie relative to normal bread and I mainly used it for the likeness of bread, functionally. IE - for a burger. You could use it as something like a biscuit or bread with a roast-like-thing - but its caloric density and cost are probably a bit much for that role. Pizza crusts, burger buns.... maybe some kind of taco or burrito shell (never tried making a hard shell with one) - but a dinner biscuit/roll, toast, etc is probably not on the menu, even though you can make it, it's not really what this type of bread is for.
From my local diner, I'd order a hamburger steak and cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is one of those that can vary widely between brands as to exactly what it is, so I didn't go full ham on incorporating cottage cheese into my diet.
Cheese is generally 'safe,' but lactose is a sugar and so dairy is not generally 'safe.'
Fruits... generally a no. They usually have way too much sugar. We are talking -a- grape or -a- blackberry (well... mine are as big as grapes, but that's another story). Even -a- strawberry will put most people over budget for their keto diet. There is some research that shows after people enter a ketogenic diet for a period of time, they can avoid being kicked out of ketosis with carb intakes up to around 60 grams per day, possibly even higher - but most people can't afford to accurately test blood ketone levels to determine whether or not they are in ketosis, either...
I did not experience the keto flu. My brother, who tried keto while in the marines under dietary supervision, could not get past the keto flu and always broke down. There is no definitive research I am aware of on exactly who experiences keto flu or what can be done to limit it, but I suspect it is coupled to weight. My brother has significantly greater fat reserves than myself and there was some research I ran across years ago that discussed how fat, particularly visceral fat (the type marbled into our muscles) releases hormones and other chemical signals when it is forced to remit its fat reserves. Effectively, fat gets upset when it shrinks and tries to convince the body to conserve calories.
I suspect the keto flu is tied to this - people with more visceral fat are probably much more prone to the keto flu than those who are thinner or have cutaneous fat.
I also can't say I really experienced strong cravings for "the real thing", either. After about 3 weeks, I did finally decide I wanted a zebra cake - but it wasn't as part of a craving so much as it was me having done what I set out to do and was tired of not allowing myself the option.
It's worth noting that I don't think I am particularly normal in how I handle 'self control' in that regard. I'm not sure how to describe it - but when I do things like that, I just don't give myself the option to do the things I am not supposed to do. I'm not denying myself a thing I want, the thing I want does not allow me to choose certain options, even if I have a desire for them. If that makes any sense. I'm not sure if it is a learned ability that can be explained and passed along, or if it's somehow rooted in a gene expression. When I see the zebra cake, it's a thing I can't have, not something I want. The thing I want requires that to be excluded as an option.
Or maybe that was normal and people just don't normally develop control? I dunno.
@@Aim54Delta Thanks for all of the information. Will be reading through this.
What is your opinion on the claims that keto diets in the long term can cause kidney complications?
@@psi9899
Generally skeptical.
I have seen a number of studies indicate that a keto diet relieved liver damage from fatty liver diseases. Although I could understand how there could be problems over a long period of time or with a more "faddish" take on the diet for that period of time. Having someone eat steak and salad for 9 months is very different from having someone eat baccon and cheese for 9 months. Since the liver is responsible for processing fats into glucose as well as some ketones, it stands to reason that being on keto for a long period of time could cause some liver damage or see the liver skew toward being a fat store (which makes sense if it is now mediating your blood glucose and ketone levels).
To put it into context, soda and sugar/hfcs consumption is probably the biggest contributor to non-alcaholic fatty liver disease, which is "a silent pandemic" according to health articles I am seeing in my review of some stuff to make sure I haven't missed anything glaring as a study.
Also, it may not make sense to you... but does the number 7 or the ringing of a telephone have any particular meaning to you outside the mundane? Strange question if not, but ... sometimes things seem to happen and it's impossible to not connect dots.
It's difficult to explain... but let's say you are reading a book... then, you get into a discussion on one part of the internet and see some references to something only a few people would know about you - or who seem to signal you.
Then, someone named after a rather unique place in the book makes a comment.
It is more interesting if it is not part of a witting plan than if it were, no?
Thank you for taking on these difficult topics. Obesity is such a difficult topic. The changes in the western world's diet has to be a factor. Your analysis is very helpful. A follow up video on treatments would be very welcome. Thank you.
Hilarious how effortlessly you drop such dry humor! Keep it coming!
At a certain age, it becomes *very difficult to lose intra-abdominal fat. While I can’t pinch more than ½ inch on my waist, my waist remains 44”. Tho I’m nearly as strong as ever, I tire quicker and with labored breathing --due to the pressure in my abdomen, I can puff and blow after *2 flights of stairs that I take 2 at a time, age 70.
Tho I lost 25# with a high-protein, lowered carb diet, I’m now *struggling to get smaller, despite caloric deficit and aerobic exercise to fatigue 3x+ per week, and low-output exercise 7 of 7 DPW. I’m the size my dad was at this age and want to live longer than he did!
What's ur weight
I wouldn't have expected anything less from you, Sabine, but thanks for being thorough and then summarizing your findings concisely. I especially appreciate that wasn't a video that boiled obesity down to simply too many calories and not enough exercise.
That in reality is what it is at the end of the day. You can claim many factors make you over-eat if you like. However at its basic form, the laws of thermodynamics apply 100% of the time. It is impossible to gain additional body tissue without extra energy to do so.
She didn't excuse it either. Too many calories, wrong type of calories, insufficient exercise and bad meal timing are within your reach to change.
@@SpaceCadet4Jesus For sure, what goes in, when it goes in, and how much goes in matters.
@@Ryan_DeWitt Yes, the laws of thermodynamics apply 100%. But one question remains: Why do even people who keep so many calories in their fat depots that they could supply their entire body with energy for more than 6 months still feel hungry, often even ravenously hungry? And the answer is: Because their brain is no longer connected to fat metabolism, the most powerful metabolism of the human organism. Their brain is no longer able to use ketone bodies for energy supply, even if they are offered by the organism.
One potential (and I think significant) cause is not mentioned: psychological factors. In my case, if I'm feeling stressed, fatigued, or ill I feel a strong craving to eat. Eating makes me feel better, and as I grow older, I find I am more fatigued than earlier, and so I eat more. My wife, on the other hand, is naturally thin. When she feels stressed, fatigued or ill she finds the idea of eating repulsive. The urge to eat to overcome feeling uncomfortable is something I acquired at a young age, and today many years later it is very difficult to resist. The cause was probably sociological, likely my entire family would eat when they felt badly.
The solution for me is elusive: Just wanting a solution evaporates when I feel poorly. It means even though I badly want to eat, I have to resist the temptation, and my emotional want contradicts that. That is, I need to replace a powerful emotional want with a distracting rational want. My experience is that people who don't feel the need to eat to combat stress, fatigue or feeling badly because of illness have no idea how it affects the rest of us. There is precious little help on the internet in how to have your rational "shoulds" overpower you emotional "wants".
Most of us would agree, I think, that if at an early age we had learned how to resist emotional urges with reason, that today our lives would be immeasurably improved. Something for schools to consider.
She did mention stress as a factor. Social or psychological conditioning will absolutely affect a person's relationship with food. Over consuming was the first suggested cause though, even if it didn't get into the reasons why too much food is consumed. My best suggestion for your predicament is doing your best to make better choices when you are buying the food, or have your wife get the groceries. That way when the cravings/stressful emotional wants drive you to eating, you are at least making better choices for your body to try and sate those feelings. Fresh fruits, vegetables, beans, and other foods rich in fiber can both leave you feeling more satiety, and also boost your micronutrient consumption.
One theory regarding stress and eating is inflammation. Stress causes a sort of mild inflammatory stomach ache. Eating soothes that stomach ache. Some foods cause higher levels of inflammation and some temporarily reduce it.
When I'm stressed I have 100% cooking chocolate. It doesn't taste great, but a few bites and it, for me, significantly reduces physical inflammation within a few minutes. It doesn't help with the psychological side of stress, but it helps when I have a mild stomach ache caused by stress or other causes. 100% chocolate is a lot like a bitter peanut butter, so it coats the inside of the stomach lining, and it's an antioxidant, an anti-inflammatory.
Some foods (ultra highly processed and fast food) increase inflammation in the long term, but can reduce inflammation in the short term. This can turn into a cycle of eating to feel better.
Whenever I'm feeling down or stressed out, I isolate and sleep.. I just won't have an appetite and I would never have an energy to do anything. I would just lie down on my bed until feeling better. So instead of becoming fat, I've become a sleepy head lol. My reaction/response to a stressful stimuli is freezing and flight than fighting..
Yeah, I had the same issue as a kid. Facing the problems that were causing me stress helped. Not all stressors can be instantly removed from life so a therapist helps.
Try replacing the things you eat with healthier options. Replace sugary biscuits with vita weats or a savoury snack instead. It quells that sensation of needing to eat something while also not inducing extra sugar in your diet. When you go to the pub, instead of having a side of chips, ask for a side of salad instead. All these tiny little adjustments will have a large affect on your health and in 6 months time you'll start to feel better. Combine that with regular exercise (not always achievable depending on the weather and where you live etc) and you'll start to lose weight. It's also not a large change. If you try and completely eliminate every sugary food immediately you'll go into withdrawal
the jokes and delivery are absolute gold
The relationship between weight and exercise is complex. I agree that doing a lot of exercise does not directly cause you to loose weight, but it can help prevent you from gaining fat weight, especially if it causes you to have high muscle mass. The relationship between stress and obesity is probably indirect. In my experience, low-grade chronic stress tends to increase my appetite, but more intense stress reduces my appetite. The gut microbiome probably plays a large role in regulating the sensations of hunger and satiation.
No. The gut microbiome is there to help digest food. There is a different microbiome depending on what and how much you eat. I eat just meat. No veggies at all. My micobiome has adjust for this. I now rarely, get gas build up. I just never fart. When I was an omnivore though, I could clear a room.
Regulation of hunger comes from the hormones Lepton and Ghrelin. One says you're hungry the other says you're satiated. Having high levels of insulin, throughout the day will seriously screw up those hormones (along with nearly all hormones). Don't eat plants. Have steadily low levels of insulin, and never be hungry again. Eat only meat. Real meat.
@@Technichian462 Extreme diets make no sense. Our ancestors ate whatever they could to survive, and what they ate probably depended on geography and the seasons. We are omnivores. The only thing just about everyone agrees upon is we eat to many refined carbs and not enough fiber, too many trans-fats and sodium and highly processed foods. Also most people do not eat sufficiently diverse diets. Only certain animals such as cats are true carnivores, and even they will occasionally eat plants.
im a trans person and LOVE hearing trans jokes that arent just ripping on trans people. it can be done if youre smart and actually funny! Good job :)
Thank you for the awesome videos.
Current weight is 124.7KG. Weight where I really felt good, 99.79KG. US military BMI weight while I served 84.82KG. At the military weight I was always hungry. Also in the Military you eat poorly, with little or no time to get a decent meal. After I got out of the military, I went up to the 99.79 KG weight and I felt good. I had energy and hiked, always doing something with my daughter when she was little, she loved hiking with me. Also sports and time spent at the city park. In the process of this, I found out I hurt myself when I was in the military, and it was getting worse by the year. As the pain got worse, my activity slowed down and my weight went up. My jobs at the time were good for my soul but also not good for my body, assisting the elderly and disabled people. I also had the energy to do extra work for them as well.
So my question is, how do I get back to my good weight? When I have tried to get back there to that weight, my body feels like I am torturing it. Especially when I cut carbohydrates, these foods seem to be set up to keep you addicted to them, and in a big way. I could never understand drug addiction, until I cut the carbohydrates and then I realized what it must be like for a person trying to quit drugs. I did gain a whole new sympathy for those poor people. But never once thought it would be from a plate of pasta and a doughnut.
drug addicts have it much worse, sadly. I depends on the drug but you could die from withdrawal.
"Eat less food: do more exercise"
Again a great video. Thanks Sabine. I would be interested in a video on why obesity is a problem. It obviously is more than the extra load you have to carry or the deviation from how we want to look like. As far as I know the fat is not just passive load but is metabolically active and leads to a sort of inflammation. Would be nice to hear in more detail what the fat does to the body.
Highly recommend the Maintenance Phase podcast episodes on the topic.
Basically the size of an adipocyte determines what its adipokine profile is. If you have a fat deposit which is full of small adipocytes, it'll be metabolically healthy. If you have a fat deposit which is full of large adipocytes, it'll be metabolically unhealthy(secreting inflammatory cytokines, insulin resistant, releasing a lot of free fatty acids, etc.). Subcutaneous fat(except for some sub-compartments) expands via hyperplasia(cells number increases, size stays the same)(even in adults). As such, excess subcutaneous fat is metabolically benign. Visceral fat, and metabolically similar sub-compartments of subcutaneous fat, on the other hand expand via hypertrophy(cells size increases, number stays the same). As such, excess visceral fat is metabolically detrimental. I wish Sabine mentioned this stuff more in the video.
Is it inflammation that leads to excess fat being held by the body, or does the excess fat cause inflammation? I suspect inflammation is the underlying problem and fat accumulates as a result
@@SusanHopkinson It's excess visceral fat that causes inflammation.
21:02 "If you are interested in a video on possible treatment options for obesity let us know in the comments"
Hereby I am letting you know in the comments my interested in a follow up video in possible treatment options.
Especially as there is so much half-baked knowledge out-there.
All these reasons contribute i'm sure, but what about the fat, "the fat you eat is the fat you wear" is what dr. Mc Dougall likes to say. The seventh day adventist study also shows this, the vegans in that group being the only ones in normal bmi range. My husband is overweight and is losing weight gradually as we moved away from eating fat and animal products and are eating more starches, whole grains, legumes, veggies and fruit.
Great video as always, Sabine. You forgot to mention isolation and lack of strong human connections (family, friends, community) as a factor (covid lockdowns were a massive example of that for a lot of people). Also, certain forms of child abuse and neglect can have impacts on stress and people's relationship with food and body image in adulthood. We're also learning more about addiction and how similar it is to some people's relationship with food. Big hugs to all doing their best to find ways to manage their food and emotions
Respectfully disagree. Your body image does not contribute to your body composition, only your perceived body composition. Body dysmorphia does not make you fat, it makes you think you are fat.
There are so many contingencies linked to obesity that it is impossible to list all of them, but an important one is politics. Neoliberalism is the primary cause (I believe) of obesity, because predatory capitalism is largely unregulated. Thus, the food industry is able to operate in a murderous fashion with no legal consequences. It is no accident that the US has the highest obesity rate of any large, industrial nation, and that societies that have more developed safety nets, and better medical care - Scandinavian countries, Germany, Netherlands - have relatively less obesity. Asian countries have very low obesity rates - probably related to dietary differences, particularly to resistance to industrial scale assault of fast food. Poverty is also a leading cause of obesity, as healthy foods are priced out of reach for the poor. Italy has one of the lowest rates of obesity of any wealthy, western nation. Traditional Italian food is not stuffed with fat and cheese, but the commercially mutated versions of Italian food marketed in the US will kill you.
Thats not a people relationships problem thats a bad coping mechanism problem. Im a hermit. If i get sad i dont eat my troubles away. I had a bad childhood, i dont eat. There is a difference between correlation and causation. Someone can have all those things and not be fat. Its those that cope with food that get fat. I smoke more weed personally.
@@orionx79 Completely agree Marc. Not everyone who has childhood trauma is going to be obese (me included), not everyone who has childhood trauma is going to get into crime or comit suicide either and I haven't done those things, but I can acknowledge that it's a contributing factor (among many) to such behaviours as suicidation and over-eating in some people. It's been particularly identified in women with childhood sexual abuse who, consciously or subconsciously, attempt to protect themselves by discouraging sexual attention from men by making their bodies less conventionally attractive (i.e. over-eating).
Coping with emotional difficulties with substances (drugs, alcohol, food...) or behaviours (gambling, work, sex, obsessive cleaning, social media,...) are all examples of our growing understanding of addictions and what they may represent - a lack of connection, support, community and emotionally mature coping mechanisms. It's great that you've found a way through your difficulties, but it costs you nothing to allow for some empathy for others who are still finding their path.
@@dominic.h.3363 The reference to body image was specifically about certain forms of self-protection behaviours that can occur in some people, often women, who were sexually abused as children and, consciously or sub-consciously, develop over-eating behaviours to develop a less-conventionally physically attractive body in order to reduce sexual attention by men. Trauma protection behaviours are not all the same and there's no direct line saying 'everyone who has this type of trauma will develop this type of behaviour.' But it's a thing.
Putting it another way, my journey to 104kg was greatly assisted by unmedicated ADHD. Post medication saw the weight drop to 85kg - by design. It helps that I now avoid processed foods, although I still have to guard against the late night munchies. That's the time when Ritalin fades, and my brain reaches for a sugar hit - self medication 🤣
I do enjoy that Sabine is taking her citical sence, logic and ability to read scientific studies to cover a wide range of topics that are in dire need of clarification
Yes please for anything related to obesity! The more trustworthy info, the better! Thank you Sabine 😍
Excellent thorough round-up by Sabine wth her priceless deadpan delivery of hilarious lines. I put on weight during the lockdown and would love to return to my previous weight, even less would be even better.
Genes don't explain nearly as much as people would like to think
Heritable doesn't necessarily mean " genetic "
See " the missing heritability problem " for the details
I would be interested in a followup video, one that includes information on how the body actually loses weight.
"You exhale it as carbon dioxide."
That's about it. Everything else is transient. You eat food and poop it out, you drink fluids and excrete it in various ways. The energy obtained from food is stored/used to run your machinery and the byproduct is CO2.
So the way to lose weight is to burn stored energy and exhale the byproduct. And/or store fewer calories.
edit: actually I guess you can also lose weight by having a tooth pulled or your gall bladder removed etc.
Don’t wait for Sabine, she hasn’t a clue, judging by this video. You have to reduce the level of insulin in your blood so that the fat can come out of the cells. To lower insulin, you must lower you intake of carbohydrates. Look into low-carb, Atkins, ketogenic diets. Gary Taubes’ book Why We Get Fat would be a good place to start. And plenty of great videos on UA-cam from lots of people like Dr. Jason Fung and Dr. Ken Berry.
@@cure-eater Exactly. It really is that simple. But then again: not smoking is also very easy and still people struggle with it.
But yeah: lower your carbs, preferably with intermittent fasting, and you will lose weight. That's it. You don't even actually need exercise, although it helps and it builds muscle.
I learned much of this stuff first from evidence-based bodybuilding channels. These people usually focus on the factors that influence energy intake and expenditure. Interesting to see how a physicist takes a slightly different approach to analyzing the situation. Never really considered that the same body fat % on two different people could have radically different health implications that was facinating.
Carbs and especially sugar is the main cause, plus vegetable oils.
You blew it when you got to the part about exercise. Most people can't eat enough to keep weight on during long distance hiking (hundreds of miles minimum). Eat all you want. You won't be able to keep the weight on. It works for everyone. But ya have to do it. A lot.
Most people don't have the time, resource or desire to do ludicrously long low intensity cardio sessions; even so its just because you burn a ton of calories over that long hike and likely can't stuff your face enough afterwards to makeup for the calories you burned.
But you can also just exercise normally and stick with a consistent diet rather than eating more food after a workout.
Studies just pointed out that if all you do to lose weight is exercise than the different is statistically significant but not a huge amount on its own.
One thing to keep in mind about any of these factors is that their effects can be cumulative. If you have two people who are equal in every way except one of them is predisposition to eat just 1% more calories per day, they're not going to look that different after a day, or a week, or a month, or a year. But given enough time, their weight will diverge significantly.
Indeed, and that's why one should avoid excess sugar in daily beverages (coffee, cocoa, tea, mate, or whatever). Increase water and decrease soda/alcohol consumption, etc
Not really. 1% is extremely tiny.
In a 2000 calorie diet, thats 20 calories. And sure, given enough time this can add up to a lot, its less than you might think.
Between ages of 18 and 60, American men go from an average 150 lbs, to 200 lbs. Most of this seems to happen before they are 40. And gaining 50 lbs over 20 years requires more than double the calories mentioned ealier which was 20 calories. It requires 50 calories extra every day. And 50 calories is only 1% when compared to a 5000 calorie diet. At only 20 extra calories, it would take more than 40 years to pack on 50 lbs of fat.
@@kiraPh1234k Your base metabolic rate also goes up as you gain weight, so it's not like it will continue growing indefinitely like that.
compound interest gets us again!
Yeah that's not how homeostasis works
Really interesting to listen to Sabina ... and also because of nice jokes.
The "international" English she speaks is much better than a native one: in the majority of the World - yes, also in USA, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Scotland, ... - everybody understands Sabrina!
Many thanks!
"The Damn 'th', that l never learned..." - do you know her song "A Million Miles" ? I'm german too, can emphasize her problems. There's her great video "Speaking English like Einstein", I would recommend. All the best.
@@Thomas-gk42 I loved it! So, also her singing voice is crystal clear!
This was a very informative video. Thank you, Sabine, for applying your customary lucidity to a subject I've fought with my entire life, with all the associated stigmas and self-recriminations.
I have lost 75 pounds (±34 Kg...cursed US obsession with Avoirdupois) in the year that I've been retired. While the sample size is small, I think I'm as close to defining to yet another cause of obesity: your job is making you fat! Makes as much sense as those plastic wrappers I keep forgetting to take off of the Twinkies.
After using Doctor Alued on UA-cam herbal treatment i was cured from Obesity after living with the Stigma for years, i highly Recommend his UA-cam channel [ Doctor Alued ] if you are living with Obesity After two months HE also sent my SON Herpes cure now his HSV FREE ,,,
"If your self discipline is soft and weak, your body will become the same."
-My grandfather when I was a kid
Wise man
Obesity is caused by overeating and lack of exercise.
Then you might inquire about the reason of overeating, and these are clearly:
1) most people in our modern western societies lead an unhappy a meaningless life and they have relatively easy access to low quality food, so they try to find solace and comfort in overeating.
2) capitalistic economies are fuelled by bombarding consumers with advertising that overstimulates them into unnecessary hyper-consuming of all products, food included.
Yes, I would like a video on possible treatments.
Thanks for the feedback!
Stop eating sugary foods and you're half way there.
My momma, family really, grew up country, consumed home grown foods, worked hard, and never knew what the internet was. Crock pot cooking is my key, well might include a few beers but at 75 what the hell!!! Absolutely enjoy your humor AND lack of nonsense.
Sabine, this video is outstanding. Thanks for the great information
I cut out all processed foods, foods with excess sugar (no sodas, no candy), or excess salt (no chips), and increased my fiber intake (lots of vegetables and legumes). I immediately started losing weight and "felt" healthier and then over the course of a year I've seen steady weight loss - a few pounds a month that adds up over time. I've been fortunate to be "thin" most of my life, but when I hit 50 it all changed seemingly over night. I let it slide for a while, but then realized my resting pulse was increasing and I wasn't feeling healthy... so I nipped it in the bud!!
What I laugh at is that scientists are trying desperately to point the finger at anything but the food and beverage industries. However, this is where it all starts - you can't gain weight from the air you breathe or things you touch. You gain or lose weight based off volume and types of food you intake. In America, food is an industry just like car manufacturing. They put sugar and salt in **everything** for both preserving the food and making it task good. These industries make massive amounts of money off of these products - and their political lobby has significant sway over laws that are created. It's a difficult rock to crack.
Who puts the food into peoples mouth then ? Not the food industry!