The new magical weight loss drugs like Ozempic, Semaglutide, and Wegovy are some of the best things that have happened to our society in a long time.
But not for the reasons you might think.
Calorie counting for weight loss
Until now our society has been obsessed by the calories in-calories out model. Eat more calories than you expend through exercise then you will gain weight.
These new wonder drugs have now proven that weight loss is about hormones. It is not about calories.
The problem with weight loss and calorie counting
For years people have been trying to lose weight by reducing their calorie intake through willpower. And yes this achieves weight loss. If you eat less than your body needs, your body will shrink.
But there are problems with this. Firstly, it is extraordinarily difficult to eat less through willpower. Secondly, the weight loss rarely lasts.
Research - and the World’s Biggest loser competitions – have shown these problems time and time again. People are followed for weeks as they suffer through an extraordinary exercise regime while while they survive on a tiny calorie restricted diet. By the final episode they have shed kilos of weight. But months later, long after the shows have forgotten them, they have regained the weight (and often more than they started with).
This happens because weight is managed by hormones, not calories and willpower
Bodyweight has nothing to do with willpower and conscious control of calories.
Everyone has a weight 'set point' which is like the temperature thermostat in a house. The thermostat keeps everything at the ‘happy set-point temperature’. If the temperature drops the thermostat adjusts to increase heat; if the temperature increases it increases cold. Same with your weight. If your weight drops, your body sends out hormones telling you to eat more; if your weight increases, your body sends out hormones telling you to eat less.
By restricting calories we are trying to ignore the cold. We can't do this forever - eventually we need to put a jumper on.
Why the new wonder drugs prove this
The new weight loss drugs prove this because they operate through a hormone called GLP-1 which is normally produced by your gut. This hormone tells your brain you are full so that you stop eating, without any conscious effort. In other words, through hormones, these drugs make us choose to stop eating (they don't put a gauze over our mouth!).
So what is controlling our weight set-point?
Given more than two-thirds of Western societies are now overweight or obese, there must be something in our environment causing our appetite hormones to be out of whack.
In good news, we already know what that something is!
A study carried out by Kevin Hall in 2021 showed that ultra-processed foods or UPF alter hormones and cause humans to overeat by about 500 calories each day, or three slices of buttered toast! This is clear from the study's title “Ultra-processed diets cause excess calorie intake and weight gain” .
Yet we seem to have missed the memo.
How do ultra-processed foods make us overeat?
Big food companies have manipulated foods to hijack our appetites to make us overeat.
They design foods - or some people call them 'food like edible substances' - to have a ‘bliss point’ that overwhelms our hormones and our appetite control centres.
Big food companies pay people to taste the foods to find that precise bliss point – that perfect mix of sugar, fat and salt. This bliss point is purposefully designed to flick our hormone switches so that we eat more than we need.
The aim of big food companies is to make money. They make money by selling their products. Their products sell if they taste good. They sell even better if people can't stop eating them.
How did we miss the memo?
We missed the memo because big food companies – and therefore Government establishments that collect taxes from these big food companies – don’t want us to hear it.
They want us to believe the problem is ours and that weight gain is because we eat to much and that we should eat fewer calories. The calories in calories out concept is the perfect concept for big food companies. Put the responsibility back on the individuals. It is their fault that they are overeating. Clever.
We should all be rejoicing in the new weight loss drugs
The new weight loss drugs have proved that weight loss is driven by hormones. Not calories. Not a person’s willpower. We now know, weight gain is driven by disrupted hormones.
Disrupted hormones due to ultra-processed food is well-established.
We have an answer.
If you need help to recalibrate your hormones, get in touch
If you are struggling to switch to non-processed foods or need help figuring out which foods are ultra-processed, please get in touch. If you are truly eating a non-processed diet and still unable to lose weight then there may be something else going on and I would be happy to work with you to try to unlock this.
"The new weight loss drugs have proved once-and-for-all that weight loss is regulated by hormones and that calories – and our conscious control over calories – have nothing to do with it."
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