Blog Post

I recently read this book and am excited by what I read and wanted to share. It matches well with my FDN training and expands upon it. I wish I had read it 6 years ago after it was first published as it would have likely saved me years of dieting problems trying to stay at a healthy weight that even my FDN training didn’t help.

The Obesity Code book by Dr. Jason Fung answers questions that I had. The cover gives a hint and says, “Why intermittent fasting is the key to controlling your weight.†I recently tried again to lose weight by reducing calories. The first few weeks went well but I was losing less weight each week until I wasn’t losing any and even started gaining weight. So, I gave up and went looking for what else I could do. I suspected it was fasting and so looked at Dr. Jason Fung’s books.

The main revelation of the book is that maintaining low average insulin and moderate cortisol levels are the key to convincing your body to lose weight and maintain a lower body weight set point. (Increasing Cortisol raises Insulin.) He called this the Hormonal Theory of Obesity. Since eating normally raises your insulin level, one part of controlling your average insulin level is by extending the time between eating and eating foods that don’t raise your insulin so much. In our current world we frequently eat: Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, Dinner, Snack. So, your insulin stays high and continues trying to pack away the fat. He says that “the increase in meals is almost twice as important as the change in dietâ€. So the timing of when you eat is very important.

The book covers a lot of research and different approaches that people have taken to weight loss to show their problems. Ultimately weight loss takes a whole person approach that is more than just diet. “There is no one single cause of obesity.†(page 216) His theory explains the following things.

• It explains why some cultures can eat rice, sweet potatoes or other carbohydrates and yet still maintain a low body weight. They were not constantly snacking. This was always an enigma in books or articles that review different tribal diets studied from the early 20th century. Also, the fiber in carbohydrates reduces the blood glucose and insulin level impact. (page 182).
• It explains why the average U.S. body weight in the 1960s and1970s was low. (See beach pictures from that time.) They were not yet constantly snacking. Eating just Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner was still the norm. Yet they still had access to and occasionally ate cookies, cake, bread, etc.
• It explains why some people can clean up their diet/habits and lose weight while others do the same thing but are unable to lose weight or even gain weight. Your age and previous medical history impact your hormones and can require you to take more extensive steps like intermittent fasting that are not needed for others. The book Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes assumed that everyone was the same.
• It explains why all diets work in the short term but ultimately fail with most people regaining the weight lost. The eat less move more concept doesn’t work.
• It explains why fructose (corn syrup) is so damaging to our liver. Sugar is 50% fructose.
• It explains why excessive stress, lack of sleep, lack of exercise or excessive exercise can cause weight gain. So, adjusting your diet alone is inadequate.
• It explains why artificial sweeteners are harmful.
• Why high protein diets don’t work.

Ultimately, he makes general diet and intermittent fasting recommendations without regard to specific calorie counts because counting calories doesn’t work. His five summary diet recommendations are:

1. Reduce your consumption of added sugars.
2. Reduce your consumption of refined grains.
3. Moderate your protein intake.
4. Increase your consumption of natural fats.
5. Increase your consumption of fiber and vinegar.

Intermittent fasting is person specific. Some people won’t need to fast beyond eliminating between meal snacks. Others will do better if they skip breakfast every day while others may need to fast for 24 hours a couple days a week. Each person will have to experiment and see what works best for them to lose weight and establish a new body set weight.

I happen to be on day 5 of a 40ish day fast and will start experimenting with intermittent fasting schedules when I get back down to a healthy weight.