Why Am I Still Fat? is an Australian mini-documentary that is free on YouTube and totally worth watching (below).
The 28-minute film with male and female hosts, follows three different women on three different weight loss strategies – low-energy “crash” diet (800 calories a day), typical conventional diet with regular amount of calories and a stomach lap band surgery. Meanwhile, they talk about interesting obesity advancements throughout. Whether you watch it or not, I’ve summarized some of the main take-away points.
Here are five things I learned from Why Am I Still Fat?:
1.) The famine reaction is a survival mechanism in our body that keeps the excess weight despite our fervent dieting efforts. In fact, dieting could increase the drive to eat. “I literally dieted myself fat,” says Prof. Amanda Salis in the documentary. I have experienced the famine reaction myself, maybe you have, too? The good news is that the famine reaction also helps you utilize your fuel more efficiently. The longer you carry extra weight the harder it is to lose because the hypothalamus in the brain resets the amount of fat your body defends.***
2.) A crash diet or fasting diet may have a positive effect on the famine response and weight loss. The low-energy (low cal) crash diet actually made the famine reaction go dormant in one participant. The long-term effects would need to be followed up to see if the weight stayed off. Recent research has suggested that a fasting-like diet and/or intermittent fasting have had a profound effect on weight and inflammation.
3.) White lipid cells house fats safely in their cells – but when they get overloaded they burst causing lipids to go in the bloodstream, and overall inflammation and organ strain.
4.) Bisphenol A (BPA) and other chemicals are referred to as obesogens for a reason! They pretend to be hormones and displace our natural hormones which can lead . I’m really glad the documentary addressed hormone disruptors like phthalates and BPA this issue.
- The amount of BPA is over 100,000 times higher than the amount of BPA in receipts than in canned foods. In Australia (and perhaps the U.S.) BPA resin lines their drinking water faucets!
5.) Purple vegetables and fruits are the very best kind for weight loss. Produce like purple carrots, purple heirlooms, purple cabbage, eggplant, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and plums – just to name a few – contain a powerful antioxidant called anthocyanin. It just so happens to melt fat like none other! In fact, in one study it reduced the harmful effects of obesity in rats who were fed a terrible fast food diet.
The amazing part is that the rats never had their diets changed! They only had the addition of these powerful fruits and veggies. In case you’re wondering, purple carrots and Queen Garnet plums contain the highest amounts of anthocyanin.
WATCH:
*** If you can’t lose weight despite doing “all the right things” you need to start looking at your pituitary gland, aka, the “master gland” (which takes orders from the hypothalamus) and is heavily affected by heavy metals, radiation and trauma. The best way to get a diagnosis for this issue is to see an endocrinologist or perhaps an integrated doctor. Finding out if you have an issue in this department can save you a ton of time and effort.
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