1. Why is Weight Loss so Difficult?

So many people struggle with weight loss, we see it all the time. The reason why so many struggle is because we've been taught so many wrong things about it. This section aims to debunk many of the incorrect teachings which have sabotaged people from losing weight. There are many documentaries on this, but I highly recommend everyone to watch "The Magic Pill"

Most people are not counting calories and are eating too many carbs that they cannot process so they get stored in the liver (as glycogen) or turned to fat.

Your body is an engine that burns fuel, and if you put in less fuel than you need you will take stored energy from your body

There are 2 main ways your body stores energy: If you overeat calories (fuel) you will store them as carbs (glycogen) in the liver or as fat

If you remember only 1 thing, remember:

Counting calories and consistently eating less than you need will inevitably lead to

weight loss by forcing your body to burn fat for the extra energy that it needs.

2. Four Things You Need to Know

to Lose Weight:

(1) Consistently eating less total daily calories than you need combined with:

(2) Eating low carb to allow for less carb storage in the liver and better fat burning results

All of nature follows the path of least resistance – it's easier to get energy from stored carbs in the liver than from burning fat

(3) If you can, get some weekly exercise. This will speed up your results but it is not necessary to lose weight. The big thing is to not get burned out on exercise. A little bit every week really adds up over the long run.

(4) It takes patience to lose weight

If every day you consistently ate 200 calories less than what your body needs, you would slowly lose weight. But it is easy to eat 200 calories so that is why we must somehow track what we eat. Even if we do that correctly, every day, at that rate it would take 17.5 days to lose 1 pound of fat because there are 3500 calories in 1 pound of fat

This is why so many people give up sooner or later on weight loss

They're mostly guessing and hoping they are eating less than they need to lose weight, and probably not doing a good job of that because it is easy to eat 200+ calories in 1 day

They are not cutting back enough carbs so that if they do at least on some days under-eat how many calories in that day that they need to break even, there's still often some carbs hanging out in the liver blocking their ability to burn fat

Proof of people's lack of patience: wanting a weight loss drug or a quick diet like South Beach diet to get the job done. But the data shows that once a person stops taking the weight loss medicine or stops the special diet, the weight comes back and sometimes quickly and they can end up heavier than before they started.

Many think, "If I could just exercise more that would be the answer to losing weight." But that is also untrue, because although it can definitely help, the more active you are the more calories you burn and the hungrier you feel. So you still have to figure out the eating part of weight loss, and that is why eating is really the main thing that you have to figure out.

3. Why Do Diabetes Medicines Help Non-Diabetics Lose Weight?

They improve how your body processes and uses carbs so that less are stored in your liver for future energy needs. But wouldn't it make more sense to just figure out how to eat less carbohydrates and get good at doing that?

In researching foods I found some startling things:

About 70% of the average American's diet comes from carbohydrates.

Many experts agree that we should not be eating more than 30% of our total daily calories from carbohydrates.

The rate of known prediabetes in US adults from 2017–2020 was about 38.0%

The rate of known diabetes in US adults from 2017–2020 was about 9%

The rate of known US obesity was 41.9% from 2017 – March 2020.

These numbers are startlingly similar! So nearly half of the US is obese and close to or already has diabetes! That is shocking, but it makes perfect sense if the average American is eating more than 2x the amount of carbohydrates than they should be, and if excessive consumption of carbs also hinders weight loss.

Why do so many overeat carbohydrates? In short: they are cheap and plentiful, protein is expensive, and we have taught people to be afraid of eating fat due to controversial teachings about cholesterol and the incorrect belief that "if we eat fat we get fat."

4. Why Do People Often Gain Weight Back After Bariatric Surgeries?

Most bariatric surgeries work by altering a person's stomach/intestines so that they cannot eat very much before they become full – forcing them to eat less food at a time.

Bariatric surgeries typically work very well, for a while, until people gradually creep back into their old eating habits. Their stomachs get gradually more and more stretched over time and they often-times end up just as overweight as they were before the surgery, except for it's even worse now because now their body is permanently altered in a way that can lead to many other major problems.

We are seeing more and more people now with failed bariatric surgeries, who have gained all their weight back or more over a few years or more since their surgery

The sad thing about bariatric surgeries is that for about a year patients have to jump through all kinds of hoops before the surgery, such as seeing behavioral health and a dietician, keep a food and exercise log, all kinds of labs and tests, etc.

I would bet that if people were told what I am saying here, and spent just a fraction of that amount of energy correctly reducing how much they were eating and making sure that they were everyday eating less calories than they need, they would inevitably reach their weight loss goals given a long enough time period.

Remember, there's 3500 calories in 1 pound of fat. By undereating by 200 calories every day it would take 17.5 days to burn 1 pound of fat. That is a slow process most don't realize.

You can't really cut back on calories much more than that because if you did you would probably feel hungry all the time – people can do that for a short time, but it is very difficult to feel hungry all the time for a long time.

5. A Closer Look at Weight Loss Medicines:

Weight loss medicines work a few main ways by generally trying to suppress your appetite and improve how you process and burn calories.

There are some big problems with them though:

(1) They all come with potential side effects – some of those side effects are really bad.

(2) A person still needs to improve their eating habits while taking a weight loss medicine, because if they do not they can still overeat and gain weight.

(3) Some of the newer weight loss medicines are extremely expensive, and to my knowledge, most insurances do not pay for any weight loss medicines.

(4) Most of the time after a person gets off of a weight loss medicine, they gain the weight back and sometimes even more, which is very discouraging.

So essentially you have a potentially very costly medicine that can have some very serious side effects, that is not at all likely to give a person long-term results after they get off of it.

Knowing that, does it really make any sense to use these things?

Wouldn't it make more sense to figure out how to lose weight by eating correctly? Because a person still has to do that to some degree while they are on weight loss medicine, and especially after they get off of it.

6. Summary:

What is the best way to lose weight?

4 Things you need to know:

(1) Consistently eat less total daily calories than you need.

To be successful, at least for a while, you have to track your total daily calories somehow, otherwise you are probably inaccurately guessing at how much you are eating.

There are free apps that help with this such as Carb Manager

I highly recommend Weight Watchers, which has a point system for foods. They give you a certain amount of points for foods based on your calorie needs, and if you don't use more points than they give you you will be successful. They have been helping people lose weight for years. They also have improved their point system in recent years and there are many foods that don't cost any points to eat, so that you don't have to stay feeling hungry if you are out of points. They also have a version for diabetes, which I would recommend even non-diabetics to try because of the next point:

(2) Eat less carbohydrates.

This stops your body from storing them in the liver and allows for faster fat burning results and weight loss. Carbs can also be a major source of inflammation which can damage the whole body – but that is a topic for another place and time.

(3) Get some exercise if possible.

This is not a "must do" to lose weight, but it will speed up your results and improve your overall health. You should break a sweat during exercise, but the big thing is to not get burned out by doing it too much – a little bit every week really adds up over time.

(4) Remember that it takes patience to lose weight, but if you keep moving in the right direction and don't give up, it will happen!