Transcript
Question: What are the biggest misperceptions about weight management?
Marc Bessler: Well that fat is bad for weight loss, certainly fat has more calories per unit volume, so if you eat a gram of fat that’s 9 calories, instead of a gram of protein which is 4 calories. The problem is that some people tend to fill up more on a small amount of fat than they do on a large amount of protein or carbs and especially carbs. So that eating the same number of calories, whether it’s fat or carbohydrates probably is gonna result in the same amount of weight loss or weight gain. What really matters is how full you feel how quickly. If you eat carbs for breakfast, without much protein or any protein, it’s been shown that you get hungry a few hours later because your insulin levels go up from the carbohydrates, but the carbohydrates get metabolized quickly and you’re left with a low sugar rate a few hours later because your insulin’s still around and then you’re hungry and you eat again and if you eat carbs again, you just aggravate that cycle. One of the reasons the Atkins diet works, the concept is that proteins are metabolized more slowly and cause a smaller rise in insulin. So if you have pure protein for breakfast, you stay full longer, you don’t get that hunger a few hours later and ultimately if you manage your protein, carbohydrate and fat intake appropriately you may eat less throughout the day because you’re less hungry from your food choices. That’s how South Beach diet works and Atkins diet etc. those diets work when they work by helping you stay full longer, have less hunger so that ultimately you eat less because the amount of calories you’re taking in will be the same with any diet if it’s 800 calories, it’s 800 calories, what really matters is are you so hungry that you can’t stick with that diet.
