January 4, 2018

Around the world, scientists are starting to question everything we’ve been told about weight loss. The old simplistic message – it’s just about balancing the intake of calories in our diet with the output in exercise – is obviously not working for the majority of overweight people. Simply: eating less and exercising more doesn’t work for most.

Many of our members have a life experience that contradicts the “eat less and exercise more” point of view. This point of view has made so many people feel guilty for their weight and frustrated by lack of results: no wonder so many lost hope and just gave up. No amount of semi-starvation and increased exercise had made any difference to their waistlines.

New thinking about weight loss

The new thinking of weight control offers a different point of view. It’s a bit technical but worth getting your head around. It’s called the Carbohydrate-Insulin Model or CIM for short.

CIM combines the sciences of nutrition, endocrinology and obesity:

  1. The amount of carbohydrate in a serve of food or drink dictates how much it will elevate the hormone insulin in your body. It’s dose dependent. Each of our bodies respond differently. This is basic nutrition science.
  2. Elevated insulin stimulates fat cell growth. Example: a child with T1 diabetes with too little insulin will lose weight. With enough insulin, their weight will be stable. With too much insulin, they will gain weight. Too much insulin will do the same for those without diabetes. This is basic endocrinology.
  3. When too much of the energy from food and drinks we consume gets directed into fat cells (because of elevated insulin acting like a fat storage switch), our organs and brains don’t get enough energy. This then stimulates a false hunger which drives our appetite for more food. It also slows metabolism. This is basic weight/obesity science.

And so, when we’ve been told that overeating is the key driver of weight gain (hence guilt), the new view is that high insulin level is the key driver of weight gain (no guilt). The fact is that specific food choices (even some “healthy” choices) drive insulin, and this effect differs from person to person, being problematic for some and OK for others.

Never assume a slim person’s diet and/or exercise routine will make you slim. The simple fact is that the same diet does not suit every body.

There’s more

There’s one more dimension: The most obvious symptom of high insulin secretion is eventual weight/waist gain, but as excess insulin secretion is rarely seen as the cause of the weight gain, it’s almost never measured. The only treatment for high insulin is to eat differently. Having a process to figure this out for your body is the key.

After years of undetected high insulin, most people will develop insulin resistance (IR). IR is associated with excess weight in the waist area, high blood pressure, non-alcoholic fatty liver, heart disease, dementia, some cancers, and eventually diabetes. Although IR may not be reversed with weight loss, the best way to control it is with the right eating plan for your body.

Although most new members who come to Healthy Inspirations have the belief that weight loss is just about eating less and exercising more, this formula has not worked for them in the past. With our Reset program, which is unique and exclusive to Healthy Inspirations, we work with each member to develop the the most effective eating and exercise plan for their body, and to create habits that last. Where most weight loss efforts fail, or eventually fail, the Reset program takes the CIM approach, combines it with the support and accountability from coaching and takes a long-term approach.

Not only does this approach increase general wellbeing, it may decrease the risks of chronic disease as well.

The very nice side effects are weight loss without hunger and an increased pre-disposition to participate in exercise. If you’re not on the Reset program now, give your local centre a call.

Original source: http://clinchem.aaccjnls.org/content/64/1/7