The True Cause of Obesity and How to Deal With It

I haven’t been concerned about my weight since i was able to reduce from 110kg to a stable/plateau of 93kg that I am now. But now in my training, I seem to have reached a plateau as well on my speed in cycling and running. A few people have recommended reducing my weight while maintaining my muscle would increase my speed, as I would then be able to push harder and faster and may even be longer. I recently completed an official 42km at the Borneo International Marathon. The pain I experienced in my legs reminded me about the pain I felt running a 10km when I was 110kg. So now I am stongly considering of reducing down to my supposedly Ideal BMI weight of 79kg. (I don’t actually trust the BMI or body mass index, I will share why eventually)

So now for the first time ever. I will be having a category on my posts on Diet and Nutrition, in addition to the sports categories. Previously I was successful in my reducing my weight by using a Slow Carbohydrate Diet that was shared by Timothy Ferriss in the book 4hour body. But now I am looking into High Fat Diets recommended by Tim Noakes, and Fasting recommended by Dr. Jason Fung. The last 2 authors/experts have similar research and opinions/philosophies/science on diet and obesity.

For this post I will be mostly referring to Dr Jason Fung’s Videos. It is a series of 6 video, each more than 1 hour long, in which he entitled the aetiology of Obesity. When I first watched the video I was thinking Tim Noakes would have loved this guy, but then I found out that Jason Fung published a book entitled the Obesity Code, which had a foreword from Tim Noakes!

Through out all the video he extensively cites the research that supports his points.

he covers mostly on the most common misconceptions and what is the truth on the causes of obesity. Here is my summary of the 6 videos, but please check out the videos for more details on the research that was cited. its a 6 part series. A kidney specialist’s research on cause of obesity.
What doesn’t work:

• dieting or calorie restriction or calorie counting doesn’t really work. When body is given less calories, the body will adjust by lowering down the metabolism, often resulting in loss of body warmth. what is worst is as the metabolism is lower, the moment more calories come in, the body starts to store again.
• increased exercise doesn’t work. one research was based on a 1 hour perday every week for a year study, I guess it is without controlling food portions. as the test subject may eat more to compensate for loss in energy. I guess more than 1 hour exercise may work, cause it works for me in my cycling, running, hiking and triathlon training.

The real cause of obesity:

• food type – refined carbs without fibre E.g. Glucose and fructose) that raises blood sugar and activates insulin, E.g food high in glycemic and insulemic index.
• eating time (having snacks, having breakfast in morning, have late dinner at night before sleep) keeps insulin up,
• hormones (high insulin stores sugar as glycogen and fat, high stress/cortisol produces sugar that activates insulin.

So his cure for obesity and diabetes is

• low carb, high fat, high protein.
  And
• intermittent fast (generally no breakfast and have late lunch), or water fasting (dont eat just drink, some religions practice for a few days to a month), there are several versions of this which I will share in future posts.

Viewing his presentation gave me a huge insight on the true cause of obesity, and what’s interesting is the knowledge isn’t really something new, it is more like it has been forgotten, covered up by the food industry marketing, faulty research and its interpretations, but mostly the food culture that we have been brought into. I invite you to watch and learn his youtube series on the truth on obesity, he shows facts, and some even common biology knowledge, knowledge I remember learning in A’level Biology on hormones, knowledge put together to find the truth. I invite you to suspend your current knowledge on obesity, listen to what Dr Jason Fung has to say, and then make up your own mind.

What interests me is the idea that if he does his job right in terms of promoting the truth on obesity, he may put himself out of a job as a specialist doctor.

You can just search Dr Jason Fung on youtube, or you can go to his website at https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/ where he may have other articles that you may have concerns with.