Four weeks ago I wrecked up my left foot while doing sprints in a park. For the two following weeks I was barely able to walk. I had x-rays taken but nothing seemed amiss. Still, the diagnose was a minor fracture caused by excess strain.

After spending about a week in self-pity, lying on the couch and agonizing over missed exercise, I decided to hit the gym. Even though I was limping there was nothing wrong with my upper body. I soon found out that even though walking hurt like hell I was also able to do squats and leg presses without problems. Go figure. And since running and Yoga were out of question, I started to tweak my old gym routine.

Photo by: Scootzsx

I reacquainted myself with a blog specialized in muscle growth which I had found already over a year ago, and to my luck the author Mark McManus had just published his newest take on Targeted Hypertrophy Training. I started reading and actually gained some new insights:

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Every now and then you hear guys talk about how it seems so difficult to find an interesting, clever, and a beautiful woman when they are single, but as soon as they start dating they become chick magnets and suddenly that kind of quality women are around every corner. On top of that, many of them seem to be attracted to these guys - something that was completely unheard of before! One moment you’re just another single guy trying to get the attention of a beautiful woman. Start dating, and you become magic.

The scarcity principle is one explanation; people are always more interested in things that seem unobtainable or rare. Then there is social proof; someone else has already done the screening for you. But how do you create the same effect without starting to date and consequently remove yourself from the marketplace?

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This post has been sitting half-finished on my computer for about a month already, but I simply haven't been able to find the time and energy to actually finish it. I'm sure many of you thought I'd given up writing altogether. My sincerest apologies for the delay. I hope you enjoy the final part of this series on gaining and losing fat!

In the first part I talked about the shortcomings of conventional wisdom in what causes overweight and obesity. The second part was more focused on biochemistry and the reasons why carbohydrates and sugars are the most likely culprit. Now it’s time to put it all together and discuss what you can do to lose weight, gain better body composition, better health, and feel more energetic.

I strongly recommend reading at least the previous part before proceeding with this one.

Diet

Korean barbecue is a great example of delicious low-carbohydrate food. Photo by Shutter FerretIn the second part I made it pretty clear why sugars and dietary carbohydrates cause people to gain weight, so the solution for the diet part is rather simple:

Avoid dietary sugars and carbohydrates, as well as sugared drinks.

This act alone will greatly lower the amount of insulin in your bloodstream, and also cut down the triglyceride production - meaning that your body will have hard time storing fat. When glucose is not available for use as energy, your body will start releasing fatty acids from the adipose tissue into bloodstream, and starts using those as a preferred energy source.

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In the first part I talked about the problems of conventional wisdom, and the energy balance hypothesis in overweight and obesity. Now it's time to get down to the nitty-gritty of how our bodies actually work when it comes to storage and use of nutrients.

One thing missing from the conventional hypothesis (Change in weight = Calories IN - Calories OUT) is the arrow of causality. Even if we'd believe this formula to be correct, it doesn't tell us anything about what causes people to eat too much and expend too little of their energy. In this light, what should be said about obesity - and when I talk about obesity I'm talking about things that can be applied to any amount of overweight - is that it is a disorder of excess fat accumulation.

We don't assume that people eating too much and exercising too little results in obesity, and at this point we don't even say that specific foods such as saturated fats or sweets cause obesity. We're just saying, that something causes the fat tissue to store excessive amounts of fat in obese and overweight people.

When looked from this point of view, overeating is not a weakness of character and the "cure" is not to live our lives constantly battling hunger and the desire to eat. This starting point also allows us to ask different kinds of questions. One extremely important one that has been missing from the caloric balance hypothesis is; if obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation then what regulates fat accumulation?

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When I wrote my original post about weight loss I didn't want to go into too much of the specifics of why eating a low-carbohydrate high-fat diet works. I did mention blood sugars, their effect on insulin, and gave reasons why it's vitally important to control the insulin levels. However, I purposefully didn't go into the very specifics of how fat accumulation works. It's time to change that.

Can wearing sweaters make you fat? Yes, if you follow the logic of caloric balance hypothesis.

This article wouldn't be possible without the brilliant Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, who spent five years studying medical literature and research related to metabolism, nutrition, and obesity starting from mid 1800s. He then summarized his findings into one book that covers the journey of how this field of science has evolved, and how we ended up from very controversial hypotheses to government-enforced nutritional guidelines.

In this first part I'll focus more on the conventional wisdom and its shortcomings in explaining why people become overweight. I hope you enjoy the ride!

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