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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I tweeted recently about making a new personal record as I ate altogether 7 boiled eggs in one day; three for breakfast and four with dinner consisting of salad, lentils, and salmon. Apparently this raised some questions about my cholesterol levels, and since it's been a while since I wrote anything about nutrition and health, I thought it would be a good time to clear some confusion surrounding this topic.

Coincidentally, I'm also reading Gary Taubes's Good Calories, Bad Calories and just finished a section about cholesterol. If you've read my earlier posts about nutrition and weight loss but doubt the science behind them, I really recommend getting a copy of this book. It's rather heavy to read, but gives a thorough overview about the science and research in the field of nutrition over the past 100 years. Things are not as black and white as we've been led to believe.

Most people think that cholesterol is the stuff that clogs arteries, causing heart attacks and stroke. Due to this it's also commonly believed that avoiding cholesterol rich foods such as eggs will keep you healthier. However, the truth is far more complex than that.

First of all, cholesterol is absolutely vital for life. Cholesterol molecules are the building blocks of cell membranes. Without cholesterol our cells would not be able to maintain their form. The cells in our bodies are continuously dying and born again in a cycle of life, but if we would somehow remove cholesterol the cycle would end, and so would our own existence.

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If you're trying to search for information about weight loss and healthy eating it's nearly impossible to find good advice about what actually works and what doesn't. Contradictory information is everywhere; low-fat vs. high-fat, meat eating vs. vegetarianism, soy vs. dairy etc. On top of that, many diet and weight loss websites have their own agenda of selling information products or dietary supplements. Not to mention the huge number of fad diets which are supposed to make you look like a Calvin Klein model in four to eight weeks.

And here I am talking about low-carb diet, which was pretty much categorized as a fad some years ago, but now an ever-growing body of research is starting to prove otherwise. The principles behind low-carb way of eating are sound and result in better health. There is a lot of evidence that low-carb is not just another passing thing, but actually might prove to be the optimal diet plan that anyone can follow.

I have discussed the mechanics of low-carb diet in detail previously, so please refer to The how and why of weight loss article if you're interested in knowing more about what it actually is, and how and why it works. In this post I want to focus more on some of the logic and reasons of why low-carb simply makes sense.

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