Flip Your Diet On Its Head

Article by SHANNON DAHLUM

Every year, 45 million Americans go on a diet and spend $33 billion on weight loss products. Despite all the effort and money spent, 73.6% of us are overweight or obese, and only 12% of American adults are metabolically healthy. We’re told to eat less and move more, so we do, over and over. The diet industry continues to grow, and our waistlines, fatigue, and metabolic disease are growing right along with it. Perhaps it’s not our bodies that are failing us, but the diet industry itself.

The weight loss model we’ve been taught to follow is the “calories in versus calories out” theory. We’re told that we simply need to burn more calories than we consume and weight loss will happen. Mathematically, it makes sense. If we eat 500 calories, we then have 500 calories of fuel to burn. If we consume a 300 calorie cookie, we just need to make up for it by burning 300 calories on the treadmill, or skipping our next meal. As long as we continue to maintain a calorie deficit, weight loss will happen.

If it’s so simple, why are we continuing to gain weight? If we calorie-deprive ourselves into a smaller pair of skinny jeans, it’s usually short lived and the weight is regained. We wind up on a never ending roller coaster ride of losing and gaining over and over. We become obsessed with food and exercise, plagued by fatigue and hormonal imbalance, with growing chronic lifestyle disease and a sense of failure and shame. Why isn’t it working for us?

Let’s talk for a second about what a calorie actually is. A calorie is a unit of heat energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1 degree Celsius. The caloric value of food is determined in a lab by setting the food on fire. The heat released by that fire raises the temperature of 1 kilogram of water. The temperature change of that water tells us how much energy, or calories, were released from the food. While that gives us some information about the food, it certainly doesn’t reflect what happens in our bodies when we eat that food. Our bodies don’t simply set fire to calories and run on that heat. The energy our bodies make and utilize is called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. We don’t get this energy from food; we make it.

The mitochondria are found inside the cells throughout our bodies, and this is where ATP production happens. Put simply, glucose and oxygen enter the cells and the mitochondria use them to create ATP. The ATP is used to fuel not only our physical and mental activity, but for every single function needed to keep us alive and healthy. Notice that calories aren’t a part of the energy production process; glucose is, which comes from the carbohydrates we eat. This process of creating energy in the cells is called metabolism, and it’s controlled by the thyroid. When the thyroid is controlling healthy energy production in the body, we are in what’s called an anabolic, or building, state.

A constant flow of ATP is absolutely necessary for our survival, so when we aren’t able to create enough of it to support our body’s energy demands, this puts the body is a state of stress. Stress is anything that creates an energy imbalance. It can happen if there isn’t enough glucose and oxygen available for making the needed ATP, or if the body is simply demanding more than the mitochondria can produce in that moment. The body adapts to this energy deficit by stopping the production of new energy so it can break down its own tissue for fuel. Put another way, when your metabolism can’t produce enough energy to meet demands, it slows down and the body starts breaking itself down to free energy. This process of releasing energy from the body’s own tissue is controlled by the adrenal glands. When the adrenals are in charge of energy production in the body, we are in what’s called a catabolic, or breaking down, state. This is exactly what diets are designed to do; to create an energy deficit that forces the body into a stress state so it will break its own tissue down to utilize as fuel.

Healthy metabolic function requires that our bodies move easily between anabolism and catabolism to maintain a healthy flow of energy. When we’re receiving adequate glucose from carbohydrates in the diet to produce the ATP our bodies need, our thyroid is in control, our bodies are creating energy and building cells, tissue, and hormones effectively. When energy creation can’t keep up with the body’s needs, the thyroid slows down energy production, and the adrenals step up to trigger the body to release stored glucose in the fat and muscle tissue. Now, instead of using glucose from the food we consume to create new energy, incoming glucose is put into storage in the fat cells. Building new cells, tissue and hormones is put on hold to conserve energy, and the body’s fat and/or muscle tissue is broken down to free energy.

In the short term, this back-up emergency fuel source is a brilliant way to keep us alive during periods of energy shortage. When it becomes a long term necessity, however, the body’s structure and functions break down and don’t have an opportunity to rebuild. Thyroid function plummets, and eventually adrenal function “tires out” and can’t keep up. The adrenals were designed to provide a solution for short term energy shortage, not long term energy production. This eventually leads to complete burn out, in which the thyroid and metabolism are under functioning, but the back-up emergency fuel source, driven by the adrenals, isn’t able to keep up, either. We wind up with fatigue, excess weight gain and weight loss resistance, hormonal imbalance, insulin resistance, high cholesterol and triglycerides, and any of the other symptoms that can accompany metabolic dysfunction.

If you can imagine burning a fire in your home’s fireplace to keep your house warm in the dead of winter, you’d need to provide a consistent source of wood to keep the fire going. If you ran out of firewood, you’d need to start tearing down walls to feed the fire so it wouldn’t burn out. Ideally, you’d chop down more wood quickly so you could switch back to feeding new logs to the fire, and then you’d have an opportunity to rebuild the walls you tore down. If you never went back to burning new logs and rebuilding your house, though, you’d eventually burn down your entire house, and the fire would go out. This is essentially what happens to your body when you rely on your emergency fuel source the majority of the time.

Perhaps you’re beginning to see how consistent calorie or carbohydrate deprivation and excess exercise can cause more problems than it fixes. In the short term, it can create weight loss by forcing the body to utilize its emergency back-up fuel. When utilized long term, though, it leads to metabolic dysfunction and excess weight gain. Rather than trying to achieve weight loss through the constant stress of energy deprivation, it may be wiser to optimize metabolic function by maintaining a healthy energy balance and calming the stress response.

All of the weight loss strategies we’ve been taught force us to burn down our own walls. Intermittent fasting, calorie deprivation, and carbohydrate deprivation deplete our bodies of the glucose needed for creating new energy. In this state, the thyroid can’t put new logs on the fire, so the adrenals start knocking down walls and tossing them in the fireplace. When it comes to losing weight, this works for a short time! We’re using up up our own tissue, which leads to weight loss. However, while we’re burning through our tissue, more of the food we eat winds up being stored in the fat cells. Remember, also, that to keep the fire burning in the long run without destroying the house, we need to give the adrenals a break and allow the thyroid to put new wood on the fire again. The thyroid and adrenals are constantly talking to one another and their dance is what keeps our metabolisms healthy and balanced. If either one leads the dance for too long, energy becomes imbalanced and weight gain often results.

Calorie deficiency isn’t the only thing that moves our adrenals into the driver’s seat. All forms of stress, whether it’s emotional or physical, will move our bodies into a catabolic state. This includes lack of sleep, arguments with your spouse, job stress, dehydration, feelings of guilt or anger, overwork, nutrient deficiency, inflammation, etc. The stress we are currently exposed to in our daily lives is enough to keep us chronically stuck in a state of tissue breakdown and excess fat storage. Add dieting and excess exercise on top of that, and we likely only exacerbate the problem.

The key to giving the adrenals a break and allowing the thyroid to lead energy production is to diminish the stress burden on the body. Depending on what’s contributing to the stress load, this can look different for all of us. Rather than forcing an energy deficit in our bodies, we need to provide them with a sense of safety. Removing anything that our brains can sense as a threat to our immediate survival is how we support energy production and increased metabolism.

For those of us who have a history of dieting, intense exercise, diet pills, or other methods of deprivation, it’s especially important to nourish the body back into a state of energy balance before stacking on any other new diet or exercise program. After adapting to an energy deprived state for so long, the brain needs to receive a consistent signal that the threat of energy depletion is gone. When the body receives a consistent flow of energy producing nutrients, and the energy demand of the body isn’t greater than what energy production can keep up with, the stress response will eventually settle down. The adrenals can move to the backseat while the thyroid directs energy production again. It goes against everything we think we know about weight loss, but instead of eating less and moving more, we may need to eat more and move less to get out of an energy deprived state and into a state of energy abundance.

To increase energy production in the body, eating consistently is important. So many of us don’t have an appetite until lunch, and in the name of intermittent fasting, it seems like a good idea to just skip breakfast anyway. Not having an appetite in the morning is actually a big red flag that the adrenals are in charge. The body is in a state of stress and is relying on its emergency fuel system to run. Getting in a meal, or even a small snack, within 30- 60 minutes of waking up will help decrease the stress hormones and gently coax the metabolism into action. Eating consistently throughout the day, at regular intervals of every 3-4 hours will continue to move energy production in the right direction.

Just as adding too many logs to the fireplace can smother a fire, eating too much can be a stressor that slows metabolism, too. It may take some time to figure out the amounts of food that are right for you, but how you eat may be more important than how much you eat, initially. Sitting at a table to eat meals without distractions and paying attention to your food rather than the TV or computer screen enhances digestion and nutrient absorption. Enjoying your food is actually really important, too! Experiencing pleasure from your food turns off the stress response, which enhances digestion and energy production from that meal. It also increases satisfaction and diminishes the desire to over eat. When you focus on “how” you eat, often the “how much” to eat part works itself out.

Carbohydrate intake is also vital for maintaining metabolic function and energy production. The mitochondria need glucose for creating energy, which comes from the fruits, vegetables, starches and grains we eat. In the absence of dietary carbohydrate, the body can release stored glucose or create glucose from protein. This is an emergency back-up plan, though! It’s an adaptation to the stress of inadequate glucose availability. To keep the thyroid in control of energy production, we need a steady supply of carbohydrate. How much and from what sources is individual, however, and depends on one’s insulin sensitivity and current state of metabolic function.

Not only is consistent eating important, but food quality certainly matters, too. Even if we’re eatings food high in calories, if they’re low in nutrients we need, this also triggers a stress response. Certain minerals and vitamins are necessary for enzymatic reactions and hormone production to happen, and if we’re deficient in them, the brain senses this as a threat and stress hormones increase. Focus on consuming foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. Fresh, vine ripened plants are best, along with pasture raised animal products. Avoid polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are in vegetable, nut and seed oils. These are everywhere in processed foods, and they have been shown to increase inflammatory markers and directly diminish metabolism. They actually cause the cells in the body to become “leaky,” which is equivalent to leaving your home’s windows open on a cold day while trying to heat it with a fire. Opt for extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, and butter or other animal fats from pasture raised animals, instead.

The amount of movement we get plays another large roll in energy balance. The human body is designed for consistent movement, and both being sedentary or overdoing intense exercise can create a state of stress. Unfortunately, many of us try to make up for 23 hours of being sedentary with one hour of intense exercise, which actually creates a double whammy of stressors that slows energy production. Getting in consistent movement is the ideal way to diminish stress and enhance energy creation. Rather than getting in hard exercise all at once while remaining still the rest of the time, space your movement out by taking steps throughout the day. Take five to ten minute breaks from your desk each hour to walk and stretch. It doesn’t need to be intense, it just needs to be consistent.

Even though they only account for about 2% of our body weight, our brains use 20% of our energy at rest. Most of our brain activity is subconscious, dictating involuntary actions throughout our bodies. When we don’t give our brains a rest, though, that energy use is even higher. Many of us tend to stay consistently mentally stimulated; when we aren’t working or being productive, we’re scrolling on our phones or watching TV. Overloading our brains creates psychological stress which has the same effect as physical stress; moving our adrenals to the driver’s seat and pushing us to use our emergency fuel source. Be sure to give yourself mental breaks throughout the day and try to be present. Combining these mental breaks with short walks is a great way to get consistent movement and the mental relaxation needed to enhance energy production.

Once healthy metabolic function has been regained and we aren’t living in a constant state of stress, we can implement short term energy deprivation to enhance weight loss. Rather than a long term low carb or low calorie diet, or a daily fasting regimen, implementing an energy deprivation strategy one or two days per week can be a helpful tool for enhancing fat loss. Short bursts of energy imbalance during periods when stress is otherwise low won’t allow the body time to adapt with lower energy production.

However you choose to tackle your weight loss goals this year, just remember to encourage a healthy dance between the thyroid and the adrenals, without allowing the adrenals to stay in the lead for too long. If you’ve spent most your life on a dieting roller coaster, this may mean you need to flip what you’ve been doing on its head. Instead of eating less and moving more, you may achieve better results in both your weight and wellbeing if you eat more and move less.