Does the diet you choose for weight loss really matter? According to a recent research paper the largest factor in people losing weight and maintaining weight loss was diet adherence. In other words, the actual diet had no factor. So, pick a diet you can stick with long term. Additionally, some preliminary research shows that adding time restricted feeding (TRF) and fasting can add significant benefits to losing weight and maintaining weight loss. I have linked two videos below discussing these topics.
Author Archives: Matt Nelson
The Croissant Diet: Eat This Not That by Dave Fit
Here’s a great guide to get started on the Croissant diet!
ROS theory of obesity
I randomly discovered Brad Marshall on the podcast Peak Human last week when searching for a new health related podcast to follow. In the interview Brad explains the ROS theory of obesity which basically looks at how the mitochondria uses the different types of fats we consume. You can go to the podcast, or several other interviews he’s done, and get a good overview of the theory or you can go to his website FireInABottle.net and read the blog article ROS theory of obesity. It’s actually a pretty easy, short read, but I’ll summarize my takeaways.
Basically, our mitochondria need saturated fat to operate properly and too much poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) will actually damage the mitochondria and cause them to split. This effect causes a whole lot of issues but the most important problem to me is it makes your metabolism slowdown. Another effect of eating too many PUFA’s is it prevents your body from getting the ‘I’m full’ signal aka satiation. So in short, your metabolism slows and you always feel hungry, which is a great setup for obesity! The problem is exacerbated by the fact that our pigs and chickens are fed a diet high in PUFA’s which used to be good sources of saturated fat. Thankfully cow’s turn the fats into saturated fat. Bottom line, eating PUFA’s i.e. vegetable oil, canola oil, palm oil, corn oil etc. are likely a primary cause in the rise of obesity in America, and now that these vegetable oils are making their way into the rest of the world they are following suit.
I highly recommend taking the time to read and understand this issue especially if you have struggled with weight loss. A lot of anecdotal stories of people changing out the PUFA’s for saturated fats and losing weight are becoming more common as this information gets out to the public. I am personally experimenting with this theory and have noticed that since I’ve switched to a diet high in Saturated fats I feel full much longer. Yesterday I ate 1900 calories which was about a 600 calorie deficit and I felt full most of the day.
I’ve linked everything I’ve seen on this so far, below.
The ROS Theory of Obesity – Fire In A Bottle
Introducing The Croissant Diet – Fire In A Bottle
Working it out!
Cholesterol: Understanding your numbers.
Dr. Peter Attia, M.D. has written an extensive blog post about Cholesterol covering how it is absorbed, transported through the body, and ultimately why it builds up in our arterial walls. It is a nine part blog and there is a podcast series that goes along with it with Dr. Tom Dayspring, M.D. It is not an easy read but it if you stick with it you’ll better understand how to get your cholesterol under control and how to better measure your levels. The bottom line is your standard cholesterol test is useless, you have to have a lipoprotein analysis using NMR spectroscopy. This test will tell you the number of LDL-P (apoB) in your blood and it is the best predictor of cardiac events https://peterattiamd.com/the-straight-dope-on-cholesterol-part-ix/.
Is saturated fat killing us?
This is the age old question we’ve been asking since the 1950s and if you are like I was you think it is case-closed but the answer appears to be more complicated.
I stumbled upon Dr. Peter Attia a few years ago after watching a very moving Ted Talk he gave about diabetes and his personal experience treating patients and eventually himself. I highly recommend watching that Ted Talk as it shows his motivations clearly. However, I think his lecture, showing the deficiencies of the research modern medicine basis its anti-saturated-fat-stance on, is more important. It doesn’t answer the question but it does poke some major holes in the “established science”. In short summary Dr. Attia makes the case that the original studies were too poorly designed to draw any conclusions from and many scientists at the time agreed.
Let me know what you think of these videos. I plan to share a lot of articles and videos related to this topic over the next few weeks.
What this isn’t.
I’m starting this blog to share the information I find with my friends and family. I am not an authority on nutrition, health, fitness, or medicine and nothing on this site is intended to be advice. I often find interesting articles and videos that challenge the status quo on the current dogma around health and fittnes. I like to share that information but I don’t want to use social media to share what I find. I believe this blog will be a better format and anyone can choose whether or not to engage or follow. Hopefully this will be fun and informative!
Finding True Health 