Key to Weight Loss

Transcript of Dr. Michael Grossman talks about the physiological change we go through as we gain weight. He also shares that weight loss is not only about looking good, but it is also about longevity. You may view the YouTube video here.

Transcript Start Here:

Welcome to the Age Gracefully Show with Dr. Michael Grossman, well known anti-aging stem cell and regenerative medicine specialist, bestselling author and founder of the OC Wellness Clinic in Irvine, California. Each week he shares the latest information to help you look and feel your best so you age gracefully. And here's your host, Dr. Michael Grossman.

Hi, it's Dr. Michael Grossman. And we're here today in Jerusalem, visiting with my grandchildren. And I wanted to be sure we're doing this Facebook live for us sharing with you and we're going to talk about losing weight and keeping weight off. Now, this is an area that is so important in so many ways. We have a huge problem with diabetes which is developed now that we have an excess amount of food available to everybody so we can all eat as much as we want and the problem is, is that as you gain weight, there's a whole pattern that occurs in the physiology when you increase the blood sugar and increase your insulin output. And diabetes and prediabetes is a big, big problem. So, weight loss is not just looking good, it's also longevity. It's also reversing aging. So we need to keep slim in order to maintain that ability to deal with our blood sugar and our insulin levels. We can check on our insulin levels directly like blood tests. We can measure hemoglobin A1c which is the average blood sugar over the last two months to see how we're doing with our ability to handle sugars and refined carbohydrates.

Now, weight loss itself is something that has many different facets to it. So when we think of losing weight, there's a variety of issues that occur. So, one issue that we know about is dealing with refined sugar. When we eat a lot of sugary things that are refined, it stimulates insulin. It raises insuling levels and we get ups and downs in the blood sugar. And that can make us feel bad and have a lot of physical and emotional, psychological upsets due to ups and downs of our blood sugar and our insulin levels. So, we like to reduce refined sugars and refined carbohydrates - meaning, white flour kind of things, a lot of pasta, a lot of bread, a lot of dust sugar and corn syrup, corn sweeteners. Now, we should be aware that it used to be thought, 'Oh, well, then I'll just eat diet sodas.' So, diet sodas are usually made with some kind of artificial sweetener that tastes sweet but has no calories, so you think, 'Oh, well, that's great now. I have no calories.' But the research is very clear - eating diet sodas promotes diabetes, so you're not really making any progress there with eating diet sodas. That actually is as bad as sugar in terms of promoting diabetes. So, diet sodas are out. Now, the only diet soda, the exception, would be things made with Stevia or Truvia. Stevia or Truvia is something made out of flour product from flowers and that is an okay sweet. It's the only one of those sweeteners that would be considered to be actually healthy. So, diety sodas are basically not, flavored sodas with a little bit of lemon flavor or other flavors, that's fine.

So what else can we do to be able to consider weight loss? So, a big factor in weight loss is food cravings. When we're craving food, that's not a good thing. In general, when we're craving food, it usually related to food allergies, food sensitivities. Alcoholics crave alcohol; heroin addicts crave heroin. But people that have food allergies when you can pray specific foods or when you're craving bread and wheat, that could be reality you have to have it every day. And if you don't eat it every day, you really, really miss it. You could crave chocolate, you could crave peanuts, you could crave dairy. If you have to have milk or dairy products every day, that's a power. So, food cravings are big issue. And when you're craving things, the best way to treat it is to completely stop whatever it is that you're craving for, for five days. And then the cravings are gone. And then afterwards, you feel like, 'Oh, well, it might be nice to have that but it's no big deal. But before that, you had a habit about what you feel, a lot of symptoms of cravings that, 'You must eat this. You must eat that.' What goes through those five days of difficulties, of feeling various irritability, headaches, fatigue- food craving is gone and you're going to do great. But, you have got to go through those five days of withdrawals and then the weight loss becomes very easy because you're not craving things. And then, you can just eat intelligently as you think you should be eating.

Now, there are other reasons why people overeat. It could be emotional issues going on, and you have to be aware of that. And so, 'if she's eating because of emotional issues,' that's a whole other legal realm that you have to deal with that. So, many people have issues with us - low blood sugar and then they're feeling tired, weak, irritable, headachy, and then they're going to crave something sweet to eat. The way we deal with that is by giving you small frequent meals of high protein. Protein being meat, fish, chicken, eggs. And then if you're eating those things, small meals on a regular basis, you don't have so much cravings and your blood sugar's going to be even and then it makes your day go by very easy and you could just eat intelligently without craving the sugars or having the sugar load and emotional upsets. So, that's a very important part of weight loss for a lot of people.

For most people, eating a good amount of protein when you start the day in the morning, is going to make a big difference in your day - that means eating some kind of protein shake or eggs or perhaps, some chicken or fish if you like but usually protein shakes are going to work well in the morning to start your day, which stabilizes your blood sugar, and has you feeling good for many hours right immediately - that's a much better breakfast than eating any other kind of carbohydrates in the morning. Eating like muffin or bread or cereal; you want to eat protein in the morning that's going to be really, really important for most people.

Now having said all that, there's a new understanding that has come in to weight loss which is intermittent fasting. A lot of people intermittently fasting for a certain period of hours, either for a whole day or for 16 hours in a day. So, you eat for 8 hours in a day and the rest of the day, you're not eating, just having water. For a lot of people, that works real well, the body sort of gets tricked into thinking, 'Well, we're not sure if some food's coming in, so let's maintain this weight loss,' earning up energy process because they don't know when the next meal is going to come. That can work for a number of people and it's worthwhile trying it, particularly if you're having trouble losing weight. You're reducing your calories and you're not able to have your body generate the weight loss. Then the intermittent fasting is a very helpful thing to try.

Well, that is the big picture in weight loss. I hope this has been helpful. I look forward to speaking with you again in another week on our weekly recordings. And you can learn more about what I do as a medical doctor anti-aging physician by going to ocwellness.com which is my website and seeing all the different things that we do to help you stay youthful. So, we deal with all kinds of things of bioidentical hormones and stem cells and all various kinds of things to stay youthful. So, go to my website and you can look at my book which is, "The Vitality Connection: Ten Practical Ways to Optimize Your Health and Reverse the Aging Process" and my other book on, "The Magic of Stem Cells." It's a pleasure talking with you. I look forward to speaking again next week. Thanks so much.

Thank you for watching the Age Gracefully Show with Dr. Michael Grossman. Join us next week for another informative discussion to help you age gracefully. Be sure to visit us at ocwellness.com.

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