Weight Loss, Paleo Diet & Calorie Partitioning

Video Transcript: 

“Hi this Dr. Ruscio and today I would like to talk with you about weight gain.

Weight gain of course, hugely popular issue, everyone has a solution gadget or gismo for weight loss. Today I would like to talk with you about some simple concepts that have been shown to be highly effective for weight loss. The first and the most important concept that we have to understand and achieve in order to lose weight effectively, and I should say lose fat effectively and really keep it off is to achieve this concept called calorie partitioning.

So, what calorie partitioning looks like is this: Every time we eat food, we end up having calories in our bloodstream and calories, generally speaking, can go one of two ways. They can go into your mitochondria, where the mitochondria will then burn them for energy and so you’ll have energy and you won’t gain fat because your calories are being burned for energy.

On the other side of the coin your calories can go into your fat cells and if you have too much calories going into your fat cells, then you get tired because you’re getting fat. What’s really a tragedy is that sometimes people will have no motivation to exercise and they think it’s because they’re lazy, but more often than not it’s because their calories are going in to their fat cells and they’re getting stored as fat. No calories are going into the mitochondria to be burnt as energy and so people are tired because they’re actually getting fatter.

The really important concept is to try to figure out how can we steer most of our calories or partition them into the mitochondria so we burn them as fuel and so we don’t gain fat, so we therefore have energy also. The way we really achieve this is by having a good hormonal milieu where we have growth hormones where they should be; catecholamines, meaning things like epinephrine, dopamine, noradrenaline, where they should be; and also adequate levels of the hormone glucagon and we’ll go over that in a little more detail in a second.

On the other side of the coin we want to avoid having high insulin levels because insulin will steer calories into the fat cells. Again, you’ll be tired and you won’t have that much energy because all of your calories will be going into your fat cells. How do we achieve this? The most important initial concept is to limit your daily carbohydrate intake to a total intake of 100g or if you’re really trying to be aggressive, 50g per day. The reason for this is because the strongest stimulator of this partitioning is going to be your carbohydrate intake. So the best way to achieve this, again, is to keep your calories in the below 100 or 50 range depending on how aggressively you want to attack this. Also, eat every 3 to 5 hours, generally speaking and opt for more ancestral or traditional foods. Things like healthy sources of protein, healthy fats, and lots of vegetables and some fruit.

This is also known as the paleo diet. The paleo diet is a great diet to be eating from a multitude of perspectives. Now if you want more information on this I will give you a few links. Now one important thing to know is that there are three macronutrients. There are proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. If you limit carbohydrates, naturally you have to have an increase in consumption of protein and fat. One of the questions people sometimes ask is: are you saying I should eat more fat and if so doesn’t fat make you fat and won’t fat cause heart disease?

Really this is somewhat of an erroneous group of assumptions to make. While going into that is really beyond the scope of this video. You can see this video here where I’ve reviewed a study published by the researcher Christopher Gardner over at Stanford. He did a great job at elucidating the fact that fat really will not make you fat, generally speaking fat is certainly not bad for your heart if used in the appropriate context so you can see more of that video there which I entitled “low fat vs. low carb.” For more information on how this whole relationship between diet, your hormones, and calorie partitioning all works you can watch my video on diet, hormones, and blood sugar.

So what if you’re someone who tries this and it doesn’t work for you or if you’re someone who has been doing this and it still isn’t working? Usually it’s going to work for everybody to some extent but not everyone will get all the way toward their fat loss goals. That may be because three things are present.

Now the first is digestive problems usually there is an infection or some kind of food allergy. Infections are things like candida or fungus, bacterial dysbiosis, worms, amoebas, parasites, and these things are actually more common than you’d think. Or food allergies, and the most common allergies are gluten dairy, soy, eggs, nuts, artificial sweeteners, and corn, just to name the big ones there. Both of these things will cause someone to have high levels of inflammation. When inflammation is high it can really cause perturbations or problems in this calorie partitioning.

There’s another very important area to look into and that is of your hormones. There’s something called the sex hormone to stress hormone ratio. Oftentimes people are under too much stress or they’ve got internal inflammation. Things like infections that we’ve talked about or food allergies that are caused and their stress hormones go way too high and they have excess of stress hormones relative to their steroid or stress hormones. Stress hormones in high levels cause your body to break down muscle and gain fat. Sex or steroid hormones are euthanizing anti-aging they cause your body to maintain muscle mass and lose body fat so the ratio of these is very important. Having a ratio that is positive on the side of your steroid or your sex hormones is very important so that’s another thing for us to look at cause that will again affect this calorie partitioning like we’ve been talking about.

The third is toxins and toxicity. Now a number of papers have been published showing that different environmental toxins can affect metabolism through different avenues. I reviewed a study published in obesity reviews that showed that certain toxins can affect thyroid function and that can poison the ability of the body to get past a certain limit point of fat loss. I also reviewed another study where plastics, different environmental chemicals have been linked with thyroid problems, weight gain, and diabetes. There are some resources for you within these three causative factors for more reading and/or viewing to get yourself more information.

You can also visit my blog where you can find all this information categorized neatly to help you navigate this. The take home message is the first most important thing you can do is achieve good calorie partitioning so you have your calories going in your mitochondria being burnt for energy and not being stored as fat. That is first and foremost achieved by limiting your daily carbohydrate intake. Secondary to that there are other things like problems with digestion, problems with the sex and steroid to stress hormone ratio and problems with toxicity that may be causing someone not to ideally respond to limiting their daily carbohydrate intake. So this is just a preview to what can be a much more lengthy discussion of each one of these items in detail but hopefully this gives you a basic idea and wets your appetite to looking into this further and try some of this

This is Dr. Ruscio and I hope you found some of this information helpful. Thank you.”

Wake up at 3 a.m. and can't fall back asleep? Consider low blood sugar

Do you consistently wake up around 3 a.m. and can’t fall back asleep? Although the reasons for sleep problems can be complex, waking up too early is often a symptom of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, and can be remedied through dietary changes and nutritional therapy.

Why you wake up at 3 a.m.

The brain is highly active at night, transforming short-term memory into long-term memory and carrying out repair and regeneration, and it depends on a steady supply of energy to do these tasks. When you sleep at night your body goes into a fasting state. In order not to deprive the brain of the food it needs for energy, the body compensates by gradually raising cortisol, an adrenal hormone. Cortisol stimulates the body to release or create glucose to supply the brain with energy during the night-long fast.
Chronic low blood sugar, however, throws a kink in this process. People with hypoglycemia tend to have difficulty making the right amount of cortisol at the right times of the day or night. They also have blood sugar levels that spike and then crash throughout the day. If they go too long without eating they experience lightheadedness, irritability, shakiness, a spacey feeling, and other symptoms that signify the brain is not getting enough glucose.
In these cases, not only does blood sugar drop too low during the night, but the adrenal glands don't produce enough cortisol to keep the brain fueled. In response, the body sounds the emergency alarm by releasing “fight-or-flight” hormones. These stress hormones raise blood sugar back to a safer level. Unfortunately, they also raise stress, which can cause anxiety or panic in the middle of the night. Hence the waking up at 3 a.m. and not being able to fall back asleep.

How to fall asleep if you wake up at 3 a.m.

A quick fix for waking up at 3 a.m. can be as simple as eating a small amount of protein, with perhaps some fat thrown in—a spoonful of nut butter, a little bit of meat, or a hard-boiled egg. For some people this raises blood sugar to a healthier level and sustains it so they can fall back asleep. It’s best not to eat something sweet or starchy (however tempting to your hungry brain) because this will just cause blood sugar to spike and crash again.

Daytime tips to avoid waking up at 3 a.m.

Although a 3 a.m. snack may help you fall back asleep, it’s better to prevent that anxious awakening in the first place. If you wake up regularly at 3 a.m. you may suffer from chronic low blood sugar and need dietary therapy. Symptoms include:

• Sugar cravings
• Irritability, light-headedness, dizziness, or brain fog if meals are missed
• Lack of appetite or nausea in the morning
• The need for caffeine for energy
• Eating to relieve fatigue
• Energy crashes in the afternoon

A diet that stabilizes daytime blood sugar levels will have you sleeping better. This requires that you:

• Never skip breakfast and eat a breakfast lower in carbohydrates. If you have chronic low blood sugar you may have lost the ability to feel hunger and you need to eat in the morning and throughout the day (even if you don't feel like it).
• Eat frequently enough so blood sugar does not crash.
• Ditch the sweets and starchy foods and adopt a lower-carbohydrate diet. People with low blood sugar symptoms typically eat too many sweets and starchy foods (breads, pasta, rice, potatoes, etc.) and also frequently skip meals. Go for foods lower on the glycemic index and eat enough protein and healthy fats to sustain your energy.

A variety of nutritional compounds can further support your blood sugar handling and stress hormone functions so you sleep better. Ask my office how we can help.

Diet for diabetes may be different than you thought—20 percent are “type 1.5”

Although insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes get pinned on diet and lifestyle choices, in some cases these disorders could be associated with an autoimmune reaction, which is the mechanism behind type 1 diabetes. If so, this changes the diet for diabetes to manage the autoimmune condition. It is estimated that 20 percent of people with type 2 diabetes also have an autoimmune reaction against the cells of their pancreas, prompting researchers to dub this “type 1.5 diabetes.” Type 1.5 diabetes may be even more prevalent than type 1 diabetes.
Insulin resistance (pre-diabetes) and diabetes are typically linked with a long-standing diet heavy in sweet, starchy foods and processed fats, as well as overeating and a lack of exercise. This is often referred to as “adult-onset diabetes,” although it’s becoming more common in younger people as their obesity rates rise. In these cases a diet for diabetes would involve managing blood sugar. Type 1 diabetes, referred to as “juvenile diabetes,” is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks and destroys pancreatic beta cells, which produce insulin.
A person with type 1.5 diabetes may have aspects of both: diet and lifestyle affect pancreatic function, as does an autoimmune reaction which may or may not have been identified. In this case a diet for diabetes would address blood sugar and autoimmune management.

Are you a slender, healthy diabetic or pre-diabetic? Consider type 1.5

Some individuals are at a healthy body weight, exercise regularly, and eat a healthy diet yet can’t seem to control their consistently high blood sugar levels. With type 1.5 diabetes an autoimmune reaction destroys cells of the pancreas, but the pancreas still secretes insulin—autoimmune damage is not advanced enough to shut down insulin function. In type 1 diabetes, on the other hand, more than 90 percent of the insulin-producing cells have been destroyed. Because a person with type 1.5 diabetes has not sustained pancreatic damage to such a great degree he or she is often misdiagnosed.

Identifying type 1.5 diabetes

If a diet for diabetes that is lower in carbohydrates begins moving blood sugar toward a normal range, it may be that your insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes does not have an autoimmune component. However, if insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes are stubborn despite a diet for diabetes, or if you are slender and active, it’s worth screening for antibodies against pancreatic beta and islet cells. Additionally, some people have antibodies against the glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) enzyme, which is involved in the release of insulin from the pancreas. GAD is also found in areas of the brain, and an autoimmune reaction to GAD may be associated not only with a blood sugar disorder but also with such neurological symptoms as obsessive-compulsive disorder, dizziness, or problems with balance.

A diet for type 1.5 diabetes

Because type 1.5 diabetes is autoimmune, these individuals will want to go beyond a diet for diabetes that manages blood sugar to include managing the immune system. This means strictly avoiding immune-reactive foods, which for most people includes gluten and dairy. The GAD enzyme may cross-react with gluten so that eating gluten can stimulate an immune attack against GAD. Additional foods that trigger autoimmune reactions can be ferreted out by adhering to an autoimmune diet for a period of time. With type 1.5 diabetes, a diet for diabetes should be an autoimmune diet that also manages blood sugar.
Beyond a diet for diabetes, a number of nutritional compounds have been shown to regulate the immune system and dampen autoimmunity. Ask my office for advice on managing autoimmunity.