The description reads, "Everything you believe about how to lose weight is wrong. Weight gain and obesity are driven by hormones—in everyone—and only by understanding the effects of insulin and insulin resistance can we achieve lasting weight loss.
In this highly readable and provocative book, Dr. Jason Fung sets out an original, robust theory of obesity that provides startling insights into proper nutrition. In addition to his five basic steps, a set of lifelong habits that will improve your health and control your insulin levels, Dr. Fung explains how to use intermittent fasting to break the cycle of insulin resistance and reach a healthy weight—for good."
I highly recommend reading this book! We all know it. We know that any diet works for awhile, but then our body resists us and even if we are compliant, we plateau and may even gain some weight back. Why does our body seem to work against us? It can be so very frustrating and disheartening. We tend to blame ourselves and lack of will power. This book explains WHY this happens and offers a strategy to long term weight loss.
I can see why Mark Sisson recommended Dr. Jason Fung's newest book The Complete Guide to Fasting because this is the very thing The Primal Blueprint has addressed also. Obesity is a multifaceted disease and we need to understand this so that we can properly treat it.
Insulin, cortisol, and insulin resistance is at the root of weight gain. It is a hormonal issue, not a calorie issue. Once we begin to understand this and learn what foods and activities affect insulin levels we can implement the strategies in our lives that will affect the greatest change.
In his book, Dr. Jason Fung explains that our bodies have a weight set point - a 20lb. range your body naturally stays at with little effort. He explains this in a blog post saying, "Permanent weight loss is actually a two-step process. There is a short-term and a long-term (time dependent) problem. This resistance to weight loss represents homeostasis. The hypothalamic region of the brain determines the Body Set Weight (BSW). This is our fat ‘thermostat’. Insulin acts here to set BSW higher. In the short term, we can use various diets to bring our actual body weight down. However, once below the BSW, the body activates mechanisms to regain that weight. This resistance to weight loss was first demonstrated by Drs. Leibel and Hirsch in 1984."
Dr. Fung does an excellent job explaining how the body responds to the foods we eat. His analogies enable you to really grasp these complicated medical processes. For example, "Imagine that you set your house thermostat low, and you are cold. You plug in a small electric heater. Soon, the house starts to warm up. Any brand of electric heater seems to work. All heaters work. This is the short-term solution to the problem. After a while, the thermostat senses that the temperature has gone up. So it turns on the air conditioning to bring the temperature back down. Eventually, after a seesaw battle, the house always wins. The temperature eventually drifts down and we are cold again. This is the long-term problem. All heaters fail. The problem is homeostasis. While we have adjusted the temperature, we have not adjusted the thermostat."
I personally loved this book because it echoes what I learned in my Primal Health Coach certification program. Both address nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle factors. Then you add in intermittent fasting to help reset your "thermostat" and you've got two very similar approaches.
This approach also lines up with my 12-Week Wholehearted Transformation. It is a multifaceted approach to long term weight loss. Contact me to start your journey today!