Introducing…… Dr. Wilson’s Fabulous, Incredible, Remarkable, Stupendous, Out-of-this World Weight Loss Diet

Disclaimer:  As a licensed physician, I feel some obligation to tell the truth. I actually filched a lot of this information from some really smart people, including Gary Taubes, Richard Johnson, Robert Lustig, Loren Cordain, Robb Wolf, Jimmy Moore and others.  If you leave really good stuff lying around, somebody is bound to pick it up and that’s exactly what I did. For better or worse I stole the CARB syndrome concept from a real genius—that would be me! (Don’t ask my wife about the genius part). Also, it’s really not a weight loss plan. To be honest with you, I don’t give a hoot about your weight. I just put that in to grab your attention. Obesity is defined as excessive body fat, so I developed a plan to help you lose this unwanted fat without losing important stuff like muscle. If you really want to lose weight, do it the old fashioned way—restrict your calories and exercise until you drop. Oh, and I almost forgot—this really isn’t a diet. It’s a way of living. Now that we have cleared up these minor misstatements and exaggerations, let’s move on to the important stuff, like how you are going to shed that extra fat.

There’s No Such Thing as a Weight Problem
Despite what you’ve likely heard from your physician, “weight” is not a medical diagnosis. Obesity is defined as excessive body fat and your weight or body mass index (BMI) tells you nothing about what is going on inside your body. Although in populations there is a correlation between fatness and weight and BMI, you are a person, not a population. The only true way to measure the amount of fat in your body is to measure your body composition. You can also get a good sense of your level of fatness by measuring your waist to hip ratio. This method targets your visceral fat, the most metabolically dangerous type of fat.

Another approach is to take off your clothes and look at yourself in the mirror.  What do you see? Well-defined muscles or wimpy muscles covered in a layer of flab? Now that you have a sense of your flabbiness factor, let’s move on to getting rid of the flab.

Calories in/Calories Out Bite the Dust
Gary Taubes was one of the first people to toss out the calories in/calories out theory of obesity in his books Good Calories, Bad Calories and Why We Get Fat. Gary reviews the evidence that high glycemic carbohydrates stimulate too much insulin and this insulin traps the fat inside your cells where it can’t be used for energy. Richard Johnson added to the conversation with his books The Sugar Fix and The Fat Switch where he outlined the role that excessive fructose mainly from sugar and HFCS plays in turning on our fat switch. Excessive omega 6 fatty acids from vegetable oils rounds out the factors that seem to be driving our current epidemic of obesity. This toxic triad of dietary elements from typical processed food explains why we store too much fat on a cellular level. There’s also another important driver of excessive body fat—brain dysfunction.

It’s All About the Brain
Why do bears store extra fat in the fall? Their bear brain evolved to regulate their fat stores to meet the needs of hibernation. In the fall the bear brain ramps up hunger signals pushing the bear to each tons of berries, a good source of fattening fructose. The bear brain also shifts its body into a fat-storage mode through the hypothalamic pituitary endocrine axis, the main way that the brain controls metabolism in the body. Humans obviously don’t hibernate but we evolved to store a little extra fat when the food starts to run out prior to a famine. Our brain is constantly monitoring the environment to determine if there is enough food to sustain health. It does so by monitoring glucose levels. When you don’t eat, glucose levels start to drop depriving your brain of its primary source of energy. If this situation persists your brain will force your body into a famine protective metabolic mode where you will store fat even when you aren’t eating very much food. Your body will even give up lean body mass in order to store a little more fat. Your brain will also slow down your metabolic rate to conserve energy. After all, when faced with a famine the people who have the most fat and the lowest metabolic rate will win the evolutionary game.

Twinkie Brain
What does this have to do with our modern world loaded with endless amounts of calorie-rich food? As it turns out, it plays a key role in how your brain functions. When you consume processed foods loaded with sugar and HFCS, you eventually end up with insulin resistance where your cells no longer respond very well to insulin. When you have insulin resistance and eat high glycemic carbohydrates, your brain is subjected to magnified glucose spikes. Glucose levels spike and then drop below normal. Your brain didn’t evolve to read glucose spikes but it does know how to read low levels of glucose—it’s time to eat! It sends out hunger signals and you eat another Twinkie. You end up with another glucose spike followed by a glucose crash. Over time when your brain is exposed to unstable glucose levels it pulls out the big gun—carbohydrate cravings.

Because your brain relies on glucose for its energy needs, it wants you to find a carbohydrate to eat rather than a mastodon steak because that’s the quickest way to restore normal glucose levels. Your brain also puts you in a famine protective metabolic mode to preserve energy. It doesn’t know that you are still eating Twinkies, so your brain pushes you to store extra fat even when you are eating a lot of the wrong type of food. Your clueless brain believes you are in famine even when you are swimming in a sea of junk food.

In this process your brain also takes a hit because repeated blasts of glucose eventually interfere with normal brain function. Eventually you can end up with up to 22 brain dysfunction symptoms that interfere with your ability to function. You now have Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. You are storing too much fat and your brain doesn’t work as intended—not a good situation when it comes to your health and ability to function in the world. How do you know if you have CARB syndrome? If you have cravings for sweet and starchy food you likely have this disease. If you want to get rid of the excessive fat, you need to treat the disease.

Lose the Fat by Treating CARB Syndrome
This is a summary of Dr. Wilson’s Fabulous, Incredible, Remarkable, Stupendous and Out-of-this World Fat (not weight) Loss Diet. Follow these simple steps and you will slowly lose that excessive body fat.

1. Reduce or eliminate excessive fructose. You should shoot for no more than 25 grams of fructose per day. Cut out all sugar, HFCS and fruit juice and get your fructose from fresh fruits.
2. Reduce or eliminate grains, especially wheat. Grains in general, including whole grains, are a relatively poor source of nutrition and they contain phytates and anti-nutrients that can damage your gut lining and increase inflammation. Inflammation leads to insulin resistance and more fat storage.
3. Go easy on the dairy products.  Adults don’t need to drink any milk. You can get plenty of calcium from a diet of whole foods. A little Greek yogurt and some cheese are probably OK for some people depending on their genetic makeup.
4. Eliminate or reduce legumes. Legumes also have a lot of anti-nutrients that can harm your gut and lead to inflammation. This includes peanuts, which are really legumes.
5. Reduce your intake of omega 6 fatty acids from vegetable oils and increase your intake of omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 6 fatty acids are pro-inflammatory when you consume too much of them. Your diet should contain about equal amounts of omega 6 fatty acids and omega 3 fatty acids. Processed foods typically contain mostly omega 6 fatty acids.
6. Follow a Paleo style diet. This type of diet eliminates the toxic elements from your diet. For more information I recommend reading Loren Cordain’s The Paleo Answer or Robb Wolf’s The Paleo Solution.
7. Exercise to improve brain function, not to burn calories. Intense interval training and strength training are two of the most effective forms of exercise for overall health. Walking is also a good way to get some aerobic exercise. No offense to runners–you don’t need to run marathons to be healthy. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen someone smiling as they finish a marathon!
8. For those with significant metabolic problems, consider a ketogenic diet:  If you are already a metabolic mess with significant type II diabetes or metabolic syndrome, consider following a low carbohydrate, moderate protein, high fat (healthy fats) diet. The popular low carb blogger Jimmy Moore is a big fan of a ketogenic diet and his web site has a lot of useful information.

Targeted Supplements
If you already have significant CARB syndrome then the above steps may not be enough to get you going on an effective fat-loss program. You might need to jump-start your brain to help improve compliance and results. The best way to do this is with targeted supplements:

1. L-glutamine: L-glutamine is a simple amino acid that can help to suppress carbohydrate cravings. It comes in capsules or powder. Take a 1,000 mg capsule up to three times daily on an empty stomach. You can also dissolve a little powder under your tongue for fast relief of these pesky cravings. The dose can be increased as needed because L-glutamine is very safe with no side effects.
2. L-methylfolate: Have your physician check your homocysteine level. If it is above 8-9, you should take L-methylfolate as a supplement. I recommend taking a minimum of 1,000 mcg daily. Take more if your homocysteine is above 15. You will also need to take vitamin B6 and B12 with the L-methylfolate. L-methylfolate is available at lef.org.
3. Precursor supplements:  People with CARB syndrome and excessive body fat tend to have low levels of monoamine neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. That’s what causes their brain dysfunction symptoms. This safest way to restore normal neurotransmitter levels is to take the precursor amino acids L-tyrosine and 5-htp in a ratio of 10 to 1. For years I have recommended a product called CARB-22 that contains these precursors along with some co-factors. The standard dose is four capsules twice daily on an empty stomach.
4. Omega 3 supplements. I recommend taking a high-quality omega 3 supplement totaling about 2,400 of EPA/DHA daily. Krill oil is also a good source of omega 3 fatty acids. Also be sure to reduce your intake of vegetable oils. The exception is olive oil.

Now you have access to the world’s most effective fat loss program. Your only decision is whether or not to implement it in your life. If you decide to do so, I also recommend that you throw your scale out the window. As I discussed earlier, weight loss tells you nothing about exactly what you are losing. Because a pound of fat takes up a lot more space than a pound of lean body mass, if you are losing mostly fat you will experience significant body shrinkage even when you aren’t losing a lot of weight. Pay attention to how your clothes fit or take body measurements. It’s also important to pay attention to your brain dysfunction symptoms. If they are improving, your body is in a fat-loss mode. This is especially true for the cardinal symptom of CARB syndrome—craving sweet or starchy foods. When these cravings disappear the extra fat will start to melt away. Be patient because unlike lean body loss, fat loss occurs gradually over a period of time.

Give it try. What do you have to lose other than your extra fat and malfunctioning brain? And please write to me and let me know how it’s working for you. Be healthy!