This Weight Loss Lie Was DESTROYING My Life... & Probably Yours As Well

Summary

In his video, Ben Azadi dismantles a common weight loss myth that had a long-standing negative impact on his life: the belief in "calories in, calories out" as a foolproof method for losing weight. Azadi shares his personal transformation, having lost 80 pounds and maintained it for 17 years by focusing on improving his health rather than simply cutting calories. He highlights the importance of addressing underlying issues like inflammation and hormonal imbalances, arguing that a focus on calories is merely a distraction from achieving lasting health and weight loss. His insights draw from years of personal experience, studies, and expert interviews, offering viewers a more holistic approach to weight management.

Highlights

• Ben Azadi debunks the 'calories in, calories out' myth which damaged his metabolism. 🚫🧮
• He lost 80 pounds and kept it off by focusing on whole health. 🌟👏
• Hormones and inflammation, not calories, are key to effective weight management. 🧬🔥
• Azadi suggests reducing carbs and eating more healthy fats to encourage fat burning.🥑➡️🔥
• Intermittent fasting is recommended to balance hormones for weight loss.⏰⛔️🥙
• The 'calories in, calories out' philosophy is likened to the simplicity of 'spend less than you earn' in economics, which misses the complexity of human metabolism.⚖️💰
• Azadi offers insights from his book 'Metabolic Freedom' and free resources for better understanding metabolism.📚✨

Key Takeaways

• Focusing solely on calorie deficit is misleading and can harm metabolism. 🍕➡️💨
• Real health and weight loss require addressing inflammation and hormones.🧪🔥
• Eating healthy fats while reducing carbs helps switch the body from burning sugar to fat.🥑➡️🔥
• Intermittent fasting can effectively balance hormones and aid in fat loss.⏰⛔️🥙
• Calorie counting is a distraction; true weight loss comes from metabolic health.⚖️🧬

Overview

Ben Azadi, a wellness expert, believes that the popular weight loss mantra 'calories in equals calories out' is a misleading path that can endanger one's metabolism and overall health. In his informative video, Azadi shares his personal story of transformation, where discovering the real drivers of weight loss—hormones and inflammation—helped him shed 80 pounds and maintain his ideal weight for over 17 years.

In the video, Azadi explains that true weight loss comes from addressing the root causes of weight gain, namely hormonal imbalance and inflammation. He stresses that while calories matter, they are not the key factor. According to Azadi, focusing solely on reducing calorie intake can even disrupt hormones and slow metabolism, making it harder to keep the weight off. Instead, he recommends a diet rich in healthy fats and low in carbohydrates, alongside intermittent fasting, to effectively shift the body from burning sugar to burning fat.

Drawing from his extensive research and discussions with experts, Azadi offers actionable advice for those striving for metabolic health. He introduces practical strategies such as the '222 rule' for healthy fat consumption and suggests a fasting schedule to enhance fat loss. Through his book 'Metabolic Freedom', Azadi extends further resources, aiming to help others avoid the common pitfalls of calorie-focused dieting and ultimately achieve lasting wellness.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: The Weight Loss Lie The chapter "The Weight Loss Lie" discusses a pervasive myth surrounding weight loss that negatively impacted the author for over two decades. The author describes their personal experience of being physically obese for more than 20 years, trying various diets and tricks without success due to this misleading belief. The myth initially seems effective, deceiving many by showing results at the start, but ultimately it damages metabolism and causes frustration. The chapter suggests that many others are likely falling into the same trap. The narrative builds up to a moment of realization where the author recognizes this myth as a complete lie, hinting at a turning point in their weight loss journey once they abandoned this false belief.
• 01:00 - 02:00: The Transformation The speaker shares their remarkable personal journey of transforming their health by losing 80 pounds of fat in nine months, reducing their body fat from 34% to a single-digit 6%. This transformation occurred 17 years ago, and they have successfully maintained the weight loss since. The speaker promises to reveal a critical lesson learned during their journey and cautions against a common misconception in fat loss — the notion that 'calories in equals calories out.' They hint at debunking this widespread belief in their narrative.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Calories In vs. Calories Out Myth The chapter debunks the myth that simply maintaining a calorie deficit will consistently lead to weight loss. Initially, reducing calories and increasing exercise can result in weight loss, but over time, the body's metabolism adjusts to the lower intake, matching the energy consumption and slowing down the weight loss process.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Metabolism and Hormones The speaker warns about the dangers of focusing solely on calorie deficits for weight loss, stating it can harm metabolism and hormones. They share their personal experience and suggest there is a better way to approach weight management, promising to provide insights that can help others avoid years of frustration.
• 04:00 - 05:00: The Biggest Loser Example The chapter titled 'The Biggest Loser Example' discusses common misconceptions about metabolism and weight loss. The speaker highlights a significant misunderstanding often perpetuated by nutritionists and personal trainers who adhere strictly to the 'calories in versus calories out' method for weight loss. Contrary to this belief, the speaker argues that the more effective approach is to first focus on achieving overall health, which in turn naturally leads to weight loss as a secondary benefit.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Complexity of Human Metabolism The chapter "Complexity of Human Metabolism" focuses on two primary aspects of human health: inflammation and hormones. The speaker emphasizes the notion that individuals do not have a weight problem but a weight symptom. The root issues are interference in the body, excessive inflammation, and hormonal imbalance, which are the real causes of weight gain. The chapter criticizes the simplistic approach of merely cutting calories to lose weight, as it only addresses the symptom rather than the underlying causes.
• 06:00 - 07:00: Personal Experiences and Misconceptions The chapter discusses the TV show 'The Biggest Loser' as an example of how focusing solely on calorie deficits and extreme exercise can lead to significant weight loss temporarily. However, it also highlights the limitations and narrow focus of such approaches, suggesting they do not address underlying causes of obesity. It implies that while contestants lose a substantial amount of weight during the show, other important factors and long-term results may not be adequately considered. The chapter utilizes various studies, as mentioned in the book 'Metabolic Freedom', to support its claims.
• 07:00 - 08:00: Key to Real Fat Loss The chapter discusses the aftermath of a weight loss show, highlighting that over 90% of contestants regained their lost weight after the show ended. Some even gained more weight than they initially had. Studies indicate that their hunger hormone, ghrelin, was significantly elevated, making them hungrier, while their fat-burning hormone, leptin, decreased, indicating metabolic and hormonal disruptions. This hormonal imbalance contributed to weight regain, and is suggested as a reason why there's no 'Biggest Loser' reunion show.
• 08:00 - 09:00: Role of Insulin The chapter discusses the different metabolic responses elicited by consuming the same amount of calories from different sources, such as carbohydrates from processed foods (e.g., Skittles, Snickers, soda) versus protein and fat from steak and eggs. It challenges the notion that calorie intake is solely governed by the law of thermodynamics, suggesting that the human body operates more complexly than a simple bank account where calories are equivalent units.
• 09:00 - 10:00: Steps to Burning Fat The chapter titled 'Steps to Burning Fat' discusses the complexity of the human body in relation to weight loss and calorie deficit. It highlights the importance of understanding the science of fat loss rather than solely relying on calculators. The speaker shares their experience of hosting seminars to educate gym members about creating a calorie deficit and calculating their total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). This chapter serves as an introduction to understanding the scientific approach to fat loss.
• 10:00 - 11:00: Fasting for Fat Loss The chapter 'Fasting for Fat Loss' discusses the common practice of creating a calorie deficit to promote fat loss, specifically through fasting. It highlights a conventional belief that a deficit of 3500 calories results in the loss of one pound of fat, typically achieved by cutting 500 calories per day to reach a target weight. However, the text argues that this method is largely ineffective in the long run, with a failure rate of 99%. It explains that while this approach might initially show results, it ultimately disrupts hormones, leading to unhealthy outcomes. The chapter further references 'Metabolic Freedom,' a book that presumably offers more insight into effective metabolism management methods.
• 11:00 - 12:00: Metabolic Freedom Book In this chapter of 'Metabolic Freedom,' a scientific study is discussed where two control groups with the same environment and calorie intake were analyzed. The study focused on the impact of gut health on weight loss. The only difference between the groups was that one received a fecal microbial transplant to improve gut bacteria. The group that underwent the transplant experienced weight loss, highlighting the significant role of gut health in metabolism and weight management.

This Weight Loss Lie Was DESTROYING My Life... & Probably Yours As Well Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 this one weight loss myth was destroying my life And chances are it's destroying your life as well I'm somebody who was physically obese for 20 plus years And believe me I tried every diet every trick in the book And there was one weight loss lie that I kept following over and over and over It was so deceptive because it always works in the beginning and it ended up destroying my metabolism and frustrating me And chances are you're probably going down the same route When I figured out that this was a complete lie I was able to
• 00:30 - 01:00 transform my health and lose 80 pounds of fat within nine months You can see on the screen here I went from 34% body fat to singledigit body fat 6% at my lowest And the amazing thing about my transformation I did this 17 years ago and I've kept the weight off I'll be sharing with you right here a valuable lesson I learned The biggest fat loss lie in the world and I don't want you to make the same mistake Here's the lie Calories in equals calories out If only
• 01:00 - 01:30 it was that simple that you simply put your body in a calorie deficit and the weight will come off Well you know what it does work in the beginning And what ended up happening to me is that the weight loss started to slow down So I thought "Oh I just need to cut my calories more or exercise more create another deficit." And then that worked until you keep doing that And I discovered that my metabolism and your metabolism will match the energy coming in Meaning if you're chronically depriving yourself of calories to lose
• 01:30 - 02:00 weight your metabolism will match that energy and you'll end up wrecking your hormones and metabolism This is exactly what happened to me Now there's a better way to go about this and I'll share with you some valuable insights in the next few minutes to save you 17 plus years of frustration But I just want to paint the picture really clearly for you here Calories matter but they are not important They're actually a distraction If somebody's teaching you right now to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight whether it's a doctor dietician
• 02:00 - 02:30 nutritionist personal trainer that's a huge red flag Run away They don't understand how your metabolism actually works You see the metabolism doesn't work in the way that we think it does A lot of people follow this calories in versus calories out approach like I did because we're trying to lose weight in order to get healthy But what I discovered is it actually works the complete opposite way where we get healthy to lose weight When we get healthy the weight comes off as a side effect When we get healthy we actually
• 02:30 - 03:00 are taking care of two primary things which is inflammation and hormones And I'll discuss how you could take care of that You see you don't have a weight problem This is what I want to get across and I've been teaching this to thousands of people all across the world in the last 17 years Nobody has ever had a weight problem You have a weight symptom Your body has interference You have too much inflammation Your hormones are out of balance That's the cause of the weight gain Simply cutting calories just to lose weight tackles the symptom
• 03:00 - 03:30 does not ever get to the cause There are numerous studies that back this up and I I put them all in my book Metabolic Freedom The Biggest Loser for example how many of you have watched or heard of that TV show The Biggest Loser well they had these morbidly obese contestants They put on a calorie deficit extreme exercise cutting their calories and what happened they all lost weight They lost a ton of weight at the end of the season They celebrated them in that final episode But what we don't see is what
• 03:30 - 04:00 happened after the show ended 90% plus of the contestants gained all of their weight back after the show was over And a portion of them gained even more weight back before they even started the show The studies even show their hunger hormone ghrein was through the roof So they were hungrier and their leptin hormone which is their fat burning hormone that tells you put down the fork stop eating plummeted They slow down their metabolism They wreck their hormones You see that's why there's never a Biggest Loser reunion show Take
• 04:00 - 04:30 for example 800 calories from processed carbohydrates Let's say Skittles Snickers soda And then let's compare that to the same amount of calories 800 calories from steak and eggs which is protein and fat Completely different metabolic response with the same amount of calories And you're going to hear the argument it's all about the law of thermodynamics Well guess what the human body is not a bank account It's not a
• 04:30 - 05:00 math equation It's not a calculator The human body is very complex chemistry lab We cannot fool the body by putting it into a calorie deficit You know when I was starting to lose weight I was starting to host these seminars for the members of my gym And I would host these seminars called the science of fat loss I thought it was so clever I would teach my clients how to go into a calorie deficit I would help them calculate their total daily energy expenditure There are calculators out there that calculate that for you And then we would
• 05:00 - 05:30 input their food and we would put them in a calorie deficit And the thought is okay once we equal 3500 calories of a deficit which let's say we cut for 500 calories every day until we equal that after a few days that's about one pound of fat You keep doing that until you get to your goal body weight It doesn't work that way It only works in the beginning and it fails 99% of the time You end up wrecking your hormones As a matter of fact in my brand new book Metabolic Freedom I show a
• 05:30 - 06:00 study They took two control groups They controlled everything The total amount of calories were exactly the same Their environment was the exactly the same They were all overweight The only thing they changed in one control group was that the participants in the study they received what's called fecal microbial transplant which repopulated their healthy gut bacteria And that group that improved their gut bacteria they started to lose weight versus the group that didn't Same calories everything was the same You see there are so many moving
• 06:00 - 06:30 parts here So this has been the biggest mistake I've made and I apologize to all of the clients that I've worked with several years ago and I've taught them just about calories in versus calories out It's a huge distraction to what really matters hormones and metabolism in a second But I just want to make the point one more point here when it comes to calories in versus calories out If you're a personal trainer CrossFit coach doctor dietician nutritionist or let's say Tik Tok guru is telling you it's all about calories it's such an insult to
• 06:30 - 07:00 the amazing way the body was created It's such an insult to your actual metabolism and your hormones It's equivalent to asking Warren Buffett who we understand is one of the richest men in the world "Hey Warren how did you get so wealthy please show me the way." And Warren says "Oh it's simple Just spend less than you earn." Okay Warren that doesn't give me the actual solution It's the same thing with telling people just eat less and move more I'm sick of it It's time to move away from this old way
• 07:00 - 07:30 of thinking Let's talk about what I've learned in 17 plus years in the health space A worldrenowned fat loss expert I do keynote presentations all across the world I've interviewed over 900 doctors and scientists on my award-winning Metabolic Freedom podcast This is how you actually lose weight This is going to save you 17 plus years of information and frustration Hormones and metabolism Okay The only hormone in your body that signals fat storage is insulin Insulin is what's called an energy sensor When it senses a high amount of energy like
• 07:30 - 08:00 carbohydrates it signals fat storage The body has a really sophisticated tightly controlled system in place to regulate blood sugar As a matter of fact the body is considering one teaspoon of sugar in the entire bloodstream an optimal state which is only 80 milligrams per deciliter If you test your fasting blood sugar that's what it's giving you Anything more insulin is produced to clear that out of the bloodstream and go into your cells your fat cells And as
• 08:00 - 08:30 you snack and graze and eat high carbohydrate meals throughout the day like most people do even if you're in a calorie deficit you're spiking glucose and insulin teaching your metabolism to be a sugar burner which is a metabolic prison So the first step is to go from burning sugar to burning fat And we do that simply by slowly decreasing your carbohydrate intake You want to take your total carbohydrates to under 50 gram total per day Second step you want to follow the 222 rule to incorporate
• 08:30 - 09:00 healthy fats to teach the metabolism to burn fat instead of sugar So here's the 222 rule I've used this on thousands of students It works like a charm The first two is 2 tbsps of avocado oil or olive oil The second two is 2 tbsp of coconut oil or MCT oil And the third two is 2 tablespoons of butter or ghee So as you lower your carbs you hit that 222 rule And the the third thing here is to eliminate the snacking in between meals Start with three meals a day Now as you
• 09:00 - 09:30 do this insulin is going to drop in between those meals As you eat more protein and fat less carbs insulin is going to drop You're going to start to burn fat without having to rely on willpower or deprivation or weighing food or calculating food This is metabolic freedom Now there's some other things you can do for your hormones and inflammation Fasting is one of the best ways to balance your hormones and burn a ton of fat If you're not practicing some form of timerestricted feeding aka
• 09:30 - 10:00 intermittent fasting you're missing out on a lot of fat loss So I'll give you one schedule to follow here for fasting that works really well for fat loss It's called an 186 Every day you want to follow this routine Out of a 24-hour period for 18 hours you're fasted meaning no food just water coffee tea electrolytes no food for 18 hours Then you have a 6-h hour eating window where you have 2 to three meals ideally protein and fat focused lower carbs So you have all of your calories within a
• 10:00 - 10:30 6-h hour eating window So that would look like 12 to 6 p.m or so is your eating window and then you're fasting outside of that You could also change that for 8 a.m to 2 p.m eating window and fasting outside of that It doesn't really matter Just follow an 186 You're going to burn a ton of fat I wish somebody told me this information when I was yo-yo dieting calorie counting feeling deprived and relying on willpower It doesn't work And I'm sure it's failed you time after time I have a
• 10:30 - 11:00 30-day plan I put together in my brand new book Metabolic Freedom And I have an entire course built out on the metabolism so you learn more about how keto could help you burn fat fasting to melt stubborn belly fat uh how the metabolism actually works with some amazing interviews with Dr Jason Fun Dr Daniel Pompa Cynthia Thurlo Megan Ramos All that is for free when you order metabolic freedom today If you go to metabolicfreedombook.com order the book and you'll get the entire course and
• 11:00 - 11:30 those interviews emailed to you right away Share this with somebody you know who's frustrated with their weight loss their yo-yo dieting Share it with your coach or doctor who's telling you "Hey just cut calories It's just a big disservice Shame on them." And I hope you enjoyed this lesson and I hope you share it with everybody you know And hey if you love this video speaking of fasting I just released a video here on my YouTube channel on what happens inside of your body when you go without food for 3 days It's absolutely
• 11:30 - 12:00 incredible Check out this clip and I'll see you in that video This is going to shock you but I'm going to show you a timeline of exactly what happens inside of your body when you go 3 days without food Got to say your doctor will never tell you this And at the end of the video I'll address what to consume during the fast which liquid supplements who should not do this fast how to work your way to this fast and how to