Do Calories Really Matter?

Mythbuster: You need to lower your calorie consumption in order to lose weight.

Now, I am not denying the law of thermodynamics that states when more calories are inputted than outputted, the result is weight gain. However, stating that excess calorie consumption is the CAUSE of weight gain, is like saying the sky is blue because it just is. You cannot make a statement of observation and associate it as the cause of an effect. We already know that weight gain occurs when there is an imbalance between consumption and expenditure. The cause of that lies within the how’s and the why’s.

Humans by nature are designed to have a setpoint for body fat; that is, not too much that would impede physical function (hunters needed to be in good shape), and not too little (to survive times of famine). With that being said, when your body is functioning optimally and you are at the appropriate body fat setpoint, if large amounts of calories are consumed and body fat increases, the metabolism is upregulated (and appetite is decreased) to burn off the excess fat until the body returns to its setpoint. When too few calories are consumed and body fat decreases, the metabolism is downregulated (and appetite is increased) to prevent further loss in body fat to maintain the setpoint. In order for this homeostastic mechanism to work, we need the leptin receptor in our brain to be activated between 12 AM and 2 AM during sleep to assess our energy requirements. When your leptin receptor is broken due to inflammation in the brain, this signalling is disrupted, and the brain cannot properly sense the amount of body fat stored. On one end of the spectrum, the brain may continue to believe body fat levels are too high, and the metabolism remains chronically upregulated with decreased appetite as seen in anorexia. On the other hand, the brain may continue to believe body fat levels are too low, and the metabolism remains chronically downregulated with increased appetite as seen in obesity.

As you can see, anorexia and obesity still comply with laws of thermodynamics, that is calories in/calories out determines weight gain/loss, however the mechanism that is in place to control this balance can become disrupted leading to an imbalance, and THAT is the cause. Now that you understand this, the solution to weight problems is to fix the broken leptin receptor. This is done by minimizing inflammation levels in the brain. Best way to accomplish this is to abide by circadian rhythms.