The obesity explosion that we see in many countries is because of a number of factors. Apart from the genes we received from our parents, some factors are because of human behaviour:
- Less exercise.
- Fewer hours sleep each night.
- Eating more junk food.
- Eating more food additives, colorings, taste enhancers, artificial emulsifiers, etc.
- More mental stress due to work, mortgages, taking care of a family, and other modern lifestyle factors.
Diet quality, particularly carbohydrate content or amount as well as carbohydrate type, in combination with genetics and lifestyle factors (sleep, stress), boosts your insulin levels, which then promotes lipogenesis and inhibits lipolysis, resulting in higher fat storage. Insulin is also associated with hunger. So the more insulin you have, the hungrier you get. Also, there is reduced physical activity and reduced basal metabolism and because of this, you end up exercising less and eating more and getting fat.
If this is the cause, then the usual management of obesity is more of a systematic management and if you manage only the symptoms as medication often does in most diseases, then how can you expect the long term resolution of the problem? People symptomatically reduce the calories to see weight loss, but if the cause is there and the fuel gets locked in fat stores and is not being able to be released, then that cause is what needs to be addressed. It is insulin that locks down the fat and keeps it locked. So insulin must be addressed to treat obesity.
The reason why low carb diets seem to be superior for weight loss really comes down to appetite. People can adhere to this diet because they are not hungry. There are consistently beneficial effects on appetite control hormones. If you bring down carbohydrate intake to a more ketogenic level (less than 50g/day), you may achieve a better benefit because of direct appetite suppressant action of the ketones. There is more fat available for fuel, so you become more fat adapted and will be fat burner as you are able to mobilise and use your fat again.
