@ Why would I get fat?
2025-02-25 19:15:34
Jerm: "Zoë, when we talk about losing weight, what are we talking about?"
Zoë Harcombe: "[…] Weight loss is breaking down body fat. […] Body fat is what we call a triglyceride structure. […] Triglyceride is […] a backbone of glycerol with three fats attached to that glycerol. […]
"You've got this whole calorie theory group who say, 'Oh, so long as you eat fewer calories, the body is just going to break down body fat.' And I'm like, 'No, the body can only break down body fat in certain physiological circumstances.'
"We touched on it earlier. Insulin and glucagon are antagonists. If you think of them like alley cats, they're never out in the alley at the same time. If insulin is doing it's thing, glucagon is not there. If glucagon is doing it's thing, insulin is not there. Insulin is the dominant hormone. If insulin is doing it's thing, glucagon can't say, 'Whoa, it's my turn!' […]
"To even be in the state that your body can lost weight, let alone that it will, you have to not have insulin present, you have to not have carbohydrate available. If you've just eaten a croissant, you've got glucose in the bloodstream. As fast as the body is trying to take it out of the bloodstream, because that's toxic. Let's say you eat a croissant and then you want to go for a walk. Your body is trying to use up the croissant for carbohydrate, because the body is lazy, it will use carbohydrate if it's there. […]
"The body, if it doesn't have excess glucose in the bloodstream or if you haven't just eaten carbohydrate, the body will go looking at your stored carbohydrate in the body. We know that as glycogen.
"When insulin is taking glucose out of the bloodstream it's putting it in this storeroom. It's storing it away as glycogen. […]
"Let's go to that 3 o'clock in the morning situation. So body says, 'Blood glucose is dipping a little bit low. Insulin's not around, that's good, we've not just eaten something. Glucagon, wake up, go do your thing!'
"So glucagon will say, 'Right. Is there anything in the storeroom? Because that's the easiest thing for me to use. If there's anything in that carbohydrate storeroom I'm just going to use that.'
"If you're eating the 400 grams of carbohydrate that the government is telling you to eat everyday, I can tell you you've always got something in your storeroom. You can be eating 500 fewer calories than you think you need, but if you're eating them all in the form of carbohydrate, you're not going to run empty on carbohydrate in any 24-hour period. Trust me on that.
"So the body is just going to go to the storeroom, use the carbohydrate, and off it merrily goes. But you have not lost any body weight. There has been no chance of you losing body weight, because you're only going to lose body weight if the body has to use body fat. It's not going to give that up first; it's going to go for the easy route, which is carbohydrate.
"Let's assume you're […] moderate carbohydrate, which Tim Noakes would define as no more than 130 grams of carbohydrate a day. You will use that up in the day period. You get to 3 o'clock in the morning, glucose is going a bit low, body says, 'Glucagon, do your thing!' Glucagon goes to the storeroom. It's empty, because you've used it up. It then has to look for fat.
"Now if you've eaten a lot of dietary fat during the day, you might have dietary fat available. Which is why even if you go low carbohydrate, you can't go nuts on fat if you're trying to lose weight. Don't go and eat butter like some sites tell you to do (joke) 'until the cows come home,' because the body will just use the dietary fat instead of the body fat.
"Let's assume you're sensible, you're not sticking butter on everything, the body then has to go and find some body fat to break down to put some glycerol into the bloodstream. The fats then go into the boodstream and the body can use the fat for fuel and the glycerol will keep the blood glucose level topped up.
"That is the definition of weight loss. The body going to break down that body fat, that is the definition of weight loss. You have to do the things that enable the body to be able to do that. What does that mean?
"Don't eat too much. Don't count calories, whatever you do. But don't go nuts. Don't stick butter on everything.
"Don't go too high on carbohydrate. I mean ideally, don't go over 130 grams a day. You may find if you really want to lose weight, go down to somewhere between 50 or 100, even lower if you really want to speed things up.
"Make the body have to use fat for energy. Don't go too high on dietary fat and then it will have to use body fat.
"Then watch out for things that impair the body being able to do that, which is primarily alcohol.
"Then your final thing will be give the body the reason to need some fuel. I'm not saying go out and run a marathon or anything like that. Use your brain! Read an academic paper. Read a Substack article that really makes you think. The brain is a fantastic user of fuel. Go for a walk. Hunt. Dance with your partner. Play with your child. Do natural activity. You don't have go down the gym, which is a not very healthy thing to do, in my view. But do some natural things that's going to increase the demand for fuel within the body. Don't have that fuel available as carbohydrate and then body has got to go over and look for body fat, which it will happily do."
Zoë Harcombe with Jerm @ 37:12—43:03 https://podbay.fm/p/jerm-warfare-the-battle-of-ideas/e/1739869806?t=2232