It’s not enough to count calories: New study indicates that overeating “is not the main cause of obesity”

Counting calories and burning them, that’s the surefire way to lose weight. Or so we thought, because now an investigation confirmed what many said, losing a few kilos would be a bit more complicated than a simple mathematical formula.

David Ludwig, an endocrinologist at Children’s Hospital Boston and a professor at Harvard Medical School, questions the energy balance model as the only successful way. 

This model estimates the total calorie expenditure that a person has, for physical activity and that energy that the body requires to function. If you are looking to lose weight, then the amount of calories you consume should be in proportion to the expenditure. 

But Professor Ludwig says things would be more complicated. “During a stretch, for example, teens can increase their food intake by 1,000 calories a day. But does their overeating cause the stretch, or is it the stretch that makes the teen hungry and overeat?” commented the author of the study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

What would be the explanation for being overweight?

The carbohydrate-insulin model would be more linked than the energy balance. This proposal argues that the quality of food would also play a role.

This would especially apply to highly processed and easily digestible carbohydrates. It is that these have an effect on insulin, and that would change the way the body stores fat, and therefore gain weight. 

“When we eat highly processed carbohydrates, the body increases insulin secretion and suppresses glucagon secretion. This, in turn, signals fat cells to store more calories, leaving fewer calories available to fuel muscles and other metabolically active tissues. “is explained in the document. 

Consuming these foods has the ability to slow down your metabolism, so you accumulate fat and not only that, you feel as if you are still hungry. 

In this way, the ideal formula to lose weight is to reduce the consumption of this type of highly refined food.