The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss (Why Intermittent Fasting Is the Key to Controlling Your Weight)

by Jason Fung

THE CALORIE-REDUCTION ERROR TRADITIONALLY, OBESITY HAS been seen as a result of how people process calories, that is, that a person’s weight could be predicted by a simple equation: Calories In – Calories Out = Body Fat This key equation perpetrates what I call the calorie deception. It is dangerous precisely because it appears so simple and intuitive. But what you need to understand is that many false assumptions are built in. Assumption 1: Calories In and Calories Out are independent of each other This assumption is a crucial mistake. As we’ll see later on in this chapter, experiments and experience have proven this assumption false. Caloric intake and expenditure are intimately dependent variables. Decreasing Calories In triggers a decrease in Calories Out. A 30 percent reduction in caloric intake results in a 30 percent decrease in caloric expenditure. The end result is minimal weight loss. Assumption 2: Basal metabolic rate is stable We obsess about caloric intake with barely a thought for caloric expenditure, except for exercise. Measuring caloric intake is simple, but measuring the body’s total energy expenditure is complicated. Therefore, the simple but completely erroneous assumption is made that energy expenditure remains constant except for exercise. Total energy expenditure is the sum of basal metabolic rate, thermogenic effect of food, nonexercise activity thermogenesis, excess post-exercise oxygen consumption and exercise. The total energy expenditure can go ...