In starvation mode our body consumes fat from our fat stores (adipose tissue) for energy. One would expect then that a grossly obese person could last, or live longer, without food than a person who was overweight but not grossly obese. One would expect this to be so because the grossly obese have more fat stored to provide energy to sustain life.

In the 16th and 18th centuries numerous explorers set off to the Indian and Pacific Oceans on their voyages of discovery only to lose more than half their crews to disease which we now know as Scurvy. These sailors were not starving, there was still plenty of food on board their ships, but they were dying because the food was lacking certain nutrients. Now we know that Scurvy is caused by a cocktail of vitamin deficiencies, mainly C and B vitamins.

So who is likely to die first, the overweight or the grossly obese person? Well that will depend on what their diet was before they stopped eating. The person that had the most ESSENTIAL nutrients stored away in their cells and serum is likely to live longer. So to maintain excellent health while we lose weight we need to eat food that contains nutrients that are ESSENTIAL for healthy life.

What are these essential nutrients?

Rewired’s research says that the essential nutrients in food that we need to maintain excellent health while we lose weight are;

Vitamins

Minerals

Amino Acids

Certain essential fatty acids, and

Fibre

How much we need and which foods they are contained in are included in articles restricted to participants in Rewired’s weight loss program.

Self Control is different. People with a good degree of self control find it easy and more natural to ‘value a future benefit’ more highly than a lesser but immediate present reward. It maybe going without chocolate today is worth it compared with the risk of diabetes when we are older. Self control has a greater chance of working, it’s not a choice to buy or not buy the chocolate, instead it’s a choice between reducing the risk of becoming diabetic in the future relative to missing out on 10 minutes of pleasure now.  The issue with self control is that the degree of it we blessed with is usually established by the age of 5 (blame mum and dad). Most people who have overeaten for a long time and gained weight will likely find self control difficult and time consuming to master.

It is easier and less stressful not to rely on willpower or self control to stick with an appropriate weight loss diet. The problem is our past eating habits that are embedded in our subconscious and are driving (unbeknown to us) our choices; in this example to eat chocolate. If we hadn’t ever eaten chocolate in the past it is really easy to say no to it in the future. So the most effective way to eat less chocolate is to replace our past with a new one, so that the subconscious drive to eat chocolate no longer exists.
Now in my case I still love chocolate, its taste and mouthfeel is unsurpassed, its great stuff. On the other hand I no longer have any desire to buy it or keep it in the home. I used to walk down the supermarket aisle, immediately noting the price of my favourite dairy milk block, and buying extra if it was discounted. I could tell you the usual price, how much it  had increased over the years, how the block was 220gm and it had been reduced to 200gm and so on. Now I can walk down the supermarket aisle and not even notice the chocolate is there. The good thing is I still enjoy it when it is available for free!

Learn how to talk to yourself to Rewire your brain to override past lifestyle habits and achieve long term permanent weight loss without the stress caused by the torment of willpower or the need for an abnormal level of self control. Get started by subscribing and reading our free eBook it’s all there. To make it even easier and improve your chances of long term success I recommend you join our online Rewired Weight Loss program.

To a new you, Glenn

This little fellah lives in our gut, along with more than 100 trillion of his mates, he is a bacteria. They are not all the same, they are not identical twins, and there are thousands of different types of them that reside in our gut.

These bacteria eat the components of the food we eat but can’t digest. That is what is left over after the food has passed through the small intestine (and hasn’t been absorbed) to the large intestine where most of the bacteria live. These leftovers are commonly known as fibre.

Bacteria eat and poop (metabolise) the fibre, and the poop is really important. It can be a vitamin, an antigen, a special amino acid, in fact thousands of different chemicals vital for good health, including neurotransmitters that talk to the part of our brain (hypothalamus) that involves the feelings of hunger and fullness, or in other words how much we eat. Scientists call this the ‘the gut-brain axis’.

Rewired Weight Loss uses principles and methods backed by neuroscience to invoke weight loss easily and naturally for or members. We have to consider the micro biome because it feeds signals to our brain, and it does affect our weight.

For example; rodents raised in a germ free environment and have no bacteria in their gut have to eat 30% more calories to be the same weight as their normal counterparts.

Gerard Clarke Roman M. Stilling Paul J. Kennedy Catherine Stanton John F. CryanTimothy G. Dinan Molecular Endocrinology, Volume 28, Issue 8, 1 August 2014, Pages 1221–1238,

Our bodies are constantly working to maintain balance. A fancy word for this action is called homeostasis. An example of homeostasis is our body temperature, our body fights to keep it at around 37°C. If our bodies  get too hot (fever) for too long we die, and if we get too cold (hypothermia) we die. Homeostasis also influences our weight.

The Bad News

In people who are overweight, homeostasis works to keep that weight steady. So when they try to lose weight, their endocrine systems attempt to prevent this from happening by delivering subconscious messages to our brain to slow down our metabolism to help prevent weight loss. This was a good system when we were hunter gatherers and it was smart for our bodies to maintain energy stores in times of adversity or during an acute sickness.

The Good News

Once overweight people have achieved a healthy body weight and maintained it for more than 12 months (it may take longer), homeostasis and the new mind map actually works for them. Homeostasis becomes our friend instead of our enemy as it then helps to maintain our new stable weight and protects against weight gain.

When people are “rewired” with their new mind map and at a healthy weight, homeostasis begins to make weight maintenance natural and effortless.

Research Links

Adaptive thermogenesis was evident at 6 months, but not at 24 months.

“At 6 months, the measured resting energy expenditure was significantly lower than predicted (−18.2±6.7 kcal/24 h p<0.0068), suggesting adaptive thermogenesis. After 24 months, this had reversed, with measured REE being significantly higher than predicted”

Adaptive Thermogenesis in Resistance to Obesity Therapies: 

Adaptive reduction in thermogenesis and resistance to lose fat in obese men.

Clinical significance of adaptive thermogenesis.