Jim:
Hi everyone. My name is Jim Labadie and I am here today with registered dietitian and the author of the CarbRotationDiet, Jayson Hunter and today we’re going to be talking about the top lies and myths that the weight loss industry, the diet industry, and the food companies use to make and keep you fat. Yes, there are obviously millions of people who are overweight, obese, in the United States and the world and these companies and these industries are actually betting on and hoping that their lies and myths are going to keep you fat so you keep coming back for more. So, we’re going to expose these lies and myths today. Jayson’s going to reveal all of them to you so you don’t get fooled by them again.
So, with that being said, Jayson thank you very much for being here today.
Jayson:
You’re very welcome, I’m glad to be here.
Jim:
Alright. So just real quick, very briefly, just give us a quick rundown on your qualifications. Just tell us a little bit about yourself.
Jayson:
Okay. I’m a registered dietitian and I’ve been in practice over 10 years now. My focus is weight loss as well as nutritional supplementation. Not necessarily both of them combined to achieve weight loss but two separate areas of focus that I try to focus on and I am married with a young daughter that keeps me very busy and, just trying to help as many people as I can lose weight and keep it off forever since it’s an ever-growing problem that seems to be getting worse.
Jim:
Absolutely. I think that’s the big thing there is keep it off. That’s what we really want to do with this report and with the Carbrotationdiet. So, let’s just get into it real quick. Again, everybody who’s either listening to this or is reading this report there are tons and tons of scams out there. Some will give you instant results, but as you know it’s that yo-yo cycle where you just go up and down in your weight and the food companies aren’t any help with the products that they’re selling you. So, you’ve been misled to, you’ve been lied to and we’re going to expose all those things today. So, Jayson let’s just get started.
Jayson:
Okay.
Jim:
What would you consider to be the number one weight loss lie?
Jayson:
I would probably classify number one as deceptive food advertising, because these huge food corporations, they’re spending billions of dollars every year trying to get their product into the market and get you to buy it. So, they will pretty much do everything possible to convince you of something, whether it’s true or false, but if it gets you to buy their product they’re going to go as far into the gray areas of food law as, humanly possible.
For example, here’s just a real quick one, most of your not so healthy foods are going to be at eye-level on the shopping shelves and the reason is, they’re higher profit margins because they’re easier to make with these simple cheap ingredients. They use these high-fat, high-calorie ingredients and so not only is the food manufacturer making more money, but the store is making more money. So, wouldn’t you think they are going to put them right at your line of sight so that you easily grab those without having to bend down and get something or reach up high and get something? They want it to be as easy as possible for you. And that’s just a simple one. They get even into more detail in regards to fat-free products.
Jim:
Let’s get into that fat free, because the fat-free craze isn’t as big as it used to be but still people go after fat-free foods all the time because they think, “Alright, it’s fat-free so it’s not going to make me fat.” Kind of explain fat-free and why these foods can actually make you fat.
Jayson:
Well, if you remove all the fat from something there has to be something that replaces that ingredient and process foods taste good because they’re either loaded with sugar, fat, and/or sodium, so, if you remove one you’re going to have to increase another to continue to make that food taste good and I think most of us know now, obviously, fat-free doesn’t mean calorie-free as everyone learned with the whole Snack Wells craze. People were eating half the box of Snack Well cookies because they were fat-free. Well, they were also half a box of pretty much pure sugar so you’re still taking in possibly twice as many calories as you normally would, which is going to lead to fat gain. Your body just can’t burn that off and good fat is actually necessary for energy production, production of hormones, promote healthy skin and hair, and assist in absorption of fat soluble vitamins. You need fat in your body to be able to function efficiently and it helps you feel fuller sooner and longer. Not that you want to eat a lot of fat, but you need to have some good healthy fat in your body so that it can function efficiently. And, like I said if you chose things that are fat-free, something has to replace that and it’s usually going to be sugar, most of the time, which is also a very high calorie substitute and mentally people think it’s fat-free, “I can eat more of this.” But actually you should probably eat less. It’s probably worse off eating more sugar then it is more fat when it comes to just packing on the pounds.
Jim:
Okay. So there are two things I want to get into real quick Jayson. First thing is saturated fat is actually healthy for you to a certain degree, correct? In other words, you can’t go and eat Whoppers and Big Macs and foods that are just slammed with saturated fat and calories just constantly. Saturated fat gets a bad name by, again, these weight loss and diet food companies because they prey on your ignorance of not knowing. Saturated fat is found in nature and it does have a place in your diet.
Jayson:
It does have a place in your diet. It just comes down to eating that certain amount and not eating triple the amount, that you should be eating. All fats, saturated and unsaturated and monounsaturated, they do have a place and a function in your body at some point.
Jim:
Okay. So just real quick, just so people know the truth, what would be a good source of saturated fat? Like a lean piece of…
Jayson:
Well, anything that is – any fat that is solid at room temperature is for the most part just saturated fat. So, when you look at a steak it has fat on say the ends of it, or things like that, or a pork chop, that’s going to be primarily saturated fats. So, you’re looking for things that are solid at room temperature.
Jim:
Okay, but again, what we’re saying is that – we’re not telling you to go out and just look for saturated fat and just think you can eat all of it that you want, that’s not what we’re saying.
Jayson:
No, not at all.
Jim:
Not at all. What we are saying is that this is one of the lies that they tell you, is that saturated fat is just awful or terrible for you and it’s just killing your body, that you cannot eat all that you want, however, if it’s found in nature, and saturated fat is a part of, if it’s a small percentage of it, is a part of a healthy diet. It’s just one of those things where you have to look at, “What is this food company telling me?” “What is this diet food company telling me?” So, the second thing I want to cover is sugar. How does sugar make us fat? I think logically it makes sense to people, “Okay, well if I eat fat, I’m going to get fat.” I mean its fat, but how does sugar make us fat?
Jayson:
Well, sugar, like I mentioned before, is a high calorie ingredient so when you consume, obviously, more then what you burn those calories tend to be stored as fat. Another more important reason how sugar can make you fat is sugar will cause your body to send out a lot of insulin to try to get that sugar out of the blood stream so that your body can return to a normal balance in regards to the amount of sugar that it usually has in its blood stream. Well, it has to do something with that sugar. Once that insulin goes out and grabs it, it needs to do something with it. So, it either burns it for energy or it’s going to store it as fat to be used at a later time. Since there’s only so much energy to be burned for a typical person then the alternative is obviously to be stored as fat. That’s how to much sugar leads to weight gain because you’re causing your body to have to store more calories as fat calories.
Jim:
And you also get hungry faster, right, and you typically crave those same kinds of foods?
Jayson:
Many people do, yes, because sugar gets processed and digested pretty quickly and when you get the blood sugar spikes your body sends out insulin to store those sugars. Your blood sugars then drop significantly and you would think that is ok. Usually what happens when your blood sugar gets low is your body gives off signals saying “Hey, we need some energy. We need some food.” So, all of a sudden you think, “Oh, I’m hungry again.” Well, not really you’ve caused this out of whack scenario where you spiked your blood sugars and then let them drop really fast and now your body’s confused thinking you’re hungry and you’re not. Most of the time people then eat again.
Jim:
So, it literally sends a signal for you to eat again?
Jayson:
Yeah. Your body usually sends a signal when you have low blood sugars to fuel itself and that means getting in food.
Jim:
And typically when people eat something, if they have a candy bar or something, something real sugary and, again, filled with fat and packed with calories, this blood sugar spike occurs and then you get hungry again and typically people reach for something very similar because the body wants almost instant energy? Correct?
Jayson:
Correct. It wants to replace that sugar that it no longer has in the blood stream.
Jim:
There you go. So that’s how the food companies do it. They give you these foods filled with sugar and then your body craves more of them. I mean literally craves more of the same type of unhealthy foods that are very easily ingested, eat to many calories and that’s how you pack on the pounds. Simple, simple, simple.
Alright, let’s get into some other things real quick. Now, one of the things I want to talk about also is, you are the author of the Carbrotation Diet, but – and you and I talked about this recently. What was really wrong with the no-carb, super low-carb craze? What was the issue with that because– there was another time when the food companies certainly jumped all over that craze and started making all these processed foods to meet the demand. What in general was the problem with no-carb/low-carb? Why wouldn’t you recommend it with your private clients?
Jayson:
Well, because the food that you were suggested to eat were high calorie/high fat foods so, like we mentioned fat does have a place in your meal plan, but you can’t just eat endless high fat foods because there’s a mark that you have to hit and you’re going to go over that mark as far as the number of calories you’re supposed to get for the day. Whether it’s coming from protein, fat, or carbs, there’s still a number there. So, you’re going to easily surpass that number and then again your body’s going to have to do something with these calories. So what most people were doing was thinking, “Oh I can just eat all the fried foods and high fat meats and everything else.” They were just over eating, just too many calories. Regardless that it was just protein and fat– if you’re body was only supposed to burn 2000 calories a day and you’re eating 4, well those 2000 extra calories are going to have to be stored somehow. Your body can’t just say, “Oh I’m just going to toss these to the side.” It just doesn’t work like that. It ends up storing those calories. So, the whole no carb or low carb all the time craze, people were eating just too much other bad food and they still gained weight, most people never really lost the weight.
Jim:
Of course the food companies and diet industries jumped all over that and started making these processed nutrient dead foods to fill the demand, right?
Jayson:
Yeah and they were using high fat ingredients and they were using a lot of sugar alcohol, which tends to trick the body into thinking that it’s not full yet so you just keep eating. Again they have to replace these ingredients with other ingredients. What are easy cheap ingredients to replace so you will still make money? Well, sugar and fat. So, they just kind of goes back and forth between the two.
Jim:
So, explain – there’s two things I want to follow-up on that. What is the sugar alcohol exactly, because I think people see all these bars – nutrition bars, energy bars, protein bars and they say sugar alcohol’s in them. What is a sugar alcohol exactly?
Jayson:
Well, it’s a molecule that has a sweet taste to it and there’s a lot of controversy with it but a lot of people say it’s zero calories and then others say no it has miniscule calories and the amounts that you use does add up to calories. Even if it’s three calories you need to report that on these food labels. So, they’ve come so far to an agreement that they have to at least claim that it’s zero net calories and it gets really confusing but, sugar alcohol is, for the most part, a form of an artificial sweetener, just in what they call an alcohol based format and it has a sweet taste to it and so they started putting these in foods to get that desired taste that people want. The biggest thing with these is your body won’t recognize necessarily that it’s full when you ingest a lot of artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols and so you tend to keep eating which then, in the end, you just end up over eating.
Jim:
Gotcha. Okay. It’s that vicious cycle that they induce you in and before you know it – it’s a round and round cycle, that yo-yo cycle. Okay. So, let’s get into real quickly, processed nutrient dead foods. We’ve talked about this before where basically the middle aisles of a shopping center, anything in a box or often times in a can, there’s usually process foods. Why are processed foods not really the best thing to buy?
Jayson:
Well, because they’re usually filled with refined or enriched ingredients. They don’t contain a lot of vitamins and minerals because they’ve stripped out a lot of the great nutrients of whatever those food products are so that it can be stored long term and put in a box and not spoil. There’s others that are what we call glorified junk foods, like these 100 calorie snack packs that people think, “Oh, it’s great for me I’m dieting, it’s only 100 calories.” Well, most of them are loaded with sugar and trans-fats anyway so pretty much you’re just getting the 100 calories of junk and if you’ve ever really eaten one of those, you eat one and then about ten minutes later, “Huh, I’m going to have another one. It’s only 100 calories.” And you start doing this form of thinking, before you know it you might as well just had a Snickers Bar at that point because you’re putting in 200-400 calories. So, anything in the center like that it’s just high profit foods for the manufacture and the store so obviously they want to pack the store mostly with those types of food because they make more money.
Jim:
They make more money. Gotcha. Okay, now I think it’s important, I wanted to mention, in your Carb Rotation Diet both men’s and the women’s versions of your book, I know you have 100 calorie snack guide of foods that people should actually be eating as opposed to these processed foods that come in the nice little pack. I think that’s just brilliant the way you said it. People get these 100 calorie snack packs, but then they end up eating three 100 calorie snack packs. Because of that, again what we talked about, this processed food it’s filled with sugar, and trans-fat, and then they make you crave more of these same foods. They literally make you crave more of the same foods so you eat more of them. So, I just think it’s pretty amazing. Alright, so real quick, let’s talk about – we don’t have to go into it a ton but all these waters. The waters that are out there that have vitamins and minerals and these are just mostly loaded with sugar right? Shouldn’t people just be drinking water as opposed to water with vitamins and minerals?
Jayson:
Yeah, and the biggest thing with these Diet Coke Plus and all these others that say they have vitamins in them and this and that is, the amount is miniscule. To have any real beneficial effect you’d have to drink, let’s just say ten Diet Coke Pluses to have those same type of benefits of those vitamins that are there. So, it’s just a huge marketing ploy to say, “Oh this is a healthier choice.” if you drink a case of it. It’s another marketing scheme to convince you that hey this is a healthy product and really it has such small amounts of the vitamins and minerals that - just don’t even waste your time.
Jim:
There you go. You’re much better off drinking – if you want to strip fat off your belly, or your butt, or your thighs, you’re hips or wherever, you’re much better off drinking plain old fashion water. Okay. So, we’ve covered pretty much the sugar. Real quick let’s talk about high fructose corn syrup. Let’s talk about the way they hide sugars.
Jayson:
Okay.
Jim:
Okay, so real quick, talk about high fructose corn syrup or what should somebody look for in a label? If it doesn’t say sugar what are the other things that they look for, what other ways do the food companies hide the fact that there’s lots of sugar in their product?
Jayson:
Well, one of the main ones that is most common is the high fructose corn syrup. Again, it’s one of those ingredients that your body doesn’t recognize, so it doesn’t recognize that you are full. It’s also one of those that actually helps you feel good – release endorphins type of thing. So, you just keep eating, and eating, and eating, and your body doesn’t know to stop because of this kind of sneaky corn syrup that they’re using now and it’s very cheap ingredient so again, if it makes the product taste good and it’s cheap to make, they’re going to use it regardless of the health benefits or lack of health benefits they’re going to use this. If you look there are a lot of things you wouldn’t even expect contain high fructose corn syrup. It’s a very stable product so again, it promotes shelf life and long term durability for those products.
Jim:
So they also release endorphins huh?
Jayson:
Yeah, it’s a complex molecule that causes your body to start functioning differently because of the chemical make-up of it. It can release these endorphins, like I talked about, make you feel good type of thing, and your body’s unable to sense that you’re over eating so you gradually keep eating more and more.
Jim:
I bet some of the people reading this/ listening to this are just completely stunned that these ingredients are in their food that literally make you crave more calories and again they make you and keep you fat.
Jayson:
Because they want you to keep buying their food. That’s how they make their money.
Jim:
It’s pretty much addicting, right?
Jayson:
Yeah. Pretty much. It is a form of addiction for sure.
Jim:
Now something I’ve seen you mention in your newsletters in the past is the good old fashion salad. People like to go on diets and they love to eat a salad, especially the fast food places that have these salads now, all these obesity problems that are going on in the world, they’re trying to say, “Oh we are having these healthier choices. We’re having these salads and grilled chicken sandwiches.” But then they slap on a couple ounces of mayo or ranch dressing or blue cheese and all of a sudden your salad went to hell in a hand basket.
Jayson:
Not to mention that you can add the cheeses and the eggs and the meats to the top and the nuts and those are all higher calorie condiments. So yeah, your healthy salad can jump to 800-900 calories real fast.
Jim:
So, a lot of times isn’t it that people are better off getting something other than a salad since these salads have so many calories?
Jayson:
In a lot of areas, yeah. I mean, you do really have to look at what is on the salad and also ask for your dressing to come on the side. Don’t let them put it on for you because, depending on what restaurants you go to, they have these extravagant chef salads, and Mexican bean salsa salad, blah, blah, blah. The condiments are what kill you. The condiments on these salads aren’t radishes and carrots and green peppers, it’s eggs, cheeses, nuts, meats, stuff like that. So, yeah, a lot of times you are just better off getting an entrée of seasoned chicken with some vegetables on the side.
Jim:
Some steamed vegetables on the sides as opposed to … so; anyway I just wanted to add that real quick so people – just because you’re eating a salad doesn’t mean that you’re fat loss efforts are as good as they can be. You can have a healthy salad, it’s just what you put on top of that salad that matters. Okay, so we’ve covered the lies and myths and deceptions of the diet industry in terms of foods and how the food companies are keeping us fat, making us fat, making us crave these unhealthy foods. Let’s get into now really lie number two which is kind of the infomercial madness, especially all the equipment out there, these gadgets they make that focus on abs. Everybody wants the abs. So, just fill us in on why these ad contraptions just aren’t going to get people the results that they are looking for.
Jayson:
Well, first of all over five hundred million dollars a year is spent on this type of equipment in these infomercials and half of that is just, like you said, abdominals, to get ripped abs in 30-days to have abs of steel and all that stuff. The consensus is still the same. You can’t spot reduce. When you lose fat cells, you lose fat cells everywhere and your body’s going to burn off fat cells in different parts of your body maybe quicker than others, but it’s going to still be an overall fat loss. It’s not going to be, “I’m only going to pull fat from this area. I’m only going to pull fat from this area.” Obviously you can’t control where your body’s going to take those fat cells from. You need to just burn them off. So, all of these pieces of equipment just keep feeding into that myth of spot reduction which doesn’t exist. The quicker people realize that they can’t have that quick miracle solution for two minutes a day or five minutes a day the quicker these shows will get off the TV because people won’t be buying it, they won’t be making money, which means they won’t be selling them anymore.
To lose fat it’s pretty much a two-step process. You have to release the fat from the areas where your body’s storing it so it has to get into your blood stream and then you have to be able to burn that fat as energy to completely get rid of it.
Jim:
And the body just does that where the body wants to do it.
Jayson:
Exactly.
Jim:
That’s why people – it still happens you know. As fitness professionals we are kind of stunned by it, but Jayson and I have both seen it first-hand where we see people who just want to do endless sit-ups and endless crunches and expect to have fat come off from their hips, from there belly and it just doesn’t work like that.
Jayson:
And when you think of it, doing endless crunches all you’re doing is you’re building muscle. You’re not killing off fat or scraping away fat and disposing of it when you do crunches. You’re just building muscle. So, some of these people will probably have wonderfully developed abdominals under that 3-inch layer of fat. It’s not like this fat just miraculously disappears when you work that muscle area. You’re actually building lean body mass, you’re not necessarily cutting fat off and tossing it away.
Jim:
And another truth that people need to know is that where fat typically comes on first, on your body wherever that may be, your stomach, your butt, your hips, your thighs, shoulders or chest, face, wherever it may be. Correct me if I’m wrong Jayson, but that’s where it typically comes off last. Right?
Jayson:
Yeah. For most people most fat shows up first in the abdominal waist area whether it’s hips, thighs, stomach, love handles. That’s why everyone always says, “Oh well, I haven’t lost any fat or my stomachs still the same, but everyone keeps telling me my face looks thinner.” It’s because your body’s just burning off that area first because that’s what it decided to do and that’s not usually the first area when people get fat deposits. Fat usually deposits in the mid-section area first and it’s usually the last to come off.
Jim:
This isn’t to scare you or to get you down; we just want you to know the truth. We’re not going to be the ones to lie to you and try and sell you some ab contraption and tell you that you can do all these crunches for five minutes a day and you’re going to have 6-pack abs.
Jayson:
Yeah, and strength training is a great way to literally burn fat and get rid of that gut or those extra pounds on your thighs or hips but it’s not strength training in the form of just work on that muscle area. It’s a certain form of interval strength training for the whole body. It’s not, “Here just do leg curls forever and ever and you’re going to have great thighs and butt.” It’s not that type of strength training.
Jim:
That brings us to the other myth that’s out there that a lot of these exercise companies that keep building these elliptical machines or these treadmills and everything else. Listen, if jogging and cardiovascular exercises were the answer everybody would be skinny because everybody’s been jogging and doing walking and everything else. It just hasn’t worked. I mean real quickly Jayson, let’s get into it. People – it almost seems illogical, if I just wanted to lose weight I should just run, or I should just go on the elliptical, I should just sweat and burned some calories. It does kind of make sense logically, but cardio just doesn’t cut it. What is it with cardio? Just real briefly.
Jayson:
Well, one of it is, say you always get on the treadmill at 5 miles an hour for 30 minutes. Well, your body’s going to adapt enough to make that same 5 miles an hour easier at some point. So maybe you burn more calories in the first week then after that you’re burning less calories because your body is more efficient to complete that demand, that stress on the body. So, you have to elevate it, you have to keep increasing these stresses so your body has to keep adapting and just straight plain cardio just isn’t the same.
You talked about if people – if this really worked then we’d have people skinny because yeah you see people walking and running all the time and they’re always overweight and always doing it year after year and nothing changes. There was actually a study done recently that showed people aged 40-75 were instructed to do 60 minutes of aerobic exercise per day for 6-days a week for an entire year. That’s a lot of exercise, 60 minutes each day for 6-days a week so you would have expected, they lost 20, 30, 40, 50 pounds while the findings showed that females subjects fat loss were only 4 pounds for the entire year and men lost 6 ½ pounds of fat over the entire year.
So when you add that up it’s over 300 hours of aerobic activity to lose 6 pounds. Not really time well spent if you ask me.
Jim:
That’s definitely not an efficient way to work out and I’m just going to say real quickly– it’s the high energy, the real metabolic resistant training workouts, not the body building stuff that people have seen in the past. It’s the high energy, metabolic workouts with resistance training. Really the stuff that Jayson talks about in his Metabolic Weight Loss Diet book and the bonuses that come with the books. The 30-day work out plans. Those are the types of workouts that need to be done if you really want to melt fat off of your body. That’s what everyone is shocked when they start doing these types of workouts, the fat just literally melts off because trust me, if you do these types of workouts you’re going to be really, really, winded. There is definitely a cardiovascular component to these workouts.
Jayson:
Well and you’re really stressing the body in regards to making it adapt, so it has to burn a lot of calories to keep up and you’re producing lean body mass which is a metabolically active tissue which is going