Why Do We Get Fat?

We eat food to provide us with energy for day-to-day tasks. When we wish to answer why we get fat, we must first answer the question: why do we eat?

When we analyze the entire process of eating, we realize that our cells do the eating. We put the food in our mouth to have it digested and transported to the cells which need it for energy. So, our cells seek energy from food and eat our food.

In reality, cells only require 2 foods: Sugar and fat. Therefore, our overall health and leanness depend on which fuel the cells burn. 

Thus, if the cells burn greater quantities of fat than sugar, our bodies will no longer store fat. This will help us answer the question, why do we get fat? Before you go on, you should first review ketosis, as it might help you understand the material below.

 The fact that we have been attributing obesity to overeating is all wrong.

A fundamental idea behind obesity is that we get fat because of the number of calories we take in but do not expend. In short, we eat too much but exercise very little. 

However, this does not answer the question, why do we get fat?

And to answer it, we first need to analyze why we overeat. 

The explanation is simple; we overeat because we have an underlying disorder that prevents the regulation of fatty tissue.

Simply put, we overeat because our hormones and insulin accumulate all the fat in our body tissues. By decreasing insulin levels, we can liberate all this fat so that the cells burn that fat for fuel.

So how do we control insulin levels?

Simple: by reducing the carbohydrates we eat. This will force our cells to seek other fuel sources, namely fats. 

The greater the number of carbs we consume (and the sweeter and denser they happen to be), the more insulin would be secreted.  

So all these years, we have been reaching out for the wrong foods, which only make us fatter.

Research has now shown that people who consume more fats per day while eliminating carbohydrates tend to lose weight which they have been finding hard to lose.

So, steaks, sour cream, cheese, and butter can help us lose weight!

Diets that ask you to “eat less and exercise more” make little sense: they only make matters worse by making us hungrier. More and more doctors advise bariatric surgery to help people lose weight by altering their digestive system.

The same is true for all those trying to lose weight:  

There is no need to count calories, nor is there a need to cut calories. The need is to cut down on carbohydrates drastically.

Fat storage: A vicious cycle

Thus, the explanation for why we get fat is because of sugar from carbohydrates. Our body weight has very little to do with the total amount of food we eat. However, fat storage and its removal are linked to Glucagon and Insulin.

While we cannot control fat metabolism, we can treat food as if it were a drug, taking it only as prescribed. 

This means that we must lower our insulin levels by reducing the amount of sugar and carbs consumed.

Our food is mainly made of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. However, 90% of our diet is typically carbs. Most of us do not get adequate proteins or healthy fats, which are extremely necessary to lower insulin. 

As a result of eating carbohydrates, we tend to increase our blood sugar levels which, in turn, increase our insulin. 

Higher levels of insulin mobilize the sugar into muscles for burning as fuel. Excess sugar is stored in the fatty tissues.

When insulin levels remain chronically high, the body becomes a fat-storing machine. When the body becomes a fat-storing machine, the energy we get from consuming food tends to keep on getting stored with only little energy left behind for daily activities. The result is we feel very tired and drained and in no mood for exercise. This makes fat storage a vicious cycle.

Thin people tend to exercise more because they are thin; they are not thin because they exercise. Unfortunately, we have been drilled with so many wrong principles regarding why we get fat that we have this metabolic cause and effect backward.

The bad effects of carbohydrates

Let us assume that we eat plenty of what we believe to be good carbohydrates.  Even these so-called good carbs get ultimately converted into sugar. So our blood sugar levels are rising and are always elevated.

During the daytime, our body is also continuously producing insulin–therefore, it now has high sugar and insulin levels. At the same time, the body does its hormonal balancing act with the insulin busily, storing much of the food as fat.

Naturally, we tend to feel very tired and in no mood to exercise. Still, we force ourselves, which further depletes our energy levels and calories so that we feel hungrier.

After a few hours of sleep, the blood sugar levels go down at night.  However, by midnight, the body again needs sugar to keep our brain functioning.

However, the insulin levels are low, and production is also off for the night. So the body proceeds to the sister hormone of insulin- glucagon. This, in turn, knocks on the body’s fat cells to give energy.

Thus, insulin is low, glucagon is high, and the body becomes an ideal fat-burning machine at night.

However, when we wake up, we start the day by eating carbs-cereals, toast, sugary coffee, etc. So, we again start losing the battle of the bulge and do not win back enough at night.  

This see-saw action of the body of balancing insulin and glucagon continues throughout. Imagine what a few years of chronically elevated insulin levels will do: we will put on 20-30 pounds in a few years.

Therefore the secret to weight loss is to eat more proteins and fats and only eat a limited number of carbs enough to give us energy. Some people would naturally need to drastically reduce their carb intake, while others might need only a few adjustments to take off the final few pounds.

In conclusion

We get fat because of carbohydrates and not because of overeating or lack of exercise. So, we must watch our ultimate carbohydrate consumption to achieve an ideal weight. This is where the ketogenic, low-carb diet comes into the picture. The good news regarding this best weight loss diet is that one need not limit one’s food intake; on the contrary, we can continue to enjoy food and not go hungry.