Video Transcript
Rohn Rigby: Hi! I'm doctor Rohn Rigby. Welcome to the Ogden Clinic medical weight loss clinic.
Sheryl Bingham: Today we want to talk about our approach to weight loss. We want to talk about some key factors and some of the internal processes that are happening inside our bodies in regards to weight loss.
Understanding Insulin
Sheryl Bingham: One of the key players in weight loss is the hormone Insulin. Insulin is a growth hormone. It helps us build and grow. It's also really affected by what we eat. When we eat, we've got our carbohydrates or proteins and fat.
They get broken down into our body and absorbed as either sugar, Amino acids or fatty acid. They can't stay there in the body, the body can't keep them there, so we need to get them into the cell. The way we do that is Insulin gets secreted and it kind of opens up the doorway. Then the sugar gets moved in the cell and now we can use it for energy.
Rohn Rigby: The cell can use energy in one of three basic ways.
Now it's the ongoing purpose of the cell.
Two, the glycogen or the stored energy—I look at it as the food in the pantry of the refrigerator: out of sight but with easy access.
Three, food storage or the fat that usually down in the basement: out of sight out of mind only for an extreme emergency.
The hormone Insulin which is produced by the pancreas goes and helps regulate the amount of sugar in our bloodstream.
Sheryl Bingham: The body can really only process about one teaspoon of sugar. If we draw blood and there's two teaspoons of sugar in there, that's full-blown diabetes. Obviously, we all eat more than one to two teaspoons of sugar. So, to compensate what happens is Insulin gets secreted at higher and higher levels.
Rohn Rigby: Over time, the cells become a little bit more resistance so they don't respond to it. Therefore, your body compensates by making more and more Insulin. We call it, ‘insulin resistance’ or ‘hyperinsulinemia or high levels of Insulin.
The Problem with High Amounts of Insulin
Sheryl Bingham: So, when we're talking about Insulin when we have high levels of insulin, we've got a few problems that can really mess with our cholesterol.
It can mess with inflammation.
It affects our sex hormones.
It can affect our brains.
Think about anxiety, depression, mood disorders and cravings.
Rohn Rigby: High insulin also tells our kidneys to retain salt which now we retain more water, which means more bloating and blood pressure.
The Insulin Response
for Each Macronutrient
When we eat foods, our three macronutrients are carbohydrates proteins and fats. When we absorb it into our gut, those getting out of the bloodstream will affect our Insulin a very different way.
In a typical insulin-sensitive person, when we eat glucose (or carbohydrates), it bumps our insulin up by 6.
When we protein, that is shown to bump our insulin by about 3.
Fats (which we've been told to avoid at all costs) only bump our insulin less than 1.
Sheryl Bingham: What we need to do is take the food pyramid and flip it on its head. So, we more fats, some moderate amount of protein, and non-starchy vegetables.
Energy Systems:
Running on Fat VS Sugar
Sheryl Bingham: Our body has two energy systems. We have the carbohydrate-based system which is really quick stored energy system. The problem with this energy system that short lived. We don't have very much of it so we're constantly hungry and reaching for food. Because we need to refuel.
What about sugar? Sugar is really important. There’re four organs in our bodies that have to have sugar:
Our brain
Our blood vessels
Our kidneys
Our eyes
We have to have the sugar. Our body knows how important is that it makes it itself. We've all heard the term of essential amino acids, essential fatty acids. Which means we have to essentially put it into our body, our body doesn't make it.
There's no such thing as essential carbohydrates because our body has a process to break that sugar down so that we can use it for those four vital organs.
If we deplete that energy system, our body will take excess protein, convert it into sugar and break it down for that sugar that those organs need. So, essentially, we don't have to add the carbs in our body.
When Insulin levels are higher, or the cells are really resistant to the sugar and the insulin, cravings get infinitely worse.
When we study mice, they will bypass cocaine to get to sugar. Sugar lights up the pleasure centers in our brains eight times more than cocaine. So, we know that sugar is addictive and sometimes it's really hard to break that cycle. We have sugar cravings, we eat the high carb foods, and then we have more cravings. It's this big cycle.
Ketones: The Body’s Alternative Energy Source
Rohn Rigby: Our goal is to try to get less sugar into the bloodstream to allow that Insulin level to come down. But also help those cells become more sensitive to it. So, that Insulin doesn't affect as much. Another fuel source is ketones or ketone bodies, which are made from fatty acids or we're burning fatty acids as part of your fuel.
We're trying to get to the point where we're not using as much of the sugar and now trying to get your body to burn on these ketones, as that other fuel source.
Sheryl Bingham: We've all heard the term, it's calories in versus calories out. We put quite a bit of emphasis on calories, and calories are important. But they're not as important as I think we made them out to be.
Rohn Rigby: A calorie is a unit of energy. It's the amount of energy, it takes to increase one mL of water, one milliliter of water, one degree Celsius and a man-made machine called, ‘bomb calorimeter’.
Sheryl Bingham: The problem with this calculation is it doesn't take into account our individual factors. Such as our genetics, or hormones, or environment.
When at the end of the day, I can eat 1,500 calories of simple carbohydrates: sugars, rice, pasta, cereal. Or, same amount of calories, but maybe now I'm going to have some salmon, broccoli and butter. One is going to my insulin, the other ones going to keep it nice and neutral. So, same amount of calories but a totally different process in my body.
Your Initial Visit at Our Weight Loss Clinic (and Beyond)
Rohn Rigby: So, our approach here is to look at your past medical problems. Look for evidence of insulin resistance, and try to give you different techniques how to approach those things. I look at it as four legs of a chair: You’ve got the eating habits; two, the exercise; three, the stress; and four, the sleep.
We're trying to approach that but the biggest thing the eating habits. So, we can help control that because that has the biggest effect on your insulin.
But if we can get that fixed or better controlled now, we can approach those other things help you improve your overall health.
Sheryl Bingham: We're excited to work with you in this weight loss journey.
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