Kind: captions
Language: en
there are many people who sleep you know
eight to nine hours and they wake up
feeling like
straight up you know hot garbage you
know what I'm saying and they're just
wondering why it's because
this particular topic
is and me being a nutritionist like I
was all like Food Matters food first
food is the most important thing but in
my practice and seeing people coming in
that you know we've got these folks over
here you know 80 percent of the time are
able to reverse type 2 diabetes heart
disease get off their lisinoprils and
all this different stuff and then we've
got this category of people who just
like literally sometimes would
ironically kind of keep me up at night
like what is wrong like I'm doing all
these things right are they lying to me
and then it wasn't until I started to
ask people about their sleep that it
just like it changed everything and this
was about six years ago and so
then and here's the key
I can't just tell people they need to
sleep more you know this like people
don't want to change that much like we
want change but we want to be a little
bit right and so I found clinically
proven strategies that are super easy to
implement almost things that can happen
on automatic to help them improve their
Sleep Quality right and once we did that
it's like the floodgates would open for
people you know I've been struggling for
sometimes you know 15 20 years with
their weight finally the weight comes
off you know and seeing people
struggling with heart disease or high
cholesterol you know the so-called bad
cholesterol
um and seeing those numbers finally get
regulated once we got their sleep
optimized and I knew that this was
incredibly important part of the
conversation that was left out and as
we'll talk about I know now that our
Sleep Quality is more important than our
diet and exercise combined and what it
does for our health and also literally
our physical appearance
fascinating stuff how much more fat you
lose when you get optimal sleep it's
it's insane that's a bold statement so
walk me through what are some of the um
that just core benefits that I'm going
to get assuming that I'm sleeping
sub-optimally like why is that a problem
since that's probably one of the most
celebrated like things like when you get
a little sleep people like Champion you
normally I'd sleep five to six hours a
night with no alarm okay I haven't set
an alarm in 15 years so that's just that
was my cycle
um I go to bed early very consistently
my diet is on point my exercise is on
point and so I'd wake up feeling awesome
and so I thought this is cash money but
because I don't set an alarm that my
sleep cycle will change and right now
I'm getting like seven to nine hours out
of nowhere and super consistently and I
literally have no idea why I'm warmer
now so I used to be freezing cold at all
times and then at the same time that my
and I don't know correlated causative no
idea
um I've started being warmer while I
sleep and then during the day so what
are like the core components of sleep
was something bad happening to me or
less than optimal when I was only
getting six hours even though I felt
good
um any correlation between the Heat and
the extra sleep there's there's for
there's a lot to impact there number one
uh what's so interesting is that you you
were doing something exceptionally right
as far as what the research shows with
improving your sleep which is you're
going to bed kind of consistently a
little bit earlier than other folks
might and so what we're called what we
call this is this anabolic window or
what we call Money time sleep and this
is generally between the hours of Tim
and two because it's more lined up with
their natural melatonin secretion so if
you go to sleep during those times you
actually spend more time in the deepest
most anabolic stages of sleep and you
tend to produce more human growth
hormone than other folks so you were
already winning with that this is why
you have a tendency to feel better even
if you're getting less sleep because
I this isn't called sleep more right
it's sleep smarter and there are many
people who sleep you know eight to nine
hours and they wake up feeling like
straight up you know hot garbage you
know what I'm saying and they're just
wondering why it's because it's the
quality of sleep and when I say quality
of sleep what does that mean let's break
that down so your sleep is regulated by
changes in your in your brain waves it's
really fascinating stuff and we still
don't know really what sleep is trying
to Define sleep is like trying to Define
um you know when Forrest Gump is like
life is like a box of chocolates sleep
is like pretending to be dead we don't
really know right but we do know the
changes that happen in the brain we
cycle from kind of a normal waking state
with with gamma beta we're probably in
beta right now we moved to Alpha Theta
Deltas where the Deep anabolic dreamless
sleep takes place and we need all of
them and there's a certain percentage we
spend in each that helps to rejuvenate
our mind and bodies and if you optimize
certain things you'll do it more
efficiently one of those gear shifts
like if you think about your body like
this kind of manual transmission is
melatonin like people hear about
melatonin's or sleep hormone it just
helps your body to efficiently go
through your sleep cycles and if your
melatonin is suppressed by various
things you know I'll share a couple then
you're not going through those
efficiently and you can wake up feeling
like a pinata after the party The Next
Step even though you're spending all
this time on the mattress so that's
number one
number two there's this interesting
process called thermal regulation
there's a natural drop in your core body
temperature at night to help facilitate
sleep for all of us if things are
running properly but what was
fascinating and I shared a study about
this is that they tested insomniacs and
everyone in this particular clinical
study all had too high body temperature
at night it would not go down
and so what they did was they fit them
with these thermosuits right that lowers
their skin temperature not even their
core temperature just one degree and
virtually eliminated all their symptoms
of insomnia whoa Ambien can't do that
all right and it's as simple as paying
attention to how your body temperature
influences your sleep and so with your
body temperature changing like that it's
kind of feeling more of an insulation
as a result of having more sleep there's
a ton of different things that could be
correlated there so I'm not going to say
that the sleep is a causative Factor but
it's really interesting how your body
does change in accordance to sleep
there's a natural rise in your core body
temperature as the day goes uh as I'm
sorry as the night goes on that helps to
kind of wake you up
um so what I did want to share though
when I said that kind of bold statement
in the beginning
when we're talking about how sleep
influences your body composition I think
everybody needs to know this
there was a this study really blew my
mind and this was done to the University
of Chicago and they took people
and they put them on a calorie
restricted diet kind of typical stuff
again I'm taught in college to see the
impact on weight loss when they're sleep
deprived or getting enough sleep all
right so they put the people on this
particular diet monitor everything one
phase of study they're getting eight and
a half hours of sleep all right and then
they track all their metrics another
phase of the study same exact diet same
exercise they don't change anything else
but now they sleep deprive them and they
take away three hours of sleep so now
they're getting five and a half hours of
sleep versus eight and a half hours of
sleep at the end of the study they found
that when individuals were well rested
they burned 55 more body fat just by
getting more sleep and so the question
is how does this happen melatonin when I
talked about this a little bit earlier
it's not just that it's involved in
sleep it's also involved in fat loss in
this study that was done in the journal
Pioneer research found that melatonin
production helps to increase your body's
mobilization of something called Brown
adipose tissue right this is a type of
fat that burns fat all right the reason
that it's brown is that it has more
mitochondria so it's very energy dense
right these mitochondria just for people
who I'm sure people have heard of this
but it's like these Energy power plants
in your cells that are creating the
energy currency of your body like how
you experience energy the energy
exchange something called ATP
and so when you are producing adequate
melatonin you're producing and
mobilizing adequate amounts of brown
adipose tissue which just puts you in a
metabolically advantaged state all right
but if you're not getting the Melatonin
production which you've got to meet two
requirements number one you need a
biological night
so that means this could actually be
during the day but it's a consistent
cycle of when it gets produced but the
other requirement needs to be met that
you need Darkness your body produces
melatonin exclusively in darkness and so
that's one also how to get how do they
get that body fat change HGH production
which we talked about too human growth
hormone is muscle sparing
it's a big driver of energy it's also
known as a youth hormone kids have an
insane amount of HGH being produced this
is why they have so much energy we have
a pretty sharp decline in our production
right around 18 to 20. but my argument
is that around 18 to 20 we generally in
our culture like we leave the house we
might go to college that kind of thing
and we no longer have structure we no
longer have rules and we're not going to
produce as much HGH
third thing really quickly
um is and this is all has to do with the
diet and the food choices is leptin all
right and I know people's talked about
leptin before but leptin is your body's
kind of glorify satiety hormone and so
when you're producing adequate amounts
of leptin you feel more in control right
you feel more satiated but when when
leptin kind of falls off the map or you
have leptin uh resistance can take place
then we're going to have some pretty big
issues with you regulating your Cravings
your appetite and so Stanford University
researchers found that just one night of
sleep deprivation radically suppresses
your leptin and now I hope folks can
start to pay attention whenever you
might not get the best sleep how your
Cravings change the next day you're
gonna have a tendency to want to number
one eat more number two you want to eat
more kind of the starchy crunchy salty
sugary type things and I remember my
wife who's actually here uh when we had
our son and I she she's never seen me
eat this food I was sitting there like
waiting for the baby to come I was
eating chocolate covered raisins I'm
just like and I didn't even realize I
was doing it you know it was like three
o'clock in the morning you know and so
that's another thing and uh last one
I'll share and there's so many that
create that change in your body
composition
but this one is incredibly important
is cortisol cortisol has been drugged
through the mud recently you know it's
getting blank for everything but it's
not really a bad guy it's just
misunderstood right cortisol is
incredibly important for example
cortisol is important for your thyroid
to work right and that's kind of like
the metabolism regulator of your body
but here's the thing
just one night of sleep deprivation
radically increases your cortisol and
suppresses melatonin actually as well
but this rise in cortisol has a really
powerful ability to start to break down
your muscle tissue which your muscles
your body's kind of fat burning
machinery and so it can convert your
muscle tissue into glucose it's a
process called gluconeogenesis
as a kind of fight or flight response
because your physiology doesn't know why
you're not sleeping you know it must be
some danger about you know and so
understanding those major hormones and
there's many others you start to see the
picture that gets painted with just how
much your seed quality impacts your
physical appearance
really crazy I've always known you need
sleep but I didn't know why and so
getting into or transitioning I should
say because I always knew you needed
sleep because if I didn't get it I felt
terrible but that was sort of the the
end of it and I even let myself just
stop at that we don't really know why
you sleep but not diving into to the
real breakdown which is really
fascinating so what are things then that
people can do to actually optimize their
sleep yeah this is what it's really all
about
you know I like to start with the low
hanging fruit first
um and something really really
fascinating is just simply
changing or embracing the time of day
that you exercise can improve your sleep
quality and so Appalachian State
University did a really cool study and
they wanted to see what time of day
exercising various times a day how does
it impact Your Sleep Quality and so they
had the study participants to exercise
exclusively at 7 A.M and another phase
exclusively at 1 pm in the afternoon
another phase exclusively at 7 pm in the
evening they compiled all the data and
at the end of the study they found that
morning exercisers spend more time in
the deepest most anabolic stages of
sleep so they're producing more human
growth hormone they have more efficient
sleep cycles what we've been talking
about
they also tend to sleep longer and this
is the one that kind of can get glass
past
on average they had about a 25 greater
drop in blood pressure at night
so what's what's up with that that's
correlated with a deactivation of your
sympathetic fight-or-flight nervous
system right so you're actually able to
shift gears get to that parasympathetic
rest and digest calming down by getting
some exercise in in the morning
and so how do we employ this though
that's the question because some people
just like you know I can't exercise in
the morning and there's also people who
exercise in the morning who might have
terrible sleep
and it's because this is not like the
Magic Bullet this is a thing to stacking
your condition if you're doing this and
then messing up the one I'm going to
talk about next you're probably not
gonna have the best sleep so
here's how to employ this just five
minutes
and I tested this each morning I do this
five minutes of exercise you know it
might be just jumping on a rebounder you
know a little mini trampoline for five
minutes go for a quick power walk do
some Tabata which is just four minutes
and a little Mobility work and I guess
most people don't know what Tabata is
high intensity interval training
basically it's 20 seconds of exercise
followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated
over and over again for four minutes
and in his clinical studies this was
found to outperform
you know traditional cardio like the
kind of moderate intensity 45 minutes of
exercise in four minutes wow the change
in your cardiovascular benefits body
composition and also changing your
mitochondria as well this is why it
works it does something called a
cortisol reset all right and we talked
about cortisol but again it's a good
thing if it's in the right time and the
right amounts
clinically I would call these people
tired and wired that would come in and
looking at the hormone panels and the
cortisol would be really low in the
morning and high at night thus they have
sleep problems
so you naturally if you're if your
cortisol is on a natural hormone Rhythm
it would be elevated at its peak in the
morning right around 6 a.m to 8 A.M and
then gradually decline as the day goes
does that have to do with what time you
wake up
sort of I mean the cortisol will kind of
tend to nudge you out of sleep but also
we'll tend to notice that as the day is
it your sleep goes on it becomes lighter
and lighter anyways right this is when
you tend to remember your dreams like at
the at the end of the sleep
and so
getting this little boost like helping
your body to propel and get your
cortisol up via exercise helps to reset
that Rhythm and get you back on track so
that's why it works so that's number one
low hanging fruit just get in five
minutes of exercise start in the morning
no matter what just five minutes that's
all you need is going to help to create
this Snowball Effect of good things for
you you know five minutes if this is the
time you do go to the gym and do your
full workout so be it all good but
everybody who's not already doing that
just get that five minutes in the second
one and this one is more of the tough
love and the most difficult but this is
the most important one in our culture
today and this has to do with our Tech
all right so Harvard researchers have
confirmed that blue light exposure from
our favorite devices you know our iPads
or iPhones
Androids tablets televisions they do in
fact suppress your melatonin
substantially because it your body
essentially thinks the sun's out is that
the problem so we have photoreceptors
that are always trying to gauge time it
is right because our bodies are wired up
to be in sync with nature but only
recently like literally just the past
few decades have we been able to
manipulate and basically create a second
daytime right so your body's just it
doesn't really know how to figure it out
and so the blue and white Spectrum
specifically are the ones that are more
similar to Daylight and so what it's
doing is and so here's what the
researchers found basically
every hour you're on your device at
night suppresses melatonin for about 30
minutes all right so if you're on your
you know you watch a movie three hour
movie for example
your melatonin is going to be suppressed
even if you go to bed right after you're
not producing adequate melatonin for
about an hour and a half and so again
you can be unconscious from sheer
physical exhaustion but you're not going
to go through your sleep cycles
efficiently and so just be mindful of
that what I encourage people to do is to
give yourself a screen curfew just 30
minutes all right I don't want to make
this complicated just 30 minutes but
here's the rub
we are addicted to our devices like
straight up we just need to be on I am
we all are you know basically it's
because of this dopamine Loop right
dopamine is so powerful so interesting
dopamine is one of the things I truly
feel has helped to create our
civilization as it is because it drives
us to seek right dopamine drives us to
to seek and and to grow and to find to
discover the internet is perfect for
manipulating this because every time you
look for something you find something
especially social media you seek fine
seek fine you produce the dopamine that
drives you to look but why do you keep
going is every time you find something
you get a little bit of a hit from your
opioid system like it's like this slow
drip I have morphine and so it starts to
like feel really good and to the point
where you might be doing your work and
like you've got a deadline and you'll
just you know like I check Instagram
real quick before you know it's like 30
minutes later and you fall into the
internet black hole it's like it just
pulls you in so be aware of that I'm not
saying again our connection with tech is
just going to grow so I'm not bashing
that it's just be aware of it and that
when you try to abide by this principle
which will really really help Your Sleep
Quality to give yourself a screen curfew
you can't just sit there and twiddle
your thumbs because you'll get what I
call the internet Jitters all right
you'll start getting like a little bit
of a withdrawal effect like
let me just check one just one one post
what we have to do is this you have to
replace it with something of greater or
equal value it's really that simple
hopefully it's what I encourage people
to do this is an opportunity to connect
right connect with your significant
other your kids the people like physical
like have a real conversation with
somebody right I know it sounds crazy
but it really works it's really really
good
and also this is a great opportunity if
you you know if you're in a relationship
or not whatever you're into you could
you know uh utilize and I have a chapter
on this as well intimate time because
there's a big connection between sex and
sleep and there's also a big connection
between sleep and sex and how it impacts
your sex life and so when we have an
orgasm for example we produce a chemical
I'm sorry cocktail of chemicals
including oxytocin uh norepinephrine
prolactin and oxytocin for example has
been found clinically to basically
combat the effects of cortisol and
hopefully sex is more interesting than
Instagram but you know I don't know it
depends on how you're doing it and so
that's what I want people to do a screen
curfew and or use these hacks utilize
some blue light blocker blockers and so
for your desktops laptops things like
that you get an app called flux that
pulls out the most Troublesome sleep
sucking spectrum of light from your
screen it basically cools your screen
off and it's a simple app you set it and
forget it it's totally free just go to
Dr Google type in f.lux and a couple
clicks and it's on your device I've been
using it for maybe five or six years I
love it and uh for your uh telephone you
know your cell phone we've got on the
iPhones built in now is night shift uh
with Androids the best one out there uh
from my research is one called Twilight
you know so there's options for
everybody then what about the ambient
light at night or if you're watching a
movie again I don't want to get don't
get too neurotic about it but if this is
a problem for you and you're not
sleeping as well as you could be or your
results your body composition are
changing you're not getting that blood
pressure down you're not having that
Focus you need through the day then you
might want to address this but
another little hack is to get some blue
light blocking glasses the first ones I
had was straight up like I just built
the birdhouse but now there's some
really cool stylish ones that you can
rock as a matter of fact you'll create a
neural Association when you put the
glasses on and you'll start to get
sleepy you know it's nuts and that is
another thing right there is to create
an evening ritual right your brain is
always looking for patterns a lot of
successful people especially listening
to the things that you're putting out
there have a success ritual in the
morning but a great morning starts the
night before you know a truly great
morning
and so
a couple of quick things people can do
is the thermoregulation piece turn down
your thermostat all right now this one's
again this is going to hit a pressure
point for some people but according to
research between 62 and 68 degrees
Fahrenheit is ideal for sleep and so for
some people it's going to sound a little
bit Frosty but lowering the thermostat a
little bit can increase have incredible
benefit uh for your sleep but this
doesn't mean you can't use your covers
and put on some warm socks that kind of
thing so cooling off this thermostat
making sure that your bedroom ideally I
call it a sleep sanctuary and so that
when you walk into your bedroom at night
if your brain has a neural Association
when I go into my bedroom I'm watching
television or I'm working those channels
are going to fire because of the myelin
getting laid down over the years of you
doing that behavior or even months it
can get laid down what is up my friend
Tom bilyu here and I have a big question
to ask you how would you rate your level
of personal discipline on a scale of one
to ten if your answer is anything less
than a 10. I've got something cool for
you and let me tell you right now
discipline by its very nature means
compelling yourself to do difficult
things that are stressful boring which
is what kills most people or possibly
scary or even painful now here is the
thing achieving huge goals and
stretching to reach your potential
requires you to do those challenging
stressful things and to stick with them
even when it gets boring and it will get
boring building your levels of personal
discipline is not easy but let me tell
you it pays off in fact I will tell you
you're never going to achieve anything
meaningful unless you develop discipline
all right I've just released a class
from Impact Theory university called how
to build Ironclad discipline that
teaches you the process of building
yourself up in this area so that you can
push yourself to do the hard things that
greatness is going to require of you
right click the link on the screen
register for this class right now and
let's get to work I will see you inside
this Workshop from Impact Theory
University until that my friends be
legendary peace out
and so you might have the intention of
going to bed but if your TV's in there
your brain is going to be firing
expecting to watch television and parts
of your brain will be waking up in a way
and so
I encourage people to get the tech out
of your room have your sleep have your
bedroom be a sleep Sanctuary you know or
some place that's just for the the
double s which is sleep and sex here's
also a really interesting reason why
there's an Italian study done they found
that couples who have a television in
their bedroom have 50 less sex really
yeah yeah that's interesting and you
know this is a little bit more
middle-aged little past middle age the
people in the study but and I know some
people like that's not true I have sex
all the time you probably do it in a
snowstorm like it doesn't matter where
you are like you're a human rabbit it
doesn't matter but for other people it's
like a distraction right it's a
distraction and it can also you know
um create all of those kind of chemical
soup issues that we've been talking
about with elevating cortisol and those
kind of things so I ideally get your
television out of the room uh the other
Tech and last thing with the Sleep
environment I'll share when I talked
about melatonin needles two conditions
biological night
and you also need a dark environment and
so if you're in an environment where
you're maybe in a Suburban or city
environment where there's like neighbors
porch lights coming in there's LEDs
outside cars coming up and down the
street
as crazy as this sounds that that small
amount of light where we're now dubbing
light pollution
can have a significant impact on your
sleep quality and here's here's why we
know this Cornell University I think did
the best study on this and they took a
test subject and had them sleep in an
otherwise dark room and they took a
light a fiber optic cable and a light
the size of a quarter and put it behind
their knee and that was enough to
disrupt their sleep cycle because your
skin also has photoreceptors that is
sending information to your brain your
nervous system your internal organs to
try to tell your body what time it is is
trying to figure it out
you know so we want to get rid of that
artificial light exposure
now does this mean Moonlight and stars
no humans have evolved with those things
in their Lux like I actually put a lux
chart in the book it's so small compared
to even the weakest fluorescent bulbs
and so get yourself some blackout
curtains if that external light is an
issue internal light you know your alarm
clocks and you know light you know lamps
you know some people still are sleeping
with their lights on and things like
that be mindful of that and also what
you can do is just change the bulb color
you know if you still have issues with
the dark which some adults do and that's
okay
um
you can change the bulb cover color and
I actually had some NASA scientists or
people that work with them to send me
some different bulbs because folks in
space they don't have that biological
clock and so they would experience all
these different health challenges and
they had to try to figure it out they
knew that it was an issue with their
sleep and so they start to give them
different bulbs for different times of
day in a way you know even though
they're in outer space
so it's really cool what you can do with
these little hacks but bottom line is
you want to have a dark cycle so you can
produce melatonin and you know those are
just a few those are just a few of the
different things people can do
it's really interesting because you've
talked about how
um like the light behind the knee it's
you've got these photoreceptors and
they're communicating there's a lot of
signaling going on
you've said that the brain makes the
body and then you've also said that food
is data talk to me about what do you
mean by food is data I think that's a
pretty powerful concept yeah definitely
this was a big game changer for me early
on when I realized that you know food
the food that I was eating wasn't just
food it was information and every single
bite of food that I was eating and this
is something I've been studying now for
over 10 years I
absolutely love this is something called
nutrigenomics and it's a study looking
at how every single molecule of food
that you eat impacts your genetic
expression
food is that powerful you know in
several other epigenetic factors like
sleep which might be the biggest
epigenetic influence
you get to choose what kind of copies
are being made of you you know your
genes are basically blueprint to print
out certain copies and there's upwards
of like 4 000 different variations that
one gene can do and you get to have a
big role a big part in how those genes
are getting expressed so understanding
that when we eat you know a particular
food it isn't just I'm just eating this
thing it's setting off a Cascade of
events
and it's incredibly empowering but also
it can be really sobering and again I
don't want to get people into the
neurotic State because I've been there
but it's more like
the majority of what we want to do is
things that are hormone healthy things
that are healthy for your DNA things
that are healthy for your genetic
expression because you know you again
you have a big influence on that and so
you know early on really kind of having
that that light bulb go off it really
empowered me to start
making food decisions that can help me
because you know if you really think
about this
I had the spine of an eight-year-old man
when I was 20 years old
I'm in some ways I'm like Benjamin
Button all right like I'm aging
backwards you know have you guys talked
about telomeres yet on the show now so
telomeres are basically
the most
the most valuable asset that we have
currently
to basically tell us how long we're
going to live all right and so what do I
mean by that your telomeres are like
these little the eaglets at the end of
your shoestrings that keep your your
shoestrings from unraveling that's kind
of like how telomeres work they're the
end caps uh at the end of your
chromosomes and as life goes on your
cells divide and those uh they keep
getting clicked clipped off those
telomeres get clipped off shorter and
shorter to the point where your DNA
basically unravels right and so
the crazy thing is that
sleep your your sleep
Spectrum you know whether you're getting
high quality sleep or sleep deprived
could be the biggest influence on your
telomere length all right so literally
aging you faster when you're sleep
deprived so because you know when we're
younger we're like
sleep three hours whatever it's no big
deal and you can quote get away with it
and you can but what you're doing is
accelerating your aging process I know
that when this was happening even before
I got the diagnosis
his sleep just wasn't like I wasn't
something I thought about you know and
so I was accelerating my aging process
little did I know another huge player in
that is the information that we put into
our body you know the food and the water
and also a big player is our environment
you know our relationships the people
around us
and if you were to ask me you know sleep
is the is more powerful than exercise
and nutrition combined on your physical
appearance and your health
but your relationships are the biggest
governing for us over all of it
because that is the most influential
thing on the decision you make with your
sleep on the decision you make with the
food that you eat on the decisions you
make on whether or not you're exercising
or when and how you do it you know so
it's incredibly important to be mindful
of for looking at ways that we can Stave
off the aging process stay young vital
healthy happy
as long as possible we need to be
mindful of all of those things and again
I I don't want to create a neuroses
today but there is a way to go about it
and I think that the foundational piece
is listening to people like you you know
constantly you know every day getting
that daily dose of like getting your
mind right getting your inner game
together and immersing yourself in
information like this and carry that
with you into the world and do your best
to get around people that are uplifting
you that are supporting you and you
being the person that you want to become
this cookie cutter system of nutrition
has not is not really given us good
results if we just look at what's
happening with our society a big part of
that as you mentioned when I went to
school I went to a nice private
university very expensive they had a
great pre-med track and I took a
nutritional science class which was an
elective I didn't have to take it and I
thought nutrition had to do with Fitness
right so I was like okay I'm gonna learn
about about how to be more fit there was
Nuance there because you know I didn't
really understand the difference with
health and fitness and so the very first
day of class the very first day of class
he said that if you want to control your
body composition all you have to do is
control calories if you want to control
your health we just need to manage
calories were the tip of the spear it
was the thing that we were taught if we
can regulate this thing this entity then
we can regulate our health
now the big problem is kind of
manifested in culture is that there's
actually these epic caloric controllers
right sort of like epigenetics right
there's things that are above genetic
control now we know there are things
above caloric control that actually
control what calories do in our bodies
which gets back to our unique metabolic
fingerprint in a moment but getting that
from my professor by the way sidebar
my professor was borderline obese
himself and he was an incredibly
brilliant man and he was doing the
things that he wasn't like secretly
going in like beer bonging like
Three Musketeers or whatever like he was
teaching us at the time it was the food
pyramid right seven to eleven servings
of whole grains each day should be the
staple the the base of the diet and in
that system of thinking all he did was
he created learned helplessness because
he kept trying to do the thing he was
just like well I just need 14 to 19
servings of whole grains and I'll get it
I just need to cut my calories more and
it wasn't working and what we know today
is that for example I'll give you one of
the the Epic Galore controllers you've
said this before Tom you've heard many
people say this it's not just the
calories it's the quality of the
calories just like with sleep smarter
it's not just the minutes of sleep it's
the quality of those minutes
and so now we've got a really
interesting study this was published in
food and nutrition research and I mapped
this out really well in each martyr
the research want to find out what
happened what happens when you eat a
meal of Whole Foods versus a meal of
processed foods and so they had some
tests subject to consume what they
deemed to be a whole food sandwich which
was multi-grain bread and cheddar cheese
all right now that's of course it's
debatable but now they've got the other
group of test subjects consuming a
processed food sandwich which was white
bread and cheese product and some folks
might be like what the hell is cheese
product that's what craft is craft
singles they can't legally call it Kraft
cheese because there's not enough cheese
in the cheese but as I digress so
anyways here's the most important part
of this story
the sandwiches are the exact same amount
of calories the whole food version and
the processed food version
same amount of fats carbohydrates and
proteins on paper same sandwich it
should have the same Metabolic Effect
according to the calories and calories
out model but here's what happened
after compiling the data the folks who
ate the processed food sandwich had a 50
reduction in calorie burn after eating
that meal versus the people who ate the
whole food version all right so I'm
going to pause it there why how did they
determine burn right yeah so this is a
great example a little sidebar for
everybody to understand the pathway of
fat leaving your body or what we call
this caloric expenditure
so that's one of the things we're
demystifying and he's smart is like
where the hell does fat go where does
fat go when you lose it where does this
quote burn process happen so number one
we've got
when we're thinking about like
eliminating fat we're not we can't
indiscriminately kill a fat cell itself
when you're born you have about the same
amount of fat cells that you have today
uh what happens is the fat cells
themselves get filled with contents
right in the form of these energy
packets like triglycerides and what
we're doing by the way your fat cells
can swell up and they can become a
hundred times their their size their
original size so it's it's crazy what
fat cells can do and so what we're what
the goal is when we're talking about
cold fat loss is getting the fat cell to
number one open to release its contents
then it needs to get shuttled to its end
station which primarily the mitochondria
to actually be burned at this metabolic
power plant and it gives off this ATP
gives off energy but what they
discovered was that about 84 of the fat
that we lose is via carbon dioxide when
we breathe out so as you describe the
sandwich so first of all the mildly
processed sandwich because even cheese
is obviously processed food
does not strike me as the ideal
barometer for whether this is accurate
so it's interesting that they're still
pretty staggering results between
mildly processed and extremely processed
and then what is your prediction if they
were to do that with like the Sean
Stevenson prescribed whole food diet
would that reduction in burn from where
you're at with a true real optimized
whole food diet be even more even better
yes exactly that's the point that's the
point but that's getting back to what
are your genes expecting you to eat
because the further we get kind of
mutated and away from the the origin of
a food the more complex it becomes for
our
for ourselves to really recognize how to
use that food which created these what I
call these hormonal clogs so this is why
there was this reduction in energy
expenditure post eating that sandwich
basically their hormones their their
tissues became much more stingy and
hanging on to that caloric energy and
fat cells not opening up
so that's number one they and this is
this is the part of the Nuance like we
can't identify the study doesn't
identify right where is the clog
happening but we know it's happening and
I would argue that it's happening
throughout the entire process right the
fat cell being able to have its
intelligence to do its job correctly
because another thing even if the fat
cell releases contents
it can get reabsorbed somewhere else so
it needs to get to its end destination
and then the process of metabolism with
the mitochondria the mitochondria have
to be healthy and doing their job you
know and so so many pieces along this
process can become
uh can become damaged you know and
here's a great thing about us as humans
we're very resilient like your body can
sort itself if you just look at us like
just look at what the body is able to
take how unhealthy we can be and still
be kicking you know but also just
imagine
how good things can get as well you know
when we give our giving our bodies the
right thing so our bodies are always
seeking to get back into homeostasis
it's always looking for that but it's
also very resilient at helping you to
survive and one of the things that I
really want to bring forward as well in
this conversation of fat because again I
didn't know we would talk about this but
in our culture we're trying to kill fat
we're trying to get rid of fat we're we
have over 200 million people in our
country are overweight obese right now
and right now we have 43 of our citizens
are clinically obese
moving towards 50 half of our population
within the next couple of years it's
insane and I think you come from a
similar circumstance in my family just
say I got 30 close family members 28 of
them were obese growing up for sure and
these are this doesn't mean that they're
bad people it doesn't mean that they're
not trying it doesn't mean that they
want to be obese it's just the nature of
the environment that we're in and not
really knowing how metabolism works and
so this idea of indiscriminately killing
fat we have to do away with that because
our body fat is actually it's pretty
amazing it's actually doing what it's
designed to do it's what's enabled us as
humans to evolve and get to this point
because it was this incredibly
incredibly intelligent energy storage
system during times when things were a
little bit leaner and the problem is we
we don't have any lean times anymore at
all so you were a clinician for 10 years
I find your approach to talking about
fat right now very revealing and I'm
interested to know why you take it so uh
you're being very kind
um
as a clinician
have you learned that you have to have a
level of kindness to get people to start
doing the right things like why lead
with that instead of just saying like
because your book ends with a
prescription you tell people go do this
and look at you cage it a thousand
different ways or you know hedge your
bet saying that I don't like to
prescribe things like everybody's
different
um why are you leading with kindness
when you talk about fat
oh man I love you this is why I love
talking with you you know it it I it is
very intentional you know I don't come
from very kind circumstances you know
like when I was in college and figuring
all this stuff out I lived in Ferguson
Missouri you know and I lived in uh
apartment complex sleeping on a mattress
on the floor I never met anybody who
went to college let alone graduated
except maybe professors or something
like that but you know just from the
environment that I was in man I was
inundated with poor health and violence
you know and even myself I was kicked
out of high school my entire junior year
of fighting I got kicked out of that
same private university that I mentioned
that you know I went to in the first
place I got kicked out of that school
for fighting who does that who goes to
college and kicks kicked out for
fighting I just grew up in an
environment where we're taught to solve
our conflicts with violence
and so I I say that to say part of it is
I believe that humans are inherently
good and but we are also products of our
of our environment of our environment
but we're creators of our environment as
well when we become aware of it and so
once I change it that started changing
the inputs I was putting into my body I
didn't just become physically healthier
my my thoughts changed you know my
perception of reality and I came across
this quote from Einstein very early on
and I mentioned it towards the end of
the book that the most fundamental
decision that we make is whether we live
in a friendly or a hostile Universe I
love that quote so much man like I get
the chills right now because I look I
lived in what seemed like a hostile
situation and I just started to see
beauty everywhere man I start to see
potential everywhere I start to see the
goodness in people because we're all
just trying to get our needs met and
seeing in my clinical practice nine
times out of ten the people making it to
me they had been they weren't treated
with kindness and so I started to lead
with that and see people open up just
when I let them talk and here's a big
tip for the coaches out there if you let
somebody talk if you just ask them
questions they will tell you the cause
and cure of what's going on with them
they already know
but we have to have the patience and the
kindness to do those things and also
knowing that
oftentimes even though they were making
the decision to put the food in their
mouth yes
I'm coming from a place where I didn't
know that there was a difference I just
didn't know as soon as I got access
I started to make better choices now you
didn't know what but there was a
difference in the foods that you were
eating like the quality of calories
exactly yeah I didn't know that there
was a difference between a fish stick
and you know wild caught salmon it's
just food it's just stuff that we eat
and we're just trying to survive
you know let alone thinking about
thriving and cognitive performance and
all this stuff we're just trying to get
by you know but once I became aware of
how much food mattered
that's part one the awareness but part
two is also the accessibility I had to
take myself outside of my environment
um and actually you know go to you know
Mao on the other side of town to a Wild
Oats you know like I had to make
exceptional decisions to make those
things happen but investing back in
myself paid off dividends but most folks
don't even know that that first part is
an option to begin with so we're leading
with kindness we're I'm assuming
lowering people's defenses we want to
avoid the morality of food I know online
you always avoid sort of BS
um you talk a lot about not getting
involved in arguments over minutia and
staying like hey let's look at the sort
of big swaths of what's actually going
to make progress Okay cool so we're
being kind we're I'm assuming we're
encouraging people to be kind to
themselves this is not a moral failing
if you find yourself unhealthy what this
is is some fundamental misunderstanding
but you just said the people if you let
them talk they'll actually tell you what
to what the fix is so if they know what
the fix is why aren't they doing it
this is a great question for me there's
two parts part one is the education and
this is huge and you're a big proponent
of this because you might know that
there's an issue with something but you
might not be educated on why that is and
also what to do about it right and so in
the instance of food I mentioned a
little bit briefly about my
indoctrination in my first nutritional
science class which again my professor
meant well but he was teaching me
something that was fundamentally flawed
because it ignores the fact that your
body is made of food all right
my my colleagues I know the top
cardiologists in the world top
gastroenterologists top neurologists the
list goes on and on they might go to
school for 12 years to become a
cardiologist and learn about food for
two weeks and your heart is made of
[ __ ] food this is the problem like
you don't even know what the thing is
made of that you're treating and then
we're treating the dysfunction with the
drug right you've got lisinopril you've
got statins you're not understanding
your heart is made from food the blood
running through your arteries is made
from food the arteries themselves are
made from food so the system itself is
fundamentally flawed so again people
coming in they might be aware that yeah
I need to change what I'm eating I know
that but they're so far removed from
understanding how powerful it is and
what to do about it because of the
cookie cutter stuff that again my
colleague might get get two weeks of
training in which is like a low-fat diet
plenty of fiber all this really
superficial BS and then they're telling
their patients you need to lose weight
how how
like and so often and I talk about this
in the book our system of Health Care
has been treating the healthcare
professionals so poorly it's a badge of
honor to absolutely destroy yourself in
medical school and then try to pull
yourself out of it you know and just so
you see the high rates of suicide
depression anxiety obesity dying from
the very same things that they're
treating
the system is flawed and it's
fundamentally because it's not
appreciated the fact that we as I'm
seeing Tom right now and as he's seeing
me we're seeing the food that we've
eaten it's remarkable that's really well
said okay so I'm gonna start
um
putting my finger on some of the things
that I think end up causing people
problems this is obviously a world I'm
extraordinarily familiar with so put
somebody on a low enough calorie diet no
matter what those calories are comprised
of I could give somebody a Twinkie with
arsenic on it and if it is low enough in
calories over time if the Arsenic
doesn't kill them they're going to lose
weight they're going to lose fat on top
of a whole host of other problems but
like
what do you say to that Sean Stevenson
oh this is good and there's actually a
professor who did the Tweaky diet yes he
did the twinkie experiment you know just
like see I told you guys it's just the
calories
now here's some of the fundamental
issues with that because anybody who's
just as even as remotely versed in
nutrition and just fundamentals of
health because again our system of
medicine just focuses on disease not
what creates real Health but like what
is this impact that it's having on your
neurotransmitters this Twinkie diet what
is it doing to your pancreas what are
you making your heart cells out of right
what is the long-term ramifications of
of a dire protocol like that and so
here's the the term that I again
impressing upon culture is epic caloric
control we mentioned the quality of food
brie