Why Weight Loss Can Be Harmful to Your Health

Yes, you can lose weight by reducing calories whether through a calorie-cutting diet, bariatric procedure, or pharmaceutical. But the effect is almost always temporary and followed by a return of weight followed by significant downturn in health. You were also likely not advised that losing weight by cutting calories, we now know through tracking of large numbers of people over many years, likely abbreviates your life by several years. 

In this and future podcasts, I will be introducing concepts that block these effects, concepts that I shall be exploring in even greater depth in my new book, Super Body. 

**Disclaimer:**
The information presented in my books, blog posts, YouTube videos, podcasts, and other content is for informational and educational purposes only. The content I share should not be interpreted as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult with your personal physician or qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your diet, medication, lifestyle, or healthcare regimen. Your individual health needs should be evaluated by a professional who is familiar with your unique medical history. I am also a co-founder and shareholder in Realize Therapeutics Corp.



My new book is Super Body: A 3-Week Program to Harness the New Science of Body Composition and Restore Your Youthful Contours

Available on Amazon and other bookstores, now available for pre-order: 

Hachette (book publisher): https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/william-davis-md/super-body/9780306835995/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0306835991?tag=hacboogrosit-20

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/super-body-william-davis-md/1147241313?ean=9780306835995&st=AFF&2sid=Hachette%20Book%20Group_8040641_NA&sourceId=AFFHachette%20Book%20Group

Books-a-Million: .https://www.booksamillion.com/p/9780306835995?cjdata=MXxOfDB8WXww&AID=11552245&PID=8040641&cjevent=dd19ff256e1711f081fe032d0a82b82d

Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/super-body-a-3-week-program-to-harness-the-new-science-of-body-composition-and-restore-your-youthful-contours/077984f489f568b2?ean=9780306835995&next=t&affiliate=2344

Support the show

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WilliamDavisMD

Blog: WilliamDavisMD.com

Membership website for two-way Zoom group meetings: InnerCircle.DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com

Books:

Super Gut: The 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health; revised & expanded ed

Episode Transcript

William Davis, MD (00:00):
Now, why would I say that weight loss can
be hazardous to your health?
Let's not clickbait, that istrue, but you often don't hear
this side of the story.
What you hear is that thevaried methods of losing weight,
conventional methods of losingweight, that could involve
cutting calories and all thevariations of that, like

(00:21):
programs for meal replacementsor calorie counting programs, or
it could be a bariatricprocedure, like lap band or
gastric bypass surgery and othervariations.
Or it could be a pharmaceuticalthat slows stomach emptying and
reduces appetite.
They're all variations on thesame theme, which is to reduce

(00:43):
your intake of calories.
Now we know, we know that theseprograms, these approaches,
work.
There's no question about thatthey work in the near term, in
the short run.
That is, you will lose weight.
Well, what exactly happens whenyou lose weight?
There are upfront benefits, nodoubt.
You lose, let's say, 40 pounds.

(01:04):
There will be improvements inmultiple metabolic measures.
You'll see a drop in bloodglucose, blood insulin,
hemoglobin A1C, triglycerides,measures of fatty liver,
abdominal fat, wastecircumference, blood pressure,
and some other measures.
So what's the problem?
The problem is those benefitsare short-lived.

(01:27):
And there's a variety of,there's a number of reasons why
that is true.
One reason is that all thoseconventional methods of weight
loss target subcutaneous fatover visceral fat.
Let me tell you what thatmeans.
Subcutaneous fat is the fat inyour just below the skin, in the
abdomen, in the back, in theback side, in your thighs, neck,

(01:50):
chest, etc.
That's metabolically relativelyinactive fat.
And then there's abdominalvisceral fat.
That's fat you can't see on theoutside within the abdomen.
You can have quite a bit of iteven without a big tummy, but if
you do have a big tummy, youlikely have a lot of abdominal
visceral fat encircling thevarious organs of the abdomen

(02:11):
and sometimes even the heart andother organs.
So if you have abdominalvisceral fat, you have fat in
the intestinal tract, what'scalled the omentum, around the
spleen, kidneys, liver, etc.
That's much more metabolicallyactive fat.
And all those methods of losingweight by reducing calories,

(02:31):
regardless of method, are moreselective for loss of
subcutaneous fat.
That's still a good thing, butit means that the benefits are
not as great as they could havebeen.
But there's a second problemthat's even bigger.
And that is when you loseweight, you lose muscle and you
lose a lot of muscle.
So if you lost 40 pounds, forinstance, of the 40 pounds, 30

(02:55):
pounds is fat, largelysubcutaneous, and 10 pounds is
muscle.
Now, 10 pounds of muscle isvery significant and long-term
cripples your health.
Because several things occurwhen you lose that much muscle.
One is your basal metabolicrate drops significantly.

(03:15):
Or BMR, we say.
Well, when your BMR drops, itmeans that you require, your
body requires fewer calories toconduct the work of living,
breathing, digestion,manufacturing body's proteins,
and all the other things yourbody requires to stay alive.
Well, your body's requirementdrops typically about 25%,

(03:36):
because when you cut calories,the signal you give your body is
that you're living a lifestyleoutdoors, hunting and gathering,
and you're starving.
You're on the verge of starvingor you are starving, your body
responds to cause your survival,help your survival by reducing
your calorie burn rate, yourbasal metabolic rate.

(03:58):
And that effect is for allpractical purposes permanent.
It lasts for years and years.
What that means is that even ifyou maintain a vigorous
lifestyle, lots of activity,lots of exercise, including
resistance exercise, aerobicexercise, even hours a day, and
even maintain a low calorieinput, like maybe 1200 calories

(04:22):
per day, which is really tough,by the way, right?
You will regain the weightmostly as abdominal visceral
fat, that metabolicallydestructive form of fat that
increases blood glucose, insulinresistance, and raises your
risk for all sorts of healthconditions long term.
And you will not regain themuscle, or the muscle regained

(04:44):
is trivial.
So you lose 10 pounds of musclewith that 40-pound weight loss.
You may regain a couple ofpounds of muscle, but you don't
regain the full 10 pounds.
We know, and this is thissurprises many people.
We know with very large, veryconfident evidence that in
databases that collect, whathappens to people who

(05:04):
intentionally lose weight?
Not people who unintentionallylose weight, like in cancer, but
people who lose weight onpurpose, over 90% of those
people are through variousmethods of reducing calories.
What happens to those people astracked in these large
databases, like the NIH's NHANESdatabase, or the Western Europe

(05:26):
Epic Norfolk database, andother large databases tracking
over 50,000 people over manyyears?
Well, people who lose weightintentionally tend to die
several years younger than theyshould have.
And the last few years are muchmore characterized, likely to
be characterized because of thatloss of muscle by falls,

(05:48):
fractures, frailty, loss ofindependence, and other health
conditions.
So losing weight by reducingcalories, whether it's a diet
program, bariatric procedure,pharmaceutical, has all kinds of
problems.
Now I tell you this, notbecause it's the end of the

(06:09):
world and you're doomed, butbecause there are better
solutions.
So I'm trying to get everybodyup to speed in preparation for a
new book of mine calledSuperbody.
I'm not terribly fond of thattitle, but it's the idea that
you can restore aspects of yourshape and body composition that
mimics the youthful bodycomposition with more muscle.

(06:31):
Not Arnold Schwarzeneggermuscle, but the kind of muscle
you had before you lost a lot ofmuscle through aging, worsened
by all your weight loss efforts,the muscle you had in your 20s
and 30s, because that ismetabolically active and
provides huge advantages in yourcontrol over metabolic rate,

(06:52):
weight management, not regainingfat weight, as well as better
life long-term free or lesslikely to have false fractures,
frailty, loss of independence,all those kinds of things.
So I'm going to introduce anumber of strategies to you
through my book, Superbody Book,but as well as through this
series of conversations here onthis YouTube channel, my Define

(07:12):
Health podcast, my WilliamDavisMD.com blog with thousands
of posts, as well as engagingconversations if you desire
guidance on all this in my innercircle.dr Davisinfinite
Health.com.
Now this starts with basics ofmanagement of shape and body
composition that could be simplethings like your exposure to

(07:35):
light, your time spent outdoorsmanaging sleep, but it can also
involve the gut brain axis.
That's where the real magicoccurs.
When you start to understandthere is a critical role of the
gut microbiome and its effectson your body, including the

(07:56):
amount of muscle you have, wherefat is located.
So in coming days and weeks,I'll be discussing these topics
bit by bit because there's a lothere to swallow, right?
And this will be in preparationfor the more advanced concepts
I introduced in my superbodybook.