For some people - like me - Jason Fung's two-compartment model is much more useful than the completely useless (20 years tried never worked) calories in calories out model and Dr. Fung's assertion that The Hormonal Model drives the human body's fuel management, is eminently helpful compared to calories in calories out.
mere caloric restriction was and is wrong for me.
Calories in Calories out
Eat less Move more
Energy balance so-called
wasn't specific enough for me to be useful and backfired every time I tried.
the hormonal model of human biological energy management is sound.
to state and use a calorie is a calorie and have success is in my eyes getting the answer right by accident.
it is a PHYSICS model applied to a BIOLOGICAL system. which apparently works in some cases. it regularly failed me.
I was as they say a chonky boy. heck I've always been a bigger or fatter kid, at various times, and in a state of dysregulation went from fat at around 225 to fatter at around 265 in a notably short amount of time. this was years ago now. and the army almost booted me for it. a retention NCO one day - casually slipped in that whenever he needs to lose a few pounds he does Protein power? I said, protein what? he just said that I should check out the book. that was all. thus began my journey toward where I am now, as a carnivore. more or less. I'm still a big guy, with a belly. but I'm just working on getting stronger. this was the period of time I was running daily and worked up to traversing over ten miles a day from city to city , town to town, across the freeways and back. and I was so so frustrated.
the trajectory of jumping up towards 275 lbs of more and more fat in a very short amount of time was one that I was merely confused by at the time.
I'll put it this way:
people have different talents.
some people can throw a 100 mph baseball.
others can run 100 meters in 4 seconds.
I could be - the fattest man alive. if it were my life's aspiration I might be able to weigh 700 or 1000 lbs.
If insulin had its way I would have just kept right on past 300 lbs. I was in the midst of it. I couldn't stop it. it was just happening.
My brother used to make fun of my weight gain - call me names - and tell me
just don't eat. you're so fat you could live forever(which is ironic; looking back).
It wasn't until ...
Until I met Drs. Eades in Protein Power.
Until I met Dr. Atkins.
Until I met Dr. Attia, Dr. Fung, Dr. Naiman, Dr. Saladino, Dr. Barry, Dr. D'Angostino, Dr. Baker, etc.
... that I finally had something I could use to control my fat gain.
in the end - in my view of bouncing back from the brink, of just gaining more and more fat around my waistline - while I was running for miles daily before I injured my ankle preparing for a PT test (second one - last chance) to prove to the army that I could stay in - when I bounced back I realized how unhelpful the usual advice was. the water cooler stuff. the stuff in Men's health, men's fitness. the supplements, smoothies, shakes, bars, and everything else a desperate neophyte like myself - after all that desperation it was a doctor who shared the views of Dr. Fung that could help me. Drs. Eades, who wrote protein power.
I spent basically a decade suffering the uselessness and ultimately the threat to my military career that was - calories in calories out.
The advice that never helped. that couldn't help. because ultimately hunger rules all. there is no solution other than satiety, ultimately if you are hungry enough you will eat.
and let me tell you about big fat people. the ones that weigh 500-600 lbs. I was almost going to be one of them, once. I might have joined them if not for that sergeant who mentioned the book protein power. they are as hungry as can be as the adipose signaled by insulin drains the serum of every last drop of fuel that might have been in there before the brain even has a shot. I was so hungry - all the time. it was basically torture and eating was a respite. and that's valuable.
in the end - eating is a slave to hunger and satiety.
hunger mitigation is the only real way forward.
Dr. Fung addresses hunger mitigation.
Fasting stands heads and shoulders above all others as the single most potent strategy I could use and do use aggressively to purposefully manage my food intake. Full stop.
Calories in Calories out sabotaged me. it was less than useless. it was harmful. the lie that the composition of the source of the calories didn't matter was a harmful lie. and just like I've got a bit of a chip on my shoulder about pop fitness and how it got me moving but never really got me anywhere, so too, do I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about the metabolically privileged telling me about how I should "just lower your calories mannn... it's easy" - and my waistline kept growing and growing. as my military career became more and more at risk.
now all these years later, I'm retiring from the military after 20 years on my own terms, all thanks to the work of doctors just like Doctor Jason Fung, who looked deeper and something more relevant to those who were not so gifted. some guy like me whose stomach grows even by glancing at a bagel. Doctor Fung described the 2 compartment model of fuel management. Doctor Fung asserted the Master Diet of Fasting and unleashing ketosis in full.
thank goodness now that I eat only meat I can be so satiated that I can pass up a donut, or chocolate. but I remember that time when I was not so equipped and I was clearly paying the piper for listening to silly statements like a calorie is a calorie.
