Preventing Weight Gain Without Cutting Calories

If you believe controlling your weight means eating less and exercising more, you’re not the only one. Hundreds of millions of people have tried this method for decades, and where has it gotten them? Sorrow. Guilt. Shame. Frustration. And weight gain.

That’s right. Cutting calories not only causes most people to regain weight but to also add on an extra few pounds. They end up heavier than when they started! And if you’ve ever lost weight on a traditional diet and kept the pounds off for more than a few years, you’re one of the lucky few. Research shows 97% of dieters regain everything they lost within 3 years — plus several more pounds.

Doctors, weight-loss “gurus,” and nutritionists know these statistics or similar ones, and yet they push the same old solution. Just cut calories, they’ll tell you. Be more active. You’ve got this!

But no, you don’t. And you never have. You’ve struggled with your weight for years or decades. You’ve tried every new diet as soon as you heard about it. The Grapefruit Diet. The Cabbage Soup Diet. Weight Watchers. Nutrisystem. You approached every new diet with enthusiasm. This time will be different, you told yourself. This time it will work.

The yo-yo dieter

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You were hungry and miserable during every diet. But you stayed with it because the pounds just seemed to melt off at first. But within a few weeks, it slowed down to almost nothing.

Though you felt as if you were starving yourself, the scale never reflected your struggle. You were lucky if it showed a quarter of a pound loss in a week. You couldn’t believe it. Didn’t the experts say a calorie deficit of a certain number of calories per week would yield a certain number of pounds lost? Apparently, they forgot to tell your body that “fact”.

Nevertheless, you kept trying and trying and TRYING– only to end up with the same results time after time. Sound familiar? You had become a desperate yo-yo dieter, also called a weight cycler, who had fallen into a pattern of repeatedly losing and regaining weight. You know that being overweight or obese increases your risk for many serious health problems and diseases. You’ve read these statistics too many times. But you didn’t know who to get off the yo-yo dieting cycle.

Managing body fat is important for health!

More than 70% of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)l, and this increases their risk for many terrible health problems.

In fact, obesity is the contributing factor to a majority of health conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke. And you may be surprised to learn that obesity and type 2 diabetes are interrelated. Approximately 90% of those who are obese will develop type 2 diabetes, and approximately 90% of diabetics are obese. You’ll rarely find one without the other, which is why the term “diabesity” has been created to show the symbiosis between these two conditions.

Both obesity and type 2 diabetes can lead to serious health problems. Here are a few of the health risks for each of them.

Health complications of obesity

Diabetes
Some cancers
Fatty liver disease
Gallbladder disease
Osteoarthritis
Sleep apnea
Stroke
Heart disease
Abnormal cholesterol/triglyceride levels
Gout

Health complications of diabetes

High blood pressure
Abnormal cholesterol/triglyceride levels
Heart disease
Stroke
Neuropathy (nerve damage)
Amputations
Eye Disease (retinopathy, cataracts, glaucoma)
Gallbladder disease
Gum disease

The good news is that these health problems do not have to occur. Long-term weight control is very possible, and it’s not as difficult as you have been led to believe.

Weight loss is not about eating less and exercising more!

The even BETTER news is that controlling weight does not involve eating less and exercising more. The old calorie-deficit mantra that almost everybody has been following for the past few decades is not only wrong, but it is also harmful to the body and to the goal of long-term weight loss.

The calorie-deficit theory states that you must burn more calories than you consume to lose weight. It considers each calorie as being the same, regardless of the type of food consumed. Nothing could be further from the truth! Your body metabolizes calories from each of the macronutrients — carbohydrates and dietary fiber, fat, and protein — differently.

For instance, your body easily digests and stores carbohydrates as fat, but it cannot store fiber as fat. Your body burns more calories to digest protein than any other macronutrient, and protein is almost impossible for the body to store as fat. As you can see, a calorie is not the same as any other calorie.

Rather than being like a scale — where calories in equal calories out — the body is like a thermostat. It regulates your calorie intake and output around your setpoint weight, that range of 10-15 pounds that your body thinks you should weigh based on signals from your brain, digestive system, and hormones.

If your calorie intake increases, your body simply burns more calories so that, ideally, you’ll never become too fat or too thin. But if the system is broken, the hormones cannot send or receive correct signals. They become dysregulated, and the result is an elevated setpoint. This is the weight your body defends, the range you always keep going back to every time you stop dieting.

The two ways to prevent weight gain

The truth is that there are only two ways to lose weight and keep it off…

Keep eating a low number of calories for the remainder of your life. But even this isn’t sustainable because you will have to keep eating fewer and fewer calories with each subsequent year to maintain that progress.
Lower your setpoint. When you do this, your body will automatically regulate metabolic processes around your lower setpoint weight. No starvation and no calorie counting are necessary.

Causes of an elevated setpoint

Body weight setpoint refers to the specific weight at which your body feels comfortable. Your body will hover around that weight within a range of 10-15 pounds.

There are many causes of an elevated setpoint. Almost everything you do either lowers your setpoint, however slightly or raises it. Here are the most common causes of an elevated setpoint weight.

Things that cause a minor increase in setpoint

Sitting
Toxins in food
Improper/sustained exercise

Things that cause a major increase in setpoint

Starchy, sugary foods
Antidepressants (SSRIs)
Pregnancy

Things that cause an extreme increase in setpoint

Chronic stress
Starvation dieting
Sodas
Menopause
Unbalanced insulin/cortisol

It is not possible to cover solutions for all the things that cause an elevated setpoint weight in this article. But we can offer solutions for some of the most common and controllable causes. And one of the most controllable causes is diet. Weight control can largely be accomplished through the foods you eat and the foods you choose not to eat.

Prevent weight gain with SANE foods.

Here are some tips that will make controlling your weight a cinch:

Enjoy More:

Whole foods. These are foods found directly in nature that can be eaten without processing; ie, plants you could have picked or meats you could have hunted yourself. In other words, they should be very minimally processed. Frozen vegetables are okay as long as they don’t contain preservatives, flavorings, breadings, etc. Canned meats, such as salmon and tuna fish, are also okay. Bread made from white or wheat flour, however, is not whole food because you cannot pick a wheat stalk and eat it. Wheat is extensively processed before being made into bread.

Non-starchy vegetables. Try to select a variety of differently colored non-starchy vegetables, with an emphasis on dark leafy greens.

Green smoothies. This is an easy and delicious way to enjoy several servings of vegetables at one meal. Simply put leafy green vegetables, such as spinach or kale, in a blender. Add several servings of additional non-starchy veggies, such as celery and carrots, along with a serving of low-fructose fruit (if desired.) Add cold water. Blend until smooth. Enjoy.

Nutrient-dense proteins: Research shows every time you consume protein, it sends signals to your short- and long-term satiety hormones. This means protein is not only filling, but it keeps you full for a long time. This keeps you from overeating.

Whole-food fats: Many people avoid eating fat because they believe it will cause them to add weight. That is a myth. The truth is that your body needs dietary fat. It provides energy, is essential for the proper functioning of nerves and the brain, helps make steroid hormones, and much more. If you replace starchy carbs and sugars with whole-food fats, your body will realize it prefers burning fat rather than glucose. Soon, it will start burning your fat stores!

Try Some…

Humanely raised grass-fed meats. Remember that you’re eating whatever diet the animal was fed.

Home-cooked meals. Preparing meals at home enables you to control exactly what ingredients go into your meals. You never really have control or awareness of the ingredients restaurants put in your meals.

Avoid:

Ultra-processed foods: These are manufactured foods containing processed starches, fats, sugars, and chemicals that elevate setpoint. If losing weight is your goal, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you can achieve it by cutting out ultra-processed foods.

Refined carbohydrates and sugars: Studies show refined carbohydrates and sugars are absorbed into the bloodstream quickly, causing a rapid rise in blood sugar levels. This promotes weight gain and obesity.

Grains: Though the government and nutritionists have been singing the praises of whole grains for decades, they are not that good for your health or weight control endeavors. Whole grains are not nearly as nutritious as their non-starchy counterparts, they make glucose levels skyrocket, and they are easily stored as body fat.

“Natural” labels. The word “Natural” or “All Natural” on a label doesn’t mean it is a whole food. Always read food labels to see what ingredients are in the food. If you see ingredients you don’t recognize or cannot pronounce, it is an ultra-processed food.

Prevent weight gain with the SANE Diet.

Controlling your weight with the SANE Diet is easy. The food groups are easy to remember. There are no calories to count and no starvation dieting to endure. Here are the 4 SANE food groups, along with recommended daily servings.

Non-starchy vegetables: At least 10 servings per day.
Nutrient-dense proteins: 3-5 servings per day, 30-55 grams per meal.
Whole-food fats: 3-6 servings per day
Low-fructose fruits: 0-3 servings per day

The goal is to be so full of SANE foods you won’t have room for inSANE ones! You will truly eat more food and lose pounds because you’re eating quality calories that heal your hormones. In truth, you will actually have a calorie deficit, but because you’re not hungry and because you’re eating real foods, and because your cells are getting plenty of nourishment, your body is okay with burning fat. It is okay to lower your setpoint. See how easy it can be to control your weight with the SANE Diet?

Other lifestyle changes to lower your setpoint.

There are other lifestyle changes you can make to help lower your setpoint. Here are a few of the most important ones.

Reduce stress: It is imperative that you de-stress as often as possible. This can be as simple as walking along the beach or as complicated as learning to play the piano. (Anything that takes a great amount of concentration, such as learning a new skill, can be relaxing.) Meditation, TaiChi, Yoga, and playing with your dog or cat are all great ways to reduce stress.

Get enough sleep: Studies show sleep deprivation leads to weight gain. Try to get 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night.

Perform “smarter” exercises: Eccentric exercises, in which you concentrate on the downward part of the exercise, uses all your muscle fibers. For this reason, studies show they are better for losing weight than traditional exercises. Because they are so intense, you can only perform them for 10-20 minutes once per week. With eccentric exercise, you really can exercise less and lose more!

With SANE, you truly will eat more and exercise less — but smarter. Are you ready to go SANE?

Next step: Learn how to lower your setpoint with SANE

Ready to finally break free from the yo-yo dieting rollercoaster by balancing your hormones and lowering your body’s setpoint?

Want to know the exact foods and serving sizes that are scientifically proven by over 1,300 peer-reviewed research studies to boost metabolism, burn fat and enjoy virtually effortless weight loss like a naturally thin person?

Download the free SANE metabolism boosting food list, cheat sheet, and “Eat More, Burn More” weight loss program by clicking here .