https://open.spotify.com/episode/1VSKoqhcvi3PipQ4X56WDT?si=5be44a7089a94124

The core formula: calories in < calories out

• If inverse, you are likely to gain weight and most of that weight is likely to be in the form of adipose tissue (fat)
• if you follow, you’re likely to lose weight and significant portion of that weight is likely to come from fat.
• The calorie burn portion is greatly influenced by a number of things you can control which can increase the amount of fat you burn in response to exercise and food.
• preview: hormones, how cold/hot your body is, your levels of metabolism and thyroid hormone and how much connectivity there is between the nervous system and fat. Neurons connect to the different types of body fat and can change the probability of whether that body fat will burn.

Foundations

Sleep, sufficient EPA, glutamine (if you have issues with leaky gut or sugar cravings), get gut microbiome right (through a serving or two of fermented foods per day - every culture has different source of fermented foods), make sure thyroid system is supported through enough iodine and selenium (not too much)

• Try to get as much quality sleep as possible (refer to the episodes on sleep, first 5 episodes)
  • using light exposure, temperature, timing sleep correctly, avoid bright light when you want to be asleep, get bright light when you want to be awake
• Get your essential fatty acids:
  • discussed in 11 - How food and nutrients control our mood and 16 - How hormones control hunger, eating and satiety
  • vital to many aspects of our health. can get them from supplements (e.g. through fish oil)
  • multiple kinds of fatty acids but for the anti-depressant effects (the one that promote good mood) and healthy metabolism and shifting the needle in the right direction in terms of cardiovascular factors, need to get EPA > 1000mg per day. It positions us for good fat loss. It also helps with leaky gut.
  • people with craving issues (crave sweet all the time), there are neurons in the gut that are seeking essential fatty acids and amino acids from your food. Because that’s what our body and brain needs. But those same neurons will respond to sugar. So, one can satisfy sugar cravings by giving the neurons what they actually want - amino acids and essential fatty acids. E.g. glutamine - it can really reduce the sugar cravings (need to ease into this), can get it from food (e.g. cottage cheese)
• Need correct levels of iodine and thyroid
  • Don’t want to overdo them.
  • Table salt has iodine but some people to ingest iodine additionally.
  • One of the best ways to support the thyroid system and metabolism, in general: make sure you get enough selenium. Simple way: each day consume brazil nuts (highest concentration of selenium), upto 3 per day is enough to meet the thyroid needs.

Goal going forward

<aside> 💡 How can things like exercise, putting ourselves in cold, etc. can help with the burn rate in the calories out part of the equation.

</aside>

Mindset truly matters

• Even something like belief can have a strong effect on weight loss.
• Study showed that simply being told that “movement is good for you and can lead to fat loss” led to significantly more body fat loss and slimming down + many other positive cardiovascular effects.
• This shows the power of our nervous system and the power of belief!
• It doesn’t mean that the subjects in the study didn’t move more, it just means that the knowledge that exercise is good changed behaviour and physiology in the direction of enhanced weight loss.