Transcribed using AI transcription, errors may occur. Contact mikki for clarification

00:10
Hey everyone, it's Mikki here. You're listening to Mini Mikkipeida on a Monday. And over the weekend, I had the pleasure of speaking at a conference put on by Cliff and the team at Holistic Performance Institute. And the topic that I chatted about, which I'm chatting about today with you guys, is the importance of diet quality and fat loss. And look, you are smart people. I know that you know that it's important to eat in a way that aligns with your goals. But...

00:39
What we can't get away from is the fact that when it comes to fat loss, we need to have a calorie deficit. And so there have been many instances of people who have gone out of their way to prove that it doesn't actually matter what you eat. It is only about calories and macros. And that's certainly not what I think at all. And that's what I'm chatting to you about today. Of course, I'm not arguing the laws of thermodynamics. You know, a calorie is a calorie when it comes to fat loss.

01:08
is often what you hear and potentially quite a well-known example of this is Professor Mark Horb. He is at Kansas State University. He ended up going on a diet for 10 weeks to prove to his students that it didn't matter what you ate, as long as your calories were lower than you expended, you could lose weight. And he successfully lost 27 pounds. He went from a BMI of 28.8 down to 24.9.

01:38
took a multivitamin tablet and then subsisted on things like Oreos, Twinkies, Frosties, anything that came out of a packet he was able to eat as long as he stayed within his calorie budget. And of course you could argue that he might not have been as healthy as he would have if he had eaten good quality food and I would certainly argue that. But he did take a multivitamin. To be fair, I went to his

02:05
university page just the other day, just looking to see whether he had done any actual research in this area. And he certainly doesn't look any different now to what he did when he lost that weight some 14 years ago, unless it was like quite an old picture. So of course you can lose weight in a calorie deficit eating whatever it is that you want to eat. But I just don't think that this is the best and most sustainable way. Because while a calorie is a calorie, it's how your body

02:33
can definitely influence your appetite and subsequent energy balance. And I like to think about fat loss from a whole system perspective, right? It isn't just the calorie deficit that you're in, the calories you're expending or the calories that you are eating. So many more things influence the food decisions that you make. And fat loss is impacted by outside forces such as your social interactions.

03:03
your, you know, the community that you're in and involved in, the environmental things which can influence your food intake. I mean, these affect how we eat, what we eat, how much we eat, and of course the foods that we eat. And so when I'm considering fat loss for an individual and thinking about diet quality, I want to think about how do we nourish the physiology of the individual to make this a less painful.

03:33
process and to make that fat loss much more sustainable. Because it doesn't matter which way you cut it, there is always going to be an element of discipline and willpower required in order to lose body weight. And part of this is absolutely driven by the brain. Those that find a way that works well for them don't have to rely as heavily on discipline and willpower, that's for sure. But ultimately there are things in the diet that you can do.

04:02
that help your body override that innate feeling of deprivation can occur when you're on a fat loss plan and you're eating fewer calories than your brain expects. So we want to include more of those foods that have nutrients that nourish the brain and your appetite. And we want to minimize the foods which act to hijack the brain and negatively influence our food intake so we eat more calories.

04:29
So first and foremost, we absolutely need to support the brain and the nervous system. And your diet is like frontline care for that. A calorie deficit is a stress on your body and your brain. And there's no sort of way around that. However, if we can include more foods that provide nutrients that help nourish the brain and nervous system and help, I guess, keep your brain safe, then you're much more likely to continue to adhere to that diet approach.

04:58
And these are all nutrients that I'm sure you're familiar with. Things like omega-3s, you've got your B vitamins, iron and zinc and selenium and iodine and magnesium, antioxidants, amino acids, these essential nutrients which are important to help with the production of hormones including appetite hormones and neurotransmitters that help keep the brain calm and make everything much more tolerable.

05:25
The foods that supply these nutrients are typically higher fiber and higher in protein and fat. And this in itself aids in appetite regulation. And then further to that, it also helps balance blood sugar and energy levels. So you've got less likelihood of having those energy peaks and troughs that are a result of blood sugar crashing throughout the day.

05:53
So supporting blood sugar regulation is another important piece of the diet puzzle. When people don't focus on good diet choices, it does make it harder to regulate blood sugar level, either through under eating across the day, under fueling with protein, not adding sufficient fiber for satiety, if you tolerate fiber that is. So blood sugar can go through these peaks and troughs, and every peak and trough is a hit to your nervous system.

06:22
So not only are you dealing with fluctuating energy levels across the day as your hormones are responding to either high amounts of refined carbohydrate or low amounts of overall calories, it can impact on your energy levels, impact on your mood, and both of these have implications for your ability to adhere to your diet. And when we consider the brain on the diet, your brain is hardwired to seek out pleasurable and rewarding foods.

06:52
the pleasure centers of your brain and gives you that immediate feedback that makes you want more. In a calorie deficit, it is difficult to control the number of calories if you're governed by this pleasure system or pleasure center of the brain. Ultra-processed foods are made of sugar, starch, fat and salt and they have been created to produce something called a bliss point where you've got these exact

07:20
quantities of these things that when it hits your Taste buds and your brain gets a taste of it. You just want to continue to eat those foods I mean, that's what they're designed for Food technologists are paid like millions of dollars to be able to do this It just makes it more difficult to adhere to your calorie deficit if you include a lot of foods like these In addition to that your brain is really fighting hard against that calorie deficit

07:50
anyway, regardless of the food that you eat. For every one kilo of weight you lose, the brain will fight back to try to eat around 83 to 101 calories. I know that's quite specific. These are calculations studied by Professor Kevin Hall, who is very big in that energy metabolism space. And he looked at the difference between what conventional dieting does to the brain versus the brain's

08:18
response to say GLP-1 agonist drugs or even weight loss surgery. And just dieting and calorie deficit alone, the brain really fights hard to recoup those calories. So eating foods then that are higher protein, higher fiber and have more nutrients are going to help offset that hunger that your brain is experiencing. In addition to that,

08:44
Hall's group actually has also done research looking at the type of diet and how this might increase that feedback reward response in the brain too. And I thought this was fairly interesting. So what they did is they put a group of individuals on either a reduced fat diet or a reduced carbohydrate diet and they crossed them over. So the same people first did the reduced fat diet where they reduced down the fat intake.

09:13
by 800 calories a day. Then they had a washout period where they just ate whatever. And then they went back on a reduced carbohydrate diet where they reduced carbon take by 800 calories a day. Now, across both of these diets, they kept protein constant and they kept calories constant. So what we're talking about here is the diet went from about 110 grams of fat to 15 grams of fat.

09:41
and the carbohydrate went from about 345 grams to 147 grams of carbohydrate. So, still had some carbs. But the overall calorie deficit was around about 30%. And they looked at various measures across both the diets and then what happened after the diet. And what they found was, the people that were on the reduced fat diet had a reduced dopamine response to visual food cues whilst on the diet. But...

10:10
After the diet was over, their intake of sugary sweetened beverages and high carbohydrate, high fat foods was enhanced, much more than when they were on that reduced carbohydrate diet. And interestingly, this is I found this fairly interesting, is that the number of calories didn't really change. Like they still ate the same number of calories ad libitum post diet, but the food choice of the people on the reduced fat diet was worse.

10:40
And what the authors suggested was it just meant that their ability to maintain their fat loss over time was likely to be impaired compared to when someone did a reduced carbohydrate diet. Now this is a very small diet, a very small study, and I just thought it was an interesting experiment to see the opposite ends of the spectrum if you like. And you know, Kevin Hall has been involved in a number of studies looking at the energy density of foods.

11:10
and how this impacts our overall caloric intake actually. So Hall has been involved in a number of studies actually looking at the energy density of food, ultra-processed food and the calories consumed and what that did to the calories consumed. And another example of this is a study where he took adults, here they were admitted to a metabolic ward and across a four week period, they ate either

11:38
unprocessed food for two weeks, all the food was provided for them, or they ate an ultra processed food diet for two weeks. And meals were comprised of a similar calorie content and macronutrient content, and subjects were instructed to consume as much or as little as desired. And what this study found was that people who ate more ultra processed food ate 500

12:08
the minimally processed food. And those calories predominantly came from either carbohydrate or fat. So protein stayed fairly similar. So that's just another example of how ultra-processed food can really hijack your appetite and make you consume more calories. Therefore, if you're on a fat loss plan, it just makes it much harder to adhere to the calorie deficit that you're trying to hit. And I...

12:36
think that's where the real issue lies. For what it's worth, another study looked at ultra-processed diets and muscle mass. And whilst this is sort of a tangent, it's just worth mentioning that there is a strong association between people who consume more ultra-processed food and their muscle mass, the amount of muscle mass that they carry. Those with low muscle mass tend to eat a lot more ultra-processed food. Of course, we never know the...

13:03
cause and effect in an observational sort of study like that, but I just thought it was worth mentioning because body composition is something that we always have to consider when it comes to a fat loss phase. So it isn't just about the amount of energy that ultra-processed food provides that I think makes it more challenging to fit into a diet when you're trying to lose weight. It's more about what it doesn't have actually. And micronutrients matter.

13:32
Our friend, Marty Kendall, who runs the Optimizing Nutrition website, and he has a number of different sort of plans to help people boost the nutrients of their diet. And for what it's worth, Saskia, who co-wrote 40 Over 40 with me, also co-wrote books with Marty for his website. Marty looks at the level of micronutrients required in the diet to help overall satiety.

14:02
of even micronutrients, we will continue to seek out food. So if you're following a calorie deficit and not getting these micronutrients in, you will feel hungrier and will be more likely to seek out more food. And the minerals that we crave the most tend to exist in minimally processed foods. That's other than sodium. And we do tend to regulate our intake of these in quite a tight range. And so, Mari, from his

14:32
data that incorporates over a million days of food intake from free living individuals, he found that when you had optimal intakes of these nutrients, rather than just the recommended dietary intake values or the bare minimum, you were much more satisfied and you tended to eat less calories. And those minerals include things like calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese,

15:00
phosphorus, potassium, selenium, sodium and zinc. And there's quite a difference between the recommended dietary intake values of these and then the optimal nutrient intake where you're much more likely to be able to feel satisfied on less food. And Mari's data reveals that when you hit these optimal intakes of these nutrients, you can eat

15:28
significantly fewer calories. So for example with potassium, when you hit the optimal intake level of 5400 milligrams, the data shows that your calorie intake is 30% lower than when you just hit the RDI. With selenium, when you hit say 200 micrograms a day as opposed to the RDI 55, your calorie intake can be 24% lower. And so he provides really compelling evidence

15:56
based on data and free living individuals, that the more you're able to optimize for micronutrients, the less overall food that you require. So that's another reason why I really like to consider diet quality when we're thinking about that loss. And of course, volume matters as well. When we have a big plate of food, not only do you get these visual signals that you're able to eat significant amounts of food, but you also get satiety signals from your stomach.

16:25
And those stretch signals that your stomach sends your brain gives you that feeling of satisfaction. Like you've actually eaten a decent amount of food. And snacks and small meals throughout the day usually aren't strong enough to trigger those fullness signals. So you're just left a little bit hungry. And foods that are high in fiber, foods that are high in protein, and meals that are constructed like this are much

16:54
more likely to satisfy those hunger signals compared to eating smaller and often throughout the day. So volume really matters as well. In addition to supporting your brain and your appetite and your nervous system, eating foods that are really high nutrition helps support your metabolism as well. And there is always going to be a level of metabolic adaptation that occurs with a calorie deficit. How much

17:22
adaptation occurs largely depends on the deficit that's created. And you cannot really offset the impact of that just on nutrients alone, but you can certainly help support your hormone energy and metabolic pathways by eating foods that contain the nutrients that are involved there, like iodine, selenium, zinc, iron, vitamin D, vitamin A, tyrosine. So many micronutrients that are involved in...

17:51
helping support your metabolic rate, helping support your thyroid function, helping support your hormone production. And these are all going to contribute to you feeling more satisfied on lower calories. And I thought it was worth mentioning because I see it a lot on social media, is what about foods that help your body produce GLP-1? So GLP-1 is glucagon like peptide.

18:19
And I've talked about this before a couple of weeks ago with regards to the medications and their potential off-label use, but there are foods in the diet that have been promoted as being like GLP-1. So I just wanted to remind you that whilst these foods do help trigger the release of GLP-1, which is part of that signaling pathway that tells your body that you've eaten, these types of foods, whilst they are really

18:46
like high quality and high nutrition, they're not going to act like GLP-1 agonists the same way that medications do. They're physiologically, they're in just much smaller doses. Their rate of appearance in the bloodstream is a lot lower, so they're not present in your bloodstream for nearly as long as things like semi-glutide or other types of GLP-1 agonists. And for people who are struggling with their weight,

19:13
they may actually produce lower levels of GLP-1 when they eat, or they may have a faster clearance of it. So I just thought that I would mention that in case you'd come across posts on social media and people talking about how important it is to get in good quality foods from their ability to help regulate appetite through this pathway. It doesn't really work like that. And so I wanted to reiterate that for you, because that's certainly a message that I've seen on social media of late. So.

19:42
To lose weight, of course it is about eating fewer calories than you expend. However, successful fat loss will always require more than just a calorie deficit. And what you really want to aim for is a nutritionally replete, nourishing diet that supports your brain, your appetite regulation, and your metabolism to set yourself or your clients up for success. And I know that you know that, but it's always worth remembering. And...

20:11
Ultimately, make that fat loss diet something sustainable so it could be a version of your forever diet. So you're setting up habits and behaviors that can then progress people into successful weight loss maintenance. Anyway, that was my talk. Very well received, which was great. And hopefully you may have learned something from me this morning as well, or this may have just reiterated what you already knew.

20:38
So if you've got any questions or any feedback, hit me up. I'm on threads, Twitter and Instagram @mikkiwilliden, Facebook @mikkiwillidenNutrition or head to my website, mikkiwilliden.com and book a call with me so we can talk about the quality of your fat loss approach. All right team, have the best week.