How do you limit simple carb consumption, fight metabolic disease and slow (or even reverse) the aging process? Dr. Brett Osborn, neurosurgeon and author of Get Serious, shares some simple rules for intermittent fasting, why insulin sensitivity is the key to fat loss, how different body types can adapt their diets to benefit from ketosis, and why YOU are ultimately in control of you body, regardless of genetics.
First we cover how fat loss is determined by your insulin sensitivity and why most of us are becoming insulin-resistant. Dr. Osborn calls it the Boy Who Cried Wolf Syndrome. “If you show your cells lots and lots of simple carbohydrates, your body will become less and less sensitive to the insulin secreted by the pancreas in response to the sugar load...Glucose that is consumed in your diets will literally wreak havoc in your cardiovascular system...So you want to make sure your cells are really, really sensitive to the effects of insulin by not showing them high levels of insulin.”
We also covered the role of muscle mass and body types in relation to insulin and body fat. “Equally important to our insulin-sensitivity is getting a good amount of muscle mass on your body,” Dr. Osborn explained, “that’s how you control your blood glucose...that’s going to improve your insulin-sensitivity.”
When it comes to body types, it’s not an even playing field, but you’re not genetically doomed to a certain body type. “You have to be aware of it,” Dr. Osborn pointed out, “but you can move your body any way with an awareness of your carbohydrate sensitivity or your insulin-sensitivity, etc, just by switching your carbohydrates one way or another.”
Then we moved on to ketogenic diets and intermittent fasting, and Dr. Osborn shared his perspective on ketogenic supplements, which he believes overstates their effectiveness. However, he puts his brain tumor patients on ketogenic diets because cancer cells love sugar, and low-carb diets deprive cancer cells of the substrate needed for cancer-cell growth. He also puts patients on Kegenix as a supplement for its “anti-cancer properties” and to help the body use something other than simple carbs as fuel.
Dr. Osborn emphasized, “The genesis of all these diseases - cancer, diabetes, heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease - they are metabolic diseases due to overconsumption of simple carbohydrates. So if you can use something else as an energy source...use it.”
Regarding ketosis, Dr. Osborn advises his patients to follow a simple rule, No eating after 7pm. That gives them a simple, easy to follow protocol that results in 12-hr bursts of intermittent fasting (7pm-7am) where they are starting to aggressively burn fat toward the end of that period. “The beautiful thing about being in ketosis...ketones, at the level of the brain, suppress your appetite.” Dr. Osborn recommends that if you’re struggling with intermittent fasting, take some ketones and zero-carb protein to hold you over.
But what about building muscle on a ketogenic diet? “There’s only one sport that you need to have glucose in your body in order to perform well...Bodybuilding.” Dr Osborn explained, “That will never work on a ketogenic diet, but you know what? So what. It’s not about bodybuilding, it’s about health.”
Bottom line - Some form of carb-cycling or intermittent fasting is the absolute be-all end-all of modulating body weight, losing body weight and at the same time maintaining performance.
We finished by covering how Dr. Osborn’s practice is evolving, the potential of a follow up to his book Get Serious, and how he’s moving toward the goal of multiple locations and expanding his reach nationwide.
Ultimately, you are not destined to be obese or sick because of your genetics. You - the individual - are in control of your body. Experiment with intermittent fasting and limit simple carbs to improve your body’s insulin-sensitivity and fight metabolic disease.
Dr. Brett Osborn is a Board-Certified Neurosurgeon with a secondary certification in Anti-aging and Regenerative Medicine, practicing in West Palm Beach, FL. Dr. Osborn is also the author of Get Serious, a science-based guide to health and longevity. Learn more at https://www.drbrettosborn.com/.
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