Obesity Without The Myths

One nasty comment on a short clip can expose a bigger problem: most people are drowning in confident weight-loss advice from people who don’t understand how body weight is regulated. We take obesity head-on as a sensitive, often politicized topic and lay out a science-based, human-first framework that replaces myths and judgment with clarity. Drawing from a longer expert conversation with a bariatric surgeon and a psychologist, we explain why obesity is a complex chronic disease influenced by brain signaling, hormones, sleep, stress, genetics, dieting history, and the modern food environment.

We also zoom out from the scale and talk about what actually predicts health risk: body composition and fat distribution. Visceral fat (abdominal or “belly” fat) isn’t dormant, it’s biologically active and linked to inflammation, insulin resistance, fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome. That’s why “lose weight” is often the wrong target. We’d rather improve body composition, protect muscle, and reduce visceral fat in a way you can sustain.

Yes, a calorie deficit matters, but “calories in, calories out” doesn’t explain why appetite ramps up, food feels more rewarding, and metabolism can slow after weight loss. We break down set point theory, calorie density, and why fiber-rich whole foods make hunger easier to manage. We also cover the four types of hunger (physical, hedonic “food noise,” emotional, habitual), plus what movement really does: resistance training to preserve muscle and BMR, and NEAT to stack daily wins.

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Peace, love, plants!
Dr. Jules 

Transcript

Welcome And The Big Topic

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Yo, Platne's buddies, welcome back to Swiss 3 of the podcast. This video's gonna be amazing. We'll be talking about all of the different pillars of lifestyle medicine, from nutrition to exercise to stress to sleep and everything in between. Yo, plant needs buddies, and welcome back to another episode of the podcast.

Why Obesity Gets Misunderstood

SPEAKER_01 0:28

But today, I want to talk about a very sensitive subject. I want to talk about obesity. Now, obesity is so deeply misunderstood and surrounded by myths and judgment and stereotypes, and so I really wanted to tackle this subject in detail. And so when researching how I could tackle this subject, I thought, well, let's start by talking to experts, right? So I found a bariatric surgeon that specializes in obesity, I also found a psychologist that worked at the bariatric clinic, evaluating and talking and coaching, and following patients that have lived with obesity for years. And let's just be clear, when people get to that clinic, they've often tried everything already. They've dieted, they've gone to see dietitians and and they've held had like certified personal coaches and trainers, and they've been through all of this. So I wanted to make sure that when I published a podcast episode about obesity, that I talked to the best possible experts. And so I had two of them on my episode about a week ago. Talked about obesity for about an hour, and we talked about all that goes into influencing how we interact with food in our daily lives. And I was so proud of that episode because these two experts, we we had so much time to go into deep details and talked about pathophysiology and talked about how the brain, our environment, our biology, our hormones, how all of these complex systems they basically interact together and determine how we interact with the calories that are coming in and the calories that are coming out. So I thought that I had published a very well done in-depth review of obesity. But then the episode came out, and then the reels were shared. And literally two days ago, we shared a reel where it highlights Dr. Lan Tang speaking about how complex obesity is and how it's different for everyone. I was so proud and proud of the content that we're putting out there, and proud that we're gonna hopefully help a lot of people that feel these things that Dr. Lantang and Dr. Tideo were trying to put into words and articulate in a non-scientific way. And then the first comments of that reel is wow, is it went something like I've never seen so much misinformation in one clip. And I was like, devastated. What could we have done to avoid this? And I think there's not much, honestly, that we could have done more. And if you spend five minutes on social media and you're told that obesity is caused by carbs or seed oils or insulin or it's a lack of willpower. And then you scroll, and the next video will tell you that it's intermittent fasting and keto, carnivore, the latest supplement that you need to solve your weight problem. Now, is the problem isn't that people care about weight, the problem is that a very few people actually understand how body weight is actually regulated.

Social Media Myths And Quick Fixes

SPEAKER_01 4:38

So, today's episode, I want to recap some of the things that we discussed in that episode. It's not about quick fixes, it's about understanding how your body works. And once you understand the basic biology, some of the decisions that people make around food become a little easier. But that being said, it's complex, it's very complicated. About one-third of Canadian adults live with obesity, and another third are overweight. And that means that almost two-thirds of Canadians are living with a body weight that is outside of what we call the norm. And the norm, once you step out of that boundary, you put your health at

Body Composition Beats Scale Weight

SPEAKER_01 5:28

risk. But the number on the scale really only tells a small part of the story. A lot more important than body weight is body composition. What percentage of that weight is muscle? What percentage is fat? And if we're talking about fat, are we talking about subcutaneous fat, the fat that you store underneath your skin? Or are we talking about the fat that is stored in your visceral organs? Abdominal fat or visceral fat. Some people call it belly fat, but it matters, and fat is not dormant, it's biologically active, and it's actually in excess pro-inflammatory. Now, visceral fat, abdominal fat or belly fat, same name for the same different names for the same thing. They're all more pro-inflammatory than subcutaneous fat. Now, these fat cells they release hormones and inflammatory chemicals that impact almost every organ in your body. Not all fat behaves the same way. The fat beneath your skin is inflammatory in excess, but not when you keep it within normal ranges. We're aiming to have a healthy body fat percentage. The fat that surrounds your organs or visceral fat is the more damaging one. It's more concerning because it produces inflammatory molecules, contributes to insulin resistance, fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome. Our goal should be about improving body composition and reducing visceral fat. That's a much better target than simply trying to lose weight. And then you'll scroll online and think, okay, this obesity thing is super complex, and then you scroll and see, well, it's just basic

Calories Matter But Not Alone

SPEAKER_01 7:52

calories in versus calories out. Now, there's a lot of truth in that statement, and it is true that we cannot defy laws of physics and laws of thermodynamics, but that statement is very much incomplete. Now, losing weight does absolutely require being in a calorie deficit, but these laws of physics will always apply. If you consistently consume more energy than you burn, your body will store that energy as fat. Simple. But that doesn't explain why someone consistently eats more calories than they burn. That's where hormones, biology, the social determinants of health, a million other complex physiological systems act together. It is not just about willpower. Now think about your bank account. If you spend more money than you make, your savings will decrease, and that's simple math. But the math doesn't explain why you have these expenses. Maybe your rent increased, maybe your car broke down, maybe you lost your job. The equation of calories in and calories out tells you what happened, but it doesn't explain what caused it. And obesity works the exact same way. Your brain is constantly receiving information throughout your whole from your whole body. I mean, your hormones from your stomach have an impact. You're getting messages sent from hormones from your intestines. Hormones are being released by fat tissue. You have signals from your pancreas, you have information about sleep, you have stress, physical activity, genetics, previous dieting history can play a role, and even the food environment that surrounds you. Your brain, it takes all of that information and integrates it, and it adjusts your hunger, your fullness, your metabolism, and your energy expenditure, which is the energy you burn, and it sums all of that up to determine how you either move, fuel. That's why obesity is not just a failure of being disciplined. Now, people absolutely make choices, but those choices they occur within a biological system that strongly influence your appetite. And it's important to understand that difference. Now, even with all of the information, weight loss is difficult. And I've seen I've taken care of CEOs and top-level athletes and even patients that own multimillion dollar companies that are extremely disciplined in certain facets of their lives, but they've never been able to fully be in control of their weight. A lot of people are able to lose weight successfully. They willpower it out, and they basically put themselves in a calorie deficit and they lose weight, but it's keeping it off. That's the challenge. And it's not because people are suddenly becoming lazy, it's because your body fights back. When you lose weight, many different things will happen simultaneously. You become more hungry, food becomes more rewarding, your metabolism can slow down, and your body becomes more efficient at conserving energy. Now, from an evolutionary perspective, this makes perfect sense. Thousands of years ago, starvation was a much much bigger threat to your life than obesity was, and so your brain evolved in a way that defends against famine, not against fast food that was scientifically engineered to make you overeat.

Set Point Theory And Weight Regain

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Now, this concept is known as set point theory. Your brain defends, intentionally defends a range of body weight, much like your thermostat, defends the temperature in your home. When your weight drops below that defended range, biological systems will activate to restore it. And that's why long-term maintenance is often harder than the initial weight loss. Now, that doesn't mean that calories don't matter, they absolutely do. But different foods will influence different calories differently.

Calorie Density And Fiber Advantage

SPEAKER_01 12:41

So let's compare two meals that contain exactly the same number of calories. One contains vegetables, beans, and fruit, and the other contains processed snack foods. The calories match, they each contain the same amount of calories, but everything else doesn't match. Whole plant foods will have more water, more fiber, more volume, they'll stretch your stomach more, they're gonna slow digestion, they're gonna increase satiety hormones, feed your gut microbiome, and make you feel more satisfied, fuller for longer. And processed foods, even though they're calorie match, they remove that fiber and water while concentrating calories into much smaller portions. So you finish eating and your stomach isn't very full, your brain still wants more food, and that's why calorie density matters. Four cups of strawberries will fill and stretch your entire stomach, but they only contain about 200 calories. Four cups of spinach contain about 30. Four cups of ice cream contain more than a thousand calories, and four cups of olive oil contain more than 8,000. It's the same volume, but two completely different metabolic impacts. And that's why we always say that plants for the wind, because plants are the only source of fiber. There's no fiber in animal products, and fiber is one of your greatest allies. It deserves a lot more attention than it receives. Fiber contributes to slowing stomach emptying, it improves blood sugar control, it feeds your beneficial gut bacteria, increases satiety and fullness, and higher fiber intake consistently predicts lower body weight and long less long-term weight gain. It protects against weight regain in people that have already lost weight. And that's why one of the simplest weight management strategies is very boring. It's eat more legumes, vegetables, fruits, intact, whole grains. It's not exciting, but it's really effective at helping you prevent weight regain.

Four Types Of Hunger To Notice

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Now, it's people eat for different reasons, and that's why it's important to talk about one of my favorite concepts in obesity medicine is in talking about the fact that not all types of hunger are the same. There are four different types of hunger. The first type is physical hunger. Your body genuinely needs energy, and so it makes you feel physically hungry. The second type of hunger is what we call hedonic hunger. This is hungered as primarily driven by your brain's reward system. And many people will describe it as food noise. You can still be physically full, but still be thinking about food. Now, that's what we call hedonic hunger or food noise. The third type of hunger is emotional hunger. Now, sometimes it's stress, anxiety, boredom, loneliness. And in some people, food actually can become a coping mechanism. And some people will use food to fill that emotional void that exists in their lives. And the fourth type of hunger is habitual hunger. That's eating popcorn while while you're watching a movie, or you pack a snack that you can munch on while you're driving. It's the situation itself that becomes the trigger. So next time you're hungry, simply start by asking yourself one simple question. Am I physically hungry or is there something else driving my urge to eat? The goal is to create some pause, to create a small pause that could possibly change your decision. Just being aware. Now, we don't want people to avoid eating if that's really what they want to do. We just want to put a small barrier, a small thought, a small reflection in the middle of that thought so that we can reflect on whether or not we are eating for pleasure, to cope, or eating because we are just simply triggered by a certain situation, or whether or not we're actually physically hungry, in need of calories and fuel.

Exercise BMR NEAT And Muscle

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Now, most people assume that to lose weight you need to move more, and that exercise is the biggest contributor to weight loss. And it's not. And for most people, even structured exercise only accounts for about 5 to 10% of daily calorie burn. Most of your calories are actually burned by something we call your BMR, your basal metabolic rate. This is the amount of calories that it costs to keep you alive, to keep your heart beating, your lungs breathing, and your brain functioning. Now, exercise is extremely important. Not only, not really because it helps you lose weight, it can contribute, but it helps to preserve muscle. And improving muscle keeps your basal metabolic rate higher, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of calories you burn throughout the day. Having more muscle not only increases your BMR, it improves insulin sensitivity, it supports cardiovascular health, it'll improve your mood, and it helps prevent weight regain. And of all the types of exercise that we can talk about, resistance training probably deserves special attention because that's the type of exercise that will help maintain muscle mass the best. And muscle mass is what will contribute the most to basal metabolic rate, the amount of calories you burn on a daily basis. With that being said, we do not want to be overlooking the small contributors that add up. There's something called neat or non-exercise activity thermogenesis. That's simply all of the movement that you do outside of formal exercise. It could be walking while talking on the phone, fidgeting, parking further away from the door. And for a lot of people, these small movements they actually burn more calories throughout the day than most people burn in the gym. So the key isn't finding one dramatic strategy, is stacking all of these small ones together. So if you're asking yourself, okay, right on, what actually works? What do clinical guidelines say surrounding weight loss? Well,

Guidelines Systems And Human Support

SPEAKER_01 19:54

the clinical guidelines consistently recommend three pillars. First, create a calorie deficit. Second, increase physical activity to maintain basal metabolic rate and muscle mass. And third, incorporate behavioral strategies. Now, behavioral strategies are changes in your behaviors that could include monitoring your progress or setting smart, realistic goals, reducing environmental triggers, knowing and understanding in what situations that you tend to want to use food as either a coping mechanism or in what situations that you are most likely to get triggered to use food habitually. You want to make sure to address emotional eating. I would always recommend anyone that wants to lose weight sustainably to surround themselves with experts like registered dietitians. But you also need to make sure that you clarify why you want to lose weight. External and internal motivators can often help you fuel that journey. And by external motivators, it could be I want to lose weight before my wedding to fit in a dress, or it could be I want to lose weight so I can be able to keep up with my family while they travel to Disneyland with my grandkids. Right now, what's interesting is that one of the strongest predictors of long-term success isn't having the perfect diet. It's human support, and people consistently do better when they do it with someone else. Either a coach, a dietitian, a physician, a support group, a friend. Weight loss becomes much harder when it's something that you're tackling alone. But weight loss doesn't need Perfection. It doesn't need perfect discipline. It needs a system. It needs to build meals around whole foods, to prioritize protein and fiber, to strength train regularly, to sleep well, to manage stress, to move throughout the day, to build accountability, and to be able to repeat those behaviors consistently. And then in that situation, when these things aligned, a healthy body weight just becomes a consequence of that life that you're living.

Motivation Life Gained Over Weight Lost

SPEAKER_01 22:39

Now, my final thoughts are that most people think that they're fighting for a lower number on the scale. They're not. They're fighting for healthier blood vessels and healthier joints, less pain, better energy. I've had patients tell me that the reason that they wanted to lose weight is to hike with their family. Another patient told me that she simply wanted to be able to wash herself. People lose weight for different reasons, but it's very often not about the weight loss, but about the life gained. About being able to sit on the floor and play with your grandkids. Now, weight loss isn't the destination. Often just one of the many signs that your biology is moving in the right direction. And if your goal is simply to be lighter, you'll probably end up losing some motivation along the way. Now, willpower is a very useful tool, but it is a finite resource. So you need to make sure to build internal motivation that is finding your why, finding your own personal reasons to build the body that carries you through the next several decades of your life with strength, independence, and vitality.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Not about the weight. Right on. Thanks so much.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

I am sorry that people online have this really common misunderstanding of what obesity means. It is a complex chronic disease that is not a matter of willpower. Maybe willpower worked for you, and some people can absolutely willpower themselves into weight loss. I want you to find deeper, meaningful reasons not just to lose weight, to gain life, to gain independence, but the most important thing is to live a life that is aligned with your values so that you're able to carry that new body of yours for decades into the future. Right on. Thanks so much. We'll see you at the next episode.

Resources Social Links And Goodbye

SPEAKER_01 25:24

Peace.com to find free downloadable resources. And remember that you can find me on Facebook and Instagram at Dr. Jewel's Cormier and on YouTube at Plantbase Doctor Jewels.