Transcript of Episode 81: Weight Loss Resistance
With Dr. Daniel Pompa
Meredith:
Episode 81. How you doing, Dr. Pompa?
Dr. Pompa:
Excellent, excellent. I’m standing today next to my board which I will pull over when I need it. You know you’re going to get a good teaching today when the board is here.
Meredith:
We do. I’m excited! Our topic today is Weight Loss Resistance. It’s a huge topic. I know a lot of you watching, and so many of us out there, struggle with our weight. I just put up some quick data from the CDC this morning and 35% of adults are obese—not even as overweight, obese.
Dr. Pompa:
That’s incredible.
Meredith:
Sixty-nine percent of adults are overweight. So many people struggling with being overweight, being obese, and even actively trying to lose weight and just not being able to get the scale to budge. It’s a really, really important topic and I know you have some answers and some solutions and explanation as to why this is happening for so many people, too. Why don’t we back up a little bit, if you can just explain what weight loss resistance is—the state of weight loss resistance—and why so many people are struggling with the inability to lose weight.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. I mean simple definition it’s the inability to lose weight despite what you eat and how much you exercise. Do I have some people’s attention yet because I think that when we talk about weight loss, a lot of people think it’s just you’re a glutton, I just can’t stop eating. I remember years ago we marketed the fact that it’s not your fault. It was just a huge pull for people because that was it. People understood that, gosh, I just keep failing, and they beat themselves up—I just give in, I’m eating this way and then all of a sudden I just give in. That’s a hormonal issue. Really, it’s not your fault. It’s part of weight loss resistance. When we look at the hormones involved in why people can’t lose weight despite what they ate and how much they exercised, we realize that the inability to lose weight is more about hormones than what you eat and so there’s a reason for that that you’re going to get on this show. Meaning that you could eat the perfect diet—I know these people, it’s like I eat better than any one of my friends, I eat better than anyone in my house, and yet I still have this, right, or that area that they just can’t lose that extra 10, 20, 30, or even budge from where they are. There is an epidemic answer and it’s happening huge. It’s happening to more and more people.
Meredith, this wasn’t a problem until literally the last ten years that we’ve seen an explosion of weight loss resistance. An explosion—and there is a reason. The better part is there’s an answer. There is. I never, ever, thought I was going to be the weight loss expert out there and I still don’t want to be labeled as that. My goal in love is to get very sick people well with unexplainable illnesses. I love that. That’s what really cranks my clock because I was one. I’ve been called to that. However, how did this weight loss thing come about?
Most people that have neurotoxic illness or neurotoxins cannot lose weight regardless of what they do because it is, in fact, a hormone issue. That’s what people have to understand. There are hormones that make you fail on your diet, meaning it’s not your fault. You’re going along and you do great for a month. It really is, and I’ll explain why this is a cellular issue, but you fail. You cannot not eat the bread or whatever it is and you give in to it and there’s the people, Meredith, who are steady with their perfect diet all the time and don’t fail because they give in—because that’s one subset, that the other group is perfect all the time and still can’t lose weight. We’re going to have answers for both of those people on the show.
Meredith:
It’s so frustrating for so many people, too, I know, that say that they’re doing everything right, eating well, exercising, and still can’t lose those last 10-15 pounds, sometimes even more than that. You just see the frustration and it’s the lack of understanding. I think this answer’s going to be really important to hear for a lot of people.
Dr. Pompa:
I think when we talk about weight loss I always like to start here. It’s 180 degree concept, or a 180 degree solution, when we talk about weight loss. First of all, there are a lot of myths. I think one of the biggest myths is fat makes you fat. Something I always say is no, no, no, look, fat doesn’t make you fat; it’s the inability to burn your fat that’s the problem. That’s a hormone issue, so we’ve got to talk about that.
I think another myth is that we just cut our calories—you’re eating too much, you’re just a glutton, right? That has to be dealt with.
Finally, the third myth is you’re just lazy. You exercise more—just get your butt out there and exercise and run—no, no, no. These people who are weight loss resistance, they’re doing everything. I mean, do you ever see the aerobics’ instructor that still has about 20 to loose and she’s in there 6 classes a day? I mean, look, our government—
Meredith:
Eating a low-fat, low-calorie diet, too, on top of that.
Dr. Pompa:
What’s that?
Meredith:
Eating a low-fat, low-calorie diet on top of that.
Dr. Pompa:
There you go! Low-fat, low-calorie, exercise your butt off. If that worked, we’d be a skinny nation because we eat more low-fat, more low-calories—look at the calories on this verses the calories on that—and we exercise like mad people. It’s not working, folks! It’s not going to work because it’s not the problem. We don’t need—listen, I love exercise, but it’s the cherry on the top. You should be thin and lean and lose weight without even any exercise. Again, I love exercise, I think it’s very healthy, but let’s take it out of this equation. Please! Our government wants to think it’s about our kids are fat and obese because of the lack of exercise. Oh, hogwash! It’s bologna! Then we think it’s just all of these calories we’re eating. Hogwash! In my -inaudible- really the low-fat movement is still going despite volumes of literature showing that we actually need fat to lose fat. It’s remarkable to me! I get so frustrated, but it gives me a job. It gives me something to talk about that I still have to battle low-fat diets, low-calorie diets. Let’s pound the pavement outside, let’s bust those myths before we get in to the answer.
-inaudible- Yeah, love it. Low-calories—what the heck is going on with low-calorie diets? Does it work, that’s the question I’m always asked. Look, I can tell you right now, it works for about ten pounds. Guys out there maybe 20—it’s the 20, but you still have 40 more—so it doesn’t work long term. Anybody can cut calories and lose that initial five or ten pounds, but here’s the problem—eventually you need more and more and more caloric restriction. You have to bring it down because you lose that five or ten pounds and then you stop. Then what you have to do is you have to cut them again, and again, and again. All of a sudden, you’re down to 500-800 calories and the weight loss just stops because the lower you go in calories, the lower your metabolism goes, so you’re headed for failure, there’s a reason for that so that’s the point.
We can’t just keep cutting, cutting—the metabolism goes up and then we get skinny-fat. Your body starts to burn its muscle and it keeps its fat. Now you look like your scale weight goes down but you’re getting skinny-fat and, really, it looks worse. Caloric restriction does not work long-term. Every one of us have cut calories, probably, back in the day and go, yeah, but it works. Yeah, but not long-term and when you have only five or ten pounds, you kind of lose that, but then you lose muscle and you slow down, so it never, ever, ever really works. There is that—
Meredith:
Isn’t it—?
Dr. Pompa:
Go ahead.
Meredith:
Isn’t it true for a lot of people that have that skinny-fat they have fatty liver issues as well?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, a lot of people that have skinny-fat they say well, gosh, they think that they’re healthier because they’re not obese, but you’re right, typically they hold was what called a fatty liver. If you have a husband or wife out there that they can eat everything and they’re fine—not. Typically they’re the ones that have the heart attack, end up with the disease; the bottom falls out—because their liver gets fatty. You’re going to store that darn fat supply somewhere; it’s either in the liver or on your body. Genetics will determine that. Yeah, the fatty liver’s more dangerous than storing it around your waist, believe it or not. Yeah, nobody gets away with it. -inaudible- there goes the caloric thing. You know, you’re headed for trouble—eventually you’re going to break and give in, and then you end up more fatter—more fat, I should say. More fatter? I actually made two incorrect statements all in one phrase. You end up more fatter. You end up more fat because it’s the yo-yo thing. You end up going down, down, down, down, down, down. You end up skinny-fat with less muscle and then you can’t withstand it anymore and so you start eating the bad diet after a month of doing this and then brooom! You end up fatter with a lower metabolism. Ahh, it’s a disaster, it’s a disaster.
Meredith:
-inaudible- from you started often. I bet some people are thinking, too, what about the five to six many meals a day that seems to work for some people. What are your thoughts on that?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, well, okay that brings me in to a very, very, important conversation because I’m always asked that. You know if you eat—I mean most trainers, most dieticians tell people to eat five to six meals a day. Just like a caloric restriction, Meredith, it actually works. There’s a reason why, but it works here and not here, so it doesn’t work long term because when you’re eating five to six meals a day, you don’t ever give your time to burn this, you see—because you’re always eating. It never goes and says okay I have to burn this. You and I, we take a lot of time in between meals, so therefore our body needs energy, it’s burning our fat and there’s a benefit to that.
Next week we’re going to talk about anti-aging. How to look amazing at 50 or 60 and beyond because there are some really amazing tricks to that that actually work and it’s not a serum, I can promise you. Anyway, the key is controlling glucose and insulin. That is very, very important. The only real way to do that, Meredith, is not eat and be an efficient fat-burner. The problem is—here’s the problem—I’ve got to bring the board in to this part of the conversation as we talk about meals. I’m going to tip this down, I’m going to bring you all over here, I think we can see—yeah, it’s perfect, okay. My head’s a little cut-off. I guess I could give myself a little bit of breathing room. Okay, I have said this again and again and again. It’s about the cell. This is the key. You know you don’t feel well; you don’t get well until you what, Meredith?
Meredith:
Fix the cell.
Dr. Pompa:
Fix the cell. You won’t lose weight until you fix the cell, either, so let’s talk about that. Here’s the thing—let’s start right here. Your cells can only use two things for energy, sugar or fat. If you’re at home, write it down. I’m not going to teach you bio-chemistry but I want you to know that simple fact, that the cell can only use two things for energy, sugar or fat. Very healthy people that can stay lean their whole life and feel good with lasting energy and sleep well; they have the ability to burn fat or sugar. Fat or sugar. Most American’s, Meredith, are stuck as sugar-burners, meaning that they have the hormonal ability to only burn sugar. They don’t have the hormonal ability to utilize fat as energy. This explains why all diets fail. This explains why you get the cravings and you can’t control them. It also explains why people just stop losing weight and can’t lose anymore because here’s the deal—when our cells can burn sugar or fat, when you don’t have sugar then what are your cells going to use for energy? Fat, right?
Meredith:
Fat?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. When you don’t have glucose—so if I’m not eating, my body goes in to the ability to burn my fat that’s all around my body and the cell uses this energy. It’s a cleaner burning energy. It ages you slow. We’ll talk about that next week. When you don’t have the hormonal ability to burn fat, then your body needs to only, it can only use sugar. Why is that a problem? Here’s why. You’re going to either get a craving you can’t resist or your body’s going to eat your muscle and lower your metabolism.
For example, you’re going along your day and your body needs energy, but it can only burn sugar. Hormonally, it can’t burn fat. It doesn’t want to waste and cannibalize its muscle because it needs it—fight or flight—it always wants to survive. What it does is it says, “Meredith, eat carbohydrates. We need sugar.” Therefore, you get this irresistible craving for bread, sugar, cake, whatever it is, or simply just to eat—which it knows you eat carbohydrates because it wants to get sugar. It can’t burn its fat around its body. Eating five meals a day keeps you from burning your muscle, so therefore your metabolism stays up and it works, but the problem is you never tap into your fat. It’s a bad idea, so long-term, no good.
The key then is if we can get our cells hormonally to burn fat now when you’re not eating, your body goes, “Oh, we have all this fat. Let’s start to burn it, metabolize it.” Now you have lasting energy and you’re what? You’re getting naturally thinner. When you're not eating, you don't get cravings, by the way. You go, “Oh, geez, I haven't eaten in eight hours.” You're not hungry because your body's been eating for eight hours, keeping its glucose levels perfect. That's not what happens to most Americans.
What happens to most Americans is they get the craving they can't resist. I told you it wasn't your fault; that's a hormone problem. Let me explain what happens there. Do you have any questions? Did I explain that well? Does that make sense?
Meredith:
Oh, I think it makes great sense, and I've got some other things to add, but I think this is going to be important to draw out why people -inaudible-.
Dr. Pompa:
Let me just give one example. If you look at a diabetic, a type-2 diabetic that has a lot of insulin but they can't use it. They're not getting the glucose in the cell, because that's what insulin does. It shuttles sugar into the cell. They have their highest glucose levels typically in the morning, and people say, “Why is that? I haven't eaten for 10 hours, 13 hours. Why is my glucose highest in the morning?” I always say, you ate all night long. Because of your inability to burn fat and utilize fat at the cell for energy, your body will take muscle through the night, and it'll burn the muscle into sugar, or it will dump your stored sugar. Either way, it's bad. Therefore, you wake up with this high glucose level.
Now, if your body had a hormonal ability to burn fat at night, you would wake up with a normal glucose. At night, you do need a lot of energy and your body burns fat. Americans, we always wake up in the morning and we look leaner, literally. We burn that little bit of fat because we haven't eaten for many hours. With that, you have to get the cell to burn fat, so let's talk about that and then we'll add it.
Okay, so I've always said that the key to all hormone problems is these receptors to the hormone. We've talked a lot about thyroid hormone, which has a lot to do with your ability to—your cell to use fat for energy. We talked a little bit about a hormone called leptin that controls your appetite and indirectly, your body's ability to burn fat, and insulin, which is also—when insulin is up, your body stores fat or burns fat. These guys have a lot to do with your body's ability – these are the fat-burning hormones, if you will. These hormones somehow, directly, indirectly, signal your brain to burn fat or store fat, to eat, not to eat.
This is all controlled by hormones. There's probably others, as well; of course there are, but let's focus on these. These hormones have to attach to these receptors, like insulin, and once it does, then the hormone does its job. Then insulin can bring the glucose into the cell, and then it can be burned for energy. When that doesn't work, when these receptors to insulin don't work right or get blunted—and we always say that blunting happens from inflammation. Remind me—ask me the major cause of that, because that's important, but inflammation of the cell, which we hear all these things about inflammation causes cancer, causes diabetes, causes this, causes that. We're talking about cellular inflammation that blunts these antennas, these receptors to the hormones.
Now insulin can't get the message in. Now glucose builds up outside the cell. So does insulin. That ages you prematurely and drives more inflammation. When insulin and glucose go up out here, you get fat. That's not good. Leptin is another hormone that when it binds to the receptor, it shuts off the hunger. It makes you satisfied, and it indirectly kicks in your body to burn fat, which ultimately also shuts down the hunger and the desire for food. It kicks in this metabolism. You feel good because you're burning your fat. This is another really important hormone but again, when inflammation blunts those receptors, now you can't hear the hormone. Now you start to not burn fat for energy. You simply can't control your hunger often times, right?
This is the key. If we can get the cell to listen to these hormones—and of course, we get—talk the same about thyroid hormone. If we could get ourselves hearing these hormones better—and that means we have to reduce inflammation, get these receptors working again. Now they get their message into the cell, and now you can become and efficient fat-burner again. Therefore, now Meredith, when you're not eating, you're burning fat.
Now when your body wants to efficiently get energy, it can utilize your fat supply. It won't touch your muscle; your metabolism stays up; no more skinny fat. Consistent energy through the day; no more brain fog. The key, though, is you have to get yourself hearing these fat hormones, if you will; these hormones that regulate metabolism, eating food, your desire to eat, not to eat, and fat-burning itself. The key is we have to reduce the cellular inflammation and get these receptors working again.
Now, I want to make one comment, and then I want you to ask me some questions that those people watching would ask. The key is – the key to weight loss and hormone problems is to get these receptors working here in the hormones because I said that weight loss has more to do with hormones than it does even with the food that you eat. We want to reduce inflammation, and we can talk about that, but we want to get these receptors working.
I said that you need fat to burn fat. Well, these hormone receptors ride on something that's called a lipid raft. That is a raft made of fat. The two fats that are most responsible for stabilizing this hormone receptor to make it work are cholesterol and saturated fat, the two fats.
Meredith:
Oh, no, cholesterol and saturated fat!
Dr. Pompa:
Those're the two fats that're just vilified They are the bad guys. Again, our government says, “Stay away from these fats.” Well, meanwhile, they're the very fats that people who struggle to lose weight need, but here's the problem You have to be able to break these fats down, utilize these fats and when you do, we can start to get this receptor to the hormone healthy. We need these fats.
Now, low-fat diets do not work. It's not my opinion; it's fact. Low-fat diets do not work. The key is we need these fats to get the hormone receptors working, so we need fat to burn fat. We need fat to fix these hormone receptors, and we need fat to get ourselves to become efficient fat-burners. It's a hormone problem. It's at the cell. The fats that they're telling us to stay away from are the very fats that we need; has nothing to do with calories, and has everything to do with hormones.
Meredith, I don't eat a lot of food. I eat very nutritious, dense foods. My body tells me when to stop eating. When I'm not eating, I'm burning fat. That's because my cells hear the hormones. This is the key to feeling good, your brain to work better. This is the key to staying lean and healthy without a fatty liver. Right there.
Okay, hopefully, you can ask me some questions.
Meredith:
Yeah, 180 concept; eat fat to lose fat. Write that down. Just to back up a little bit, too, you said that inflammation is blunting these hormone receptors on our cell so that these hormones aren't communicating to—for our cells to burn fat. What's causing this inflammation in the first place?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I give three major causes. First of all, right now, people are eating a lot of a particular fat that, ironically enough, our government says is a good one; it's not. It's vegetable oil. Polyunsaturated fatty acids are very vulnerable to heat and any type of denaturing. They denature; they become a rancid, toxic fat. I think we all remember—we at least understand the damages of these man-made fats like hydrogenated oils or partially hydrogenated oils. Trans fats is probably a better word that most people—because things say, “Trans fats-free,” and this and that.
Great. We've got those fats out of most foods today because they don't market well. People don't want them. They don't even know why they're bad, necessarily. They're bad because they come in and they stick to your cell membrane. Fat attracts fat. This membrane is made of fat, by the way. That's why it's so important to eat good fats. Those fats come in. They attach to the membrane. We'll make them as circles. What happens is they drive inflammation. They blunt those hormone receptors. They cause hormone resistance. Ultimately, whether it's diabetes where you can't hear the hormone insulation; whether it's hypothyroid, we can't cure the hormone thyroid, a thyroid hormone, T3, or whether it's leptin resistance, which has a direct effect on your body's ability to get rid of fat and use fat and even your appetite That is key that we understand that these fats, these bad fats come in, and they drive the inflammation, blunt those receptors.
The big one, though, that people are eating today and they don't realize how bad it is is vegetable oils. As a matter of fact, I always say this. I have no problem with vegetable oils in vegetables, very healthy, very -inaudible-. Doesn't drive cellular inflammation. Pulling vegetable oil out of the vegetable and now put it in potato chips, bread, cookies, everything that kids are doing today. Of course, now we're eating rancid oil, just like the hydrogenated trans fats that come in, that come into the cell, and they drive inflammation.
That's the link to diabetes. Again, once something in government gets going, it's almost impossible to pull it back. They're saying low fat is good, and eat vegetable oils. Exact opposite of what studies show. There's many studies out there, studies in multiple different universities, Harvard and on, that show that fats like saturated fat actually fix and improve hormone resistance; go figure. Fats like vegetable oils are the culprits driving hormone resistance, whether it's your thyroid problem or your diabetes insulin problem, or just the inability to lose weight. Stay away from vegetable oils. Start eating more of these healthy saturated fats from grass-fed animals, not regular meat in stores. Those create bad fats when cows eat grain. We've talked enough about that in the past; we don't have to get into it. We want good, solid fats.
Again, Meredith, we've done more articles and more shows on what those fats are. In the “Cellular Healing Guide” book, we list all the good fats in the “Cellular Healing Guide” book. They're there; even the fats to cook with. Often times, people take a good fat, like olive oil, overheat it, and now it becomes a rancid fat that can also drive inflammation. Butter, such a great fat that fixes the cell membrane, real grass-fed butter, like Kerry Gold you can buy in most stores now. That's a great fat that helps these receptors. You brown it and it starts to smoke, you made a bad fat or a good fat bad. Now that, too, can drive oxidation of this membrane.
It's in the book. I don't remember the page. It used to be Page 19, but maybe it's something else now. Those fats are in the book, Meredith, and you can probably talk about—you can probably point them to some articles to know which fats are safe and which ones aren't. It's not the ones that you think, folks. It's not the fats you think
Meredith:
Yeah. Eat Fat, Lose Fat article that we posted a couple months ago on DrPompa.com lists some of the good fats to cook with. My favorite high heat fat to cook with is avocado oil. It actually has a smoke point, I think, of—it's over 500 degrees. From my research, that is—seems like it's the best high heat cooking oil, and I like coconut oil a lot for higher heat, moderate heat, about 350 degrees or so cooking, too. Those are two really good ones for high heat cooking. Any saturated fat, like a grass-fed beef, any fat that's solid at room temperature is going to be better for high heat cooking because it's stable.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, saturated fats are stable, right? Exactly. Polyunsaturated fats like vegetable oils, canola oils, they are not stable. They're rancid oils that drive inflammation. That's one, just to keep with the show here. You need fat, the right fats, to fix these receptors, to help fix the cell membrane. Those are the building blocks that we need to—for hormone problems, and those are the fats that people are staying—are being told to stay away from. There's good cholesterol unsaturated fats. Butter is not bad. There's another 180 degree myth. Butter is very good; just don't overheat it. Olive oil is great, too. Again, we're not here to talk about every fat; you can look at our materials to get that.
Let's talk about—we talked about raising glucose and insulin Every time you spike glucose and insulin, you drive this inflammation big time. It ages you prematurely. That's why diabetics, they don't die from diabetes. They die from heart disease, strokes, elevation of cancer. Why? Because spikes in glucose and insulin, despite taking your medication, despite—every time it spikes, it drives inflammation of the cell. Ages you prematurely
Meredith:
-inaudible- too many diabetics.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, so the diabetics, they have—they literally eat—they have neuropathies. Their nerves—because the elevation of glucose and insulin, their nerves start to decay. Their nerves inflame, the cells in the nerves. Of course, they end up with major problems from that.
If you want to age faster than anybody that you know, simply elevate glucose and insulin You will oxidize these membranes. You will drive hormone problems. That's why diabetics end up with thyroid conditions and vice-versa. That's why they end up with weight problems or fatty livers. That rising glucose and insulin drives inflammation and it blunts these receptors to the hormones. Remember, I have to always say this. The answer to these hormone epidemic, whether it's thyroid, diabetes, testosterone, estrogen, it's not getting more hormones.
Now the answer is getting the cell to hear the hormones. Therefore, that is fixing this inflammation problem. We start with getting rid of the main things that we know drive it; the bad fats we just mentioned. We have to control glucose and insulin. Meredith, the five strategies articles—we could call that the five strategies for weight loss resistance Number one, control glucose and insulin. We give you ideas in that article to do that. The Cellular Healing Diet does that. Sometimes, we have to put people in keto-adaptation, which is an advanced cellular healing diet. We've written articles about keto-adaptation. When you get these guys in control, then now you're aging slower. We're going to build on that next week.
I have to say that the key to that, though, is we have to get your cells utilizing fat because that normalizes your glucose. That's very, very important point to make. We don't want to spike these guys to drive inflammation, and third, just to finish this off of the three major things that drive inflammation—this is the big one. This is the big one that's driving, I believe, the epidemic that we've seen in the last ten years. I'll mark these guys with big Xs. These Xs are toxins. Toxins make their way to the fat membrane, and toxins are driving inflammation like nobody's business.
If you're somebody out there that struggles to lose weight, there is no doubt in my mind that despite what you do, it does not matter. If you're the classic weight loss-resistant person, toxins is the issue. This is the hidden epidemic. This is what's blunting the hormone receptors. This is what's driving brain fog, lack of energy. If you have a lack of energy, it's because your cells aren't making the energy called ATP. That's the gasoline.
See, we have lasting energy because our bodies burn fat when it burns energy when we make ATP for our fat. We have consistent energy day in, day out, all day long. We sleep well. We have good brain function because it needs ATP for your brain to work. Most people are surviving on glucose only, the hormonal inability, because of this: to utilize their fat and therefore, they're up and down with their brain working, can't burn their fat. They don't have steady energy. This is the epidemic We have to get the cell hearing these hormones, become an efficient fat-burner.
Now you forget to eat because your body's utilizing fat. Now your glucose and insulin levels are controlled all day long. You're living longer without inflammation, feeling better. That's it.
Meredith:
Yeah, wow.
Dr. Pompa:
I probably got you going with more questions.
Meredith:
You do, yes. So the three things that are really driving this hormone dis-regulation, which is—which leads to the weight loss resistance, just to review, are bad fats. Controlling blood sugar is key to -inaudible- the inflammation, but toxicity, this toxicity issue is driving all of this hormone dis-regulation. We ideally, then, once you decrease all this inflammation, fix our cell membranes, and then shift over into fat-burning mode. People are probably wondering what is this fat-burning mode we're speaking of? Ketosis -inaudible- to this podcast who are watching us. Can you just explain that, give a little bit of an overview in how to shift over into the fat-burning mode so your cells can start to burn fat instead of just relying on glucose for energy?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I mean, I think we do have some strategies. Matter of fact, the Five Strategies article. I think that people are going to get a lot of great information from those articles. I guess if they just go to articles and put in Five Strategies, it'll—would it come up if they did that in the search bar in there in my articles?
Meredith:
Yep, at DrPompa.com, if you are on the home page, you can just click on Articles, and there's some of the most recent articles. They're, The Top Five Strategies for Your Best Health, and these are Dr. Pompa's five strategies to get to where you want to get with your health, and also they're amazing strategies for breaking out of weight loss resistance. You'll find those under the Articles tab. That'll take you to the page where you can read all the articles.
Dr. Pompa:
One of the things we talk about in there is diet variation and how varying your diet really gets your body hormonally to become more sensitive. Your body drives hormones like growth hormone, and testosterone, and these anabolic hormones that keep us in a better fat-burning mode. Also, it down-regulates inflammation.
Read the article Diet Variation. We also talked about intermittent fasting and how we utilize intermittent fasts to become more efficient fat-burner. Again, when you look at the studies on intermittent fasting, yes, it raises growth hormones, which helps the sensitivity of the cell membrane to become more sensitive to hormones, but that's what it shows. It shows that the cells becomes more sensitive to hormones. Therefore, we can start to become more efficient fat burners.
I think that some people, before they do some daily intermittent fasting, which we talk about in that article, I think they need to do some detox first often times. That's a really important thing that I'd like to talk about next. The last strategy in that five series is true cellular detox. Notice I said cellular detox. That's the key. I think that I can explain that system, and why that works for weight loss, and how that applies to fixing the cell.
Let's talk a little bit about that strategy. I do want to encourage you. We've done so many shows on these other topics, like intermittent fasting, which I think is an amazing strategy to become more of an efficient fat burner and also the Diet Variation. Please read those articles. I'll talk a little bit about this detox thing because I do believe—I'm going to have trouble getting this out there; I can just tell.
Okay, there we go. That's tight. Wow, ignore this little thing. Okay, so let's talk about we said that the cell is the key, right? Up here, we want to get the cell functioning to fix the cell. There's my five Rs, which really is the road map to how to fix a cell. Again, if we're going to get efficient fat burners, we have to fix the cell, and we're talking about detox here.
The problem is so many toxins shut down the cell function, and now the cell can't get rid of toxins. That's a big issue, too, because in every cell is a nucleus. It has our DNA in it. We all have certain DNA that's good and bad that we got from Mom and Dad. When the cell starts to build up toxins, we can actually trigger and turn on those obesity genes or those inability to lose weight genes, if you will.
The good news is some science shows we can also turn them off. That's part of my five Rs, if you haven't read those articles. Read them because that really is the understanding of how we can get the cell functioning and actually turn off these bad genes that we don't like, whether it's a thyroid condition we're expressing, diabetes. We get these susceptibilities from our parents, but just because you have—
I have three, Meredith, of the four obesity genes, me; three of the four obesity genes. Obviously, it's not triggered, but I could easily trigger that gene. At one point in my life, I was very skinny fat. I get it. When I was sick, I get even more skinny fat. I was losing muscle and just could not burn my fat around my waist. For someone who's thin, it looks even worse than those roly-polys. To me, the skinny fat's even worse; maybe because I am one. I have the ability to be one.
When that gene gets turned on, we get dim. We have to turn it off. The five Rs is really about fixing the cell. Then we have the ability to turn off those genes that have been triggered. We want to fix the cell Obviously, we want to fix the membrane. R number two is regenerating the cell membrane. R number three is restoring cellular energy, and R four is reducing inflammation. Really, R five is reestablishing methylation, which plays into turning off bad genes.
R number one is removing the source. We have to do it at the cell. Once we get the cell functioning, now we can start to dump toxins from the cell. Most of those toxins make their way to our downstream detox pathways like our liver. Once it goes into the liver, it has to be processed. Then it typically—then makes its way to the intestines. If that's the liver, then we can also—we bring some to our kidneys. I always call these my bananas because I don't know how to draw kidneys. I don't know who does. We can draw our skin, our lymphatic. There's other detox pathways, but this is the main way the body removes toxins.
True cellular detox, there's three components. Number one, we have to get the cell working because that's it. We have to go all the way upstream to here whereas most detoxes, whether it's a colon cleanse, a liver cleanse, they're down here. They're not up here. Those things are great because the second component to true cellular detox is opening up detox pathways. We want the gut to be healed. A lot of our intermittent fasting and ancient healing helps heal the gut. We want these pathways to open up so there's nothing wrong with a colon cleanse or the ten-day liver cleanse, if you will, but it's down here. It's not here.
Part of the second component is opening up these detox pathways, getting the cellular detox pathways open. Then the third component is using true binder—I'll say true because most herbal things, and binders, and detox products that people buy out there, including corella, cilantro, they don't work. Sometimes, they can even make you worse because they're very weak binders.
True binders have—they grab onto these toxins and help this whole system. It escorts it out of the body very well. We've talked about the new cellular detox product that we use. We've talked about things like DMSA that is very—people can't get anymore because the FDA—true binders. We've talked about -inaudible-acid and these true binders. They're all in my articles. I wrote the article True Cellular Detox. You can learn more about this.
The point that I want you to get here for the sake of time is this: the ten-day cleanse that you buy in your health food store, the colon cleanse that you get who knows where, it's way down here; the products, the milk thistle—you go through the list, it's down here. We have to get it coming from the cell, the five Rs, getting the cell function going, removing the toxins out, and then keeping it moving out.
A lot of people would dump the toxins in their gut, Meredith, and they'd reabsorb it back into the liver. Then they reabsorb it back into the blood stream. This is why I call this true cellular detox because you have to get to the cell to get well. Now once we start getting the cells detoxing themselves, that's the magic. Then the exposures that you brought into—because we can't stop it. It's impossible. Now your cells' getting rid of it naturally. You're not turning on bad genes. More importantly, you're not driving inflammation of the membrane and blunting the hormone receptors.
Once we can remove—start to remove these toxins from the cell and out of the body, now what happens is the cell can start hearing the hormones again, and that's the key The analogy I always love to give—everybody's taking more hormones, and it works a little bit in the beginning. You feel a little bit better, whether it's estrogen, testosterone, any hormone, thyroid hormone, but eventually it's like shouting at our kids. In the beginning when you yell loud, that's giving more hormones. It works. The kids listen. Eventually, they stop hearing you. You either have to yell louder, which makes them even more deaf to your words, you eventually you start whispering and they start listening more.
That's what we want to do with our cell. Once we fix the cell, get the cell detoxing itself, this is where the health comes from. This is how you fix hormone conditions. This is how you get to be an efficient fat-burner. If you don't deal with this toxic epidemic at the cellular level, you're never, ever, ever going to get to be that efficient fat-burner, I don't care how many hormones you take.
Thyroid hormone? People say, “Yeah, I take my medication my doctor gives me, a thyroid hormone. My blood work gets better, but I still don't feel well.” You can take more of a hormone, but these receptors are getting more and more blunted. You're not getting to the cause. Ask your doctor, “Why are my hormone receptors not hearing the hormone? Why is my blood work still look better when I take the hormone, but I still don't feel well?” That's because they're not doing anything for your cell.
Detoxing the cell is the number one way to really become that efficient fat-burner. This is the toxins that we're introduced to in our beauty supplies, personal care products, the food that we're eating, the vaccinations, the yearly flu shots. These are neurotoxins. They're driving this epidemic of cellular inflammation. We've got to deal with the cause. There's no downstream solutions of special herbs, all these things that people want to take. We have to get upstream to this. This is real detox. This is the real answer to why people don't feel well and why people can't lose weight.
I know it's a lot, but Meredith, you probably have some questions, I hope, because that means they have questions.
Meredith:
Yeah, well, I just think it's so profound, too, to make a statement because so many people that want to lose weight don't think that toxicity is an issue. They just think they can change their diet and start exercising a lot and lose weight, but when you bring in a concept of true cellular detox and telling—and sharing information that if you don't get to the cell to fix your cells, you're never going to be able to lose weight, people then start to get it. I think for so many people, there's such a disconnect between their weight and the toxicity. I think that's just really profound.
I also wanted to talk about exercise, too, since that's something we've skirted around, haven't really delved into that, and that is one of the five strategies that we discuss in these articles, along with controlling blood glucose, diet variation, intermittent fasting, and the true cellular detox, which you just talked about. I think it's also a key component to this. Can you speak a little bit about exercise and the right way to do it and the wrong way to do it?
Dr. Pompa:
We look at—look, I think endurance exercise is great. I think that high-intensity exercise is great. I think there're benefits to both. However, for weight loss, there's one that works much better, and that's the high-intensity. We know from studies that people that go out and do the running and they just run, or the aerobics class, or—and they keep their heart in that fat-burning zone—do you burn more fat when you're in that mild, moderate heart rate? Yes. When you're exercising in that fat-burning zone, you burn more fat during exercise, but only when you're exercising for that 30 minutes to an hour.
After that, studies show the opposite happen. Studies show you actually start to—hormones for weight loss actually go down, the important anabolic hormones that we need to actually go lower, and cortisol, and some of these other hormones start to rise and put us into more of a fat-storing mode instead of a fat-burning mode after the exercise is done. Yes, you burn more fat during, but the problem is you have—people have a tendency to burn more muscle after endurance exercise because of the hormones that either get stimulated or not. Endurance exercise is not great for people who are struggling to lose weight.
Now, the opposite—studies show that high-intensity exercise raises growth hormone, raises anabolic hormones, and makes your membrane more sensitive to other hormones. That's a great thing for people who are struggling to lose weight. I said that you should be able to lose weight without exercise, so exercise is the cherry on the top. If you're going to do it, do the right one if you're struggling to lose weight. That is the high-intensity.
By the way, when you're doing high-intensity exercise, which we like to call burst training—and I've done articles on that. It's one of the strategy articles. What happens is you don't burn any fat at all. You actually burn stored sugar. Here's the magic: everything with weight loss is about adaptation and survival. What happens is your body says, “Uh oh, we have no stored energy.” What it does is for the next 24 to 36 hours, next day or two, it becomes this hormonally efficient fat-burner, and it starts to burn your fat to replace the glycogen.
Hormonally, a shift takes place with high-intensity training that works for the advantage of those struggling to lose weight. We want to do high-intensity, and a day in between high-intensity actually works better for people struggling to lose weight.
Read the articles; they're there. Just note this, for this show's sake: that there is an exercise that will assist you. You should be able to lose weight without it, but that is the cherry on the top, but do the right exercise if you struggle to lose weight. Get into high-intensity exercise. That makes the hormones go in the right direction and more sensitive to those hormones, and that's key.
Meredith:
Yeah, people still just on a treadmill for an hour running. A lot of them on the treadmills running these long distances, and even marathons, and there are still a lot of people who exercise for long periods of time that are very overweight, so just a huge disconnect and just I think it's so important to say you don't have to do that. You don't have to put yourself and your body through all of that stress to really get results.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, no doubt about it. This is true cellular detox. We have about 60 doctors trained around the country. We have a few that do virtual appointments. If people want help with that process, my passion has been to train doctors in true cellular detox and cellular healing. That's been the passion for people who don't feel well, don't know why. They've been down every road. We've seen absolute miracles happen, just understanding this process. You need coached. You need a coach. People hire a coach to be a better golfer. What more important than to really get your health back.
True cellular detox is a process that starts—it's -inaudible-. It is a pet peeve of mine when it comes to detox. Most people do it wrong. They don't get upstream high enough. There's so much sold out there that's just simply not real. This is the real deal.
Meredith:
It's dangerous.
Dr. Pompa:
It's dangerous, right. When I did cilantro—look, there's certain toxins that you just need a coach because there's multiple pitfalls in the process. You can't utilize certain true binders when you still have silver thorns in your mouth. Eventually it sets up a concentration ingredient, and people start losing more mercury from the filling because it starts moving out. There's a lot of pitfalls in the process. I took cilantro—I was juicing cilantro because I heard it moved heavy metals out of the brain. My wife almost had to check me into an insane asylum Literally, I did; I lost my mind. I hear those stories all the time because people read the article I wrote, When Detox Is Dangerous. You haven't read it, read it because it's true. There's a lot of things that can be wrong. It's like stirring a bee's nest. It causes a redistribution of heavy metals and some of these toxins that are worse than regular toxins. They cross into the brain, and that's a problem.
One of the things I always like to do is draw the brain here. That's a pretty good head. Here's the brain. I'll put a little eye there. Ultimately, we have to get to the toxins here today. Brain detox within this system is key. I said there's three components to true cellular detox. No, fix the cell. Go up here, open up these downstream pathways, and the third was use true binders. There's three phases to true cellular detox. Phase one is a preparatory phase where we prepare the cell and the pathways. That could last a few months or a month.
Then the other phase is the body phase where we clear out the body to set up concentration before we go into the brain and that deep nerve tissue. This is where people get their lives back. This is where I got my life back. That's the third phase of true cellular detox is the brain phase. There's three components that make up true cellular detox. There's three phases.
It's very important. Again, if we don't have a doctor trained in your area, we have—I do virtual. I have clients that're all over the world, from Singapore to New Zealand, Australia, Dubai. You name it, I have clients there. This is the magic. Most people that're dealing with heavy metals, biotoxins from mold, lime, certain kidney infections, these are big boy toxins. You really need a coach to walk you through this process.
That's the real deal. I want to move that over to give myself a little bit more room. Meredith, that is the real deal on what most people aren't doing and most doctors, “Oh, do a colon cleanse Do a liver cleanse, this cleanse, that cleanse” Way too downstream. The key to weight loss, the answer to weight loss resistance, you have to get the cell hearing the hormones. Why people can't lose weight today, it's a hormone problem. More specifically, it's a cellular problem. More specifically, it's a receptor problem.
Number two is really regenerating that cell membrane and the receptors to the hormones. Once we get the cells hearing our hormones, we feel good, weight loss, not giving in on diets. It's all very easy. Fix the cell, you get well.
Meredith:
Yeah. Amazing information. This is an amazing show. I hope you guys got a lot out of it. If you want to learn more, you can read the Five Strategies articles Definitely strongly encourage you to read through those five strategies because they are the answer to fixing cells and fixing your hormones so you can lose weight. Amazing information. Thank you so much, Dr. Pompa, for sharing your breadth of knowledge. It's just really amazing
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, well, we'll see you next week. We're going to talk about how to look better with longer, anti-aging. More importantly to me is feel better longer. I look younger, and I feel better at 50 than I did when I was at my 30s, no doubt, and every one of you can do that. Stay tuned next week. I think, Meredith, you said you could join us on that show, as well. You know a lot about the topic. You helped edit a lot of these articles, so you know where they're at. Read those articles and we'll see you next week.
Meredith:
Awesome; thanks, everyone. Have a great weekend.
