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Micro wisdom delivered to your ears every morning in voice notes ranging from 3 to 15 minutes long. Wisdom on how to live a healthier and more fulfilling life. Every podcast will ground you in the present moment to ensure you know what's important, the here and now.
Hello. Hello. Good morning. Welcome back to the one day at a time podcast. Today, I'm gonna cover a few studies actually, with a very interesting ones.
Speaker 1:So the first one is, does it matter what we think about weight? Okay? Because a lot of people think it's bad to be overweight. One study looked at it and saw saw that sixty one percent of adults who had been in a weight loss program said they've been discriminated against because of their body size. Nasty comments, stuff like that.
Speaker 1:A lot of people think being overweight is just bad in general. It comes from the media. Obviously, is being overweight and obese has health risks, and then what people have done, well that's bad, there's this health risks, then that means being overweight, you're a bad person, and it's like that's where it goes too far. You've got the external one, but this study looked at weight bias from the inside and this is what they call weight bias internalization. A new Canadian study published in the BMC Public Health showed that it's actually very common that there's more weight bias from internalization than saying someone else's weight is bad weight.
Speaker 1:It's always about us. We're bad weight right now. So people with higher BMI showed a higher degree of weight bias internalization against themselves and then others as well. So it's kind of a thing where because it's such a big thing in your life, you wanna lose this weight. There's a lot of pressure.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of stress. And a lot of pressure is self imposed. You know, you're putting this pressure on you to lose this weight quick because it needs to go quick and it's impacting your life and stuff, which is understandable, it becomes this big thing. And because it's a big thing to you, it is a big thing for everyone. But there's a lot of people walking around in the same size or slightly bigger, slightly less that are really taking it in their stride going yeah, I've got weight to lose over time and I'm gonna improve my habits, I'm gonna take it one day at a time and it's gonna come off but I'm gonna still enjoy my life, I'm not gonna say that I'm a bad person or look at weight as this all or nothing thing that's gonna fix my life.
Speaker 1:And there's also, you could say, the argument that a lot of rich people have this kind of thing where they're like, isn't everything, bro. I swear down. And, you know, what that really means to me is when I see it is that whilst they got all the money in the world, they've maybe neglected their friendships, their relationships, their lifestyle, like, you know, the things that matter, and they think money's everything. And I think a lot of people think money is everything, but money's definitely important for security. Let's not be fools about that and be like, money's not everything blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1:In this world with the rising costs, you know, financial problems, financial stress, having money, having more money can definitely help. I'm talking about like the the the rich rich where they're talking about cars and watches and all that. They've neglected the things that matter when they get it. Same with your weight loss journey. If you neglect the things that make your life great on your path of weight loss, once you get weight loss you will fail in your happiness.
Speaker 1:You will feel that you failed. I'm I've lost my weight now. Now what? Things should have changed. Things should have changed in my life.
Speaker 1:Everything should have changed. I've now okay. No one cares as much as you about your weight. That's the thing that's the thing about it. No one cares as much as as much as you, which is obviously, if you think about it, makes complete sense.
Speaker 1:But at the same time, it's like, as we're losing weight, when we think of our happy days, when we think of the days we enjoy, they're not really the the peak days, they're not our most athletic days of our life. It's like when we're feeling we're making some progress. When the sun is shining, you might be 40 away from your goal, you might be twenty pounds, you might be ninety pounds, but you're a few pounds in or you're a few weeks in, maybe you're a few months in, you've got this new routine going, you've met a few new friends online or in class, you're feeling a bit stronger, your work is going better or you're looking okay, can actually do this, I'm taking it one day at a time, how about I look at my other things in my life like my work life, my family life and you start thinking to be very optimistic, you've got this newfound energy that was always there, it was just blocked, right? And you're like, I'm not even at where I wanna be yet, but I'm I'm happy. I'm content.
Speaker 1:This is very, very common. A lot of people say when they reach the pinnacle of what they're trying to reach, they get really sad. You know, world champions say it all the time. They reach, they win, and then they get really depressed. Sad.
Speaker 1:I've done it now. And I think the the good thing about us on this journey is that there is no end to this journey we're on. So as long as we can enjoy it, the process, we look at this thing as a slow and steady a whole wellness type of thing. It's not just that we're gonna lose weight and things are gonna work for us. We have to think of mindset.
Speaker 1:We have to look into stuff like stoicism and philosophy. We've gotta be interested in these things. You know, these big questions about life. Otherwise, you're just going down one path and it's gonna end to ruin, really, because you're gonna go, oh, okay. Well, that's great.
Speaker 1:Okay. So the study basically to finish off about the study, females are more likely to show this than men, obviously. And what people and he says, and what did people think was the cause of being overweight? The top answers are overeating, seventy one percent. Noxious exercise, sixty seven percent.
Speaker 1:High fat diets, fifty nine percent. Right? So the thing is behavioral factors, know. And when you realize that, you know, we know it's energy in versus energy out for weight loss, for fat loss more specifically. It is energy.
Speaker 1:It's an energy problem. Okay? The energy in via food and energy out via, you know, the process that our body goes through to survive. Your your metabolic rate on metabolism is broken down into four things. Your base metabolic rate, you know, that's the biggest part, it's typically 50 to 60% of the calories you burn.
Speaker 1:That's like your organs, everything that's working in the body. Right? Then you've the thermic effect of food and all that is is the energy it takes to digest food. You know, that plays a role, 10% maybe. Then you've got your exercise activity.
Speaker 1:Anything you've done through exercise, 5% maybe, maybe less. And then you've got non exercise activity, you know, this is anything that's not exercising. This is like a this could range from 15% to 25 to 30%. It's the biggest part of your metabolic rate you can change with your behavior. So you can move more and it's not about always walking, it's about am I standing up more?
Speaker 1:Am I I taking the long way around? Am I parking my car further away? Like little things add up throughout the day and that's a big part, it's a big part of it. But it's important also that you know look at what's happening with energy in, what's going on with energy in. Because a lot of weight bias internalization in other studies is shown to be associated with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, mental health challenges.
Speaker 1:So if you're overweight and you're feeling bad about it, you think it's your fault, and you think it's a behavior thing, you think you should be able to change it right now, you're gonna get anxious and depressed. Right? And that makes everything harder. And we know when we're depressed or anxious or emotional, that we have emotional eating and stuff like that. But what you need to see is how does emotional eating link to overeating.
Speaker 1:You know, once you see these patterns, that's the important part. Like, why am I turning to food every time I'm bored? Why am I turning to food every time I get bad news? Why am I turning to food every time I feel stressed? Or why am I turning to food every time I feel like procrastinating?
Speaker 1:You know, it's really we're just escaping to a pleasurable feeling, and we know happiness and pleasure are not the same thing. People mistake them to be in the same thing, but they're not. Happiness and pleasure are different things. You don't you're not necessarily happy living a life full of pleasure. That's actually probably gonna hinder your happiness of anything.
Speaker 1:Because if you're chasing pleasure, pleasure, pleasure, pleasure, pleasure, your life becomes very like, it's it's a very vacant life. Cause these pleasures are empty. You know? And this is this is this classic philosophy, you know, like the choice of Hercules was one of those stories that led the ancients for hundreds of years, you know? Decide if you wanna be Hercules, the Hercules had a choice of going down the easy path with all luxury, girls, easy, all done the 12 labors and fight and overcome 12 massive challenges and it's not gonna be enjoyable all the time, it's not gonna be happy times all the time, you're gonna wanna quit, but you will become the person you're meant to be after those.
Speaker 1:And there's a really good quote by Epictetus, a famous philosopher who says, Who would Hercules be if he didn't go through the 12 labors? Well he wouldn't be Hercules at all and we wouldn't know about him today. So these challenges, these things you overcome make you who you are, and you wouldn't be anyone without your challenges. You should be withering away in the wind. So when we look at this full health picture, we need to understand what's happening with our eating behaviours based on our emotions.
Speaker 1:We have to know why we're doing it. Like when I'm bored I'll be like, oh it would be nice to have a five guys, it would be nice to have a takeaway tonight, or maybe something to look forward to, not doing anything. So I get that takeaway and the anticipation of it is even more rewarding than when it arrives. Know, when you're opening that bag up, you've got peak dopamine and this is shown in, you know, James Clear shows this in Atomic Habits very well. That it's just before, you know, the coffee or the caffeine thing, you get the stop, mean, it's not during it.
Speaker 1:And it's the same with the takeaway things. You think, oh, that's gonna be amazing, and it comes in like, yeah. And then you eat it very fast and it's over in two minutes. And then you go, why did I do that again? Why did I spend money?
Speaker 1:I had food in the fridge. I'm just consuming 2,000 calories. No. I don't feel great about it. Why did I get tricked about it all the time?
Speaker 1:This is because we think that that dopamine hit is going to solve things for us but it doesn't. Once you see that it has less power over you. We know that. So you need to start seeing these realizations. So you need to start writing down a journal and this is your task for today.
Speaker 1:Anytime you feel an urge to eat, write down what was the thing that caused that urge because there's a difference between hunger and craving. And to remind you, hunger is a deep bodily sensation, know, you are grumbling, it is your body needs energy. Craving can happen just after the full meal, just before, it can happen anytime. The craving is just desire. This is another word for desire.
Speaker 1:You are just desiring a pleasurable thing through food. Right? So you're not you're craving eating a chocolate bar, for example. Not necessarily because you care if it's chocolate or whatever. It's just like because it could be a pastry for me, chocolate bar for you.
Speaker 1:It's a different food for certain people. It's the pleasure we get from eating, and that's the craving. This is thought process. A craving is a thought process. Once you disrupt our thoughts, the craving can die, but the craving will always live if you fight the craving.
Speaker 1:If you're always fighting a craving saying, oh my god, I want that cookie. Oh my god. Why do I want that cookie? I've just had food. Why am I like this for?
Speaker 1:Why? Why do I keep doing this? I I want that. Oh my god. Smells amazing.
Speaker 1:Oh my god. Oh, should I have a You picture yourself. You create a picture in your mind of you eating this blinking cookie in front of you, how amazing it's gonna taste with this Nutella center. Right? It's just thoughts creating images about you having this thing, giving you pleasure.
Speaker 1:That's it. So you disrupt it, you go for a walk, you phone someone, you drink water, you drink Pepsi Max, so like you go and do something, go you move away from the situation. The more you think and fight, the bigger that craving is gonna get because there's more thoughts going into it. You These little things you start realizing over your journey but you have to it takes time, sometimes it'll take someone a few weeks to have some moments like bam, wow, okay. I get it now, some people it take months, you know, culture and all this stuff has been, you know, ingrained massively.
Speaker 1:Some people say, well, aren't you in diet culture, you know, trying to help people lose weight? And say, well, no, I'm not I'm not telling anyone what to eat. I'm not telling anyone strict meal plans, you know it's not about that, it's like complete freedom in the food choices you have whether you want to go higher carb, lower carb, whatever, but we have to understand that there is the law of energy that we have to abide if we want weight loss, it's got to be slow and steady, know. It's not like you go in the app and it says how much weight you want to lose and you go and lose 40 pounds by when? End of Feb and it goes okay your deficit is now 2,000 calories a day and I mean that'll give you like 900 calories a day, no way.
Speaker 1:We say that's not how we're going to do. If you wanna try and go down that route, you know, be my guest. But if you want what truly works, what we've seen worked over the years, the researcher behind it, the slow and steady method, the philosophical method, the way of thinking about your life, how it all ingrains, that's this method. And we do take it one day at a time, you know. That's the only way we can do this.
Speaker 1:So that's a bit of information on that study. There was another study as well I looked at, you know, like kids up from the age of 11 till 24 and what's happened over the years and basically their light activity has gone down. And what I mean by light activity is just standing up, moving about like the NEAT, right, non exercise activity, that part of your metabolic rate. They saw that it declined by 3.5 hours a day, right? But each minute of light activity was linked to 3.6 gram decrease in fat.
Speaker 1:Right? So, you know, not a massive amount, but when you add it up, it's quite a lot. So, again, this study just reinforces it's not really about the workouts that the kids are doing less of. It's like they're actually just moving less. They're just standing up less, they're like being just less active in general.
Speaker 1:So when it comes to what you think you've got to do, something is better than nothing, you know, standing up is better than sitting down, sitting up is better than laying on your back, These little things, you know, when you're sitting on the couch or you're laying down, okay, sit up. Okay, can you stand up for five minutes of it? Say, you know, you're watching a TV show. Can you just stand up for five minutes of every half an hour? Or for every hour you're watching someone, you stand up for fifteen minutes, walk about and you can watch something then.
Speaker 1:You think how is that going to make a difference? Of course it makes a difference. All these little things are the big things and you have control over that. So it's easy to do. So you're going to do a sixty minute workout at 7PM, no.
Speaker 1:Okay well at 7PM can you stand up and just be on your feet for twenty minutes and do whatever you want. Tidy up, watch TV, phone someone, do a work task, whatever is law. All of this works. That's the main thing about this. So you got your calorie, energy intake, you've got you wanna make sure you have decent decent amount of protein, and you got your step target, which is important because we know if you hit your step target, you're moving a certain amount a day.
Speaker 1:So you're moving a certain amount a day, steps are great. But on top of steps, you just want to generally be active. It's important. So we need to look at it. I don't want you to look at this and go, oh, Scott, give me five or six workers a week, what I'm missing.
Speaker 1:You're probably not missing that for weight loss, you're just missing being generally marketed. And the last study I wanna cover is diet drinks versus water for weight control. So back in the sixties, diet drinks came out, had, some form of sweetener in, connection with bladder cancer, and ever since then it's been, hey, it causes cancer. Right? There's plenty of studies that show the safety of modern sweeteners, in humans.
Speaker 1:You know, obviously in rats it shows different things, but they just wanted to see about weight management. So I'm not going to go into the cancer stuff because in moderation, diet drinks today are safe. Okay? There's people say about ingredients, you know, don't eat these chemicals and all that, scaremongering, like, These people are drinking alcohol, going out, partying, we're doing things all the time that's not best for our health, so we don't need to be one of those people that's like well you can't drink diet coke, then they're the type of people that will overeat on their calories every day, putting stress on the body that way. So, you know, there's different I don't know, there's a guy on TikTok called Eddie something, he's like dead against whey protein, he's like a former pro bodybuilder by the way, so he's proper injecting steroids for like twenty five years.
Speaker 1:And he's saying that whey protein is really dangerous and stuff. Someone went to his gym, he's selling it. This is what I mean, like just these people. Anyway, sweeteners, group one. Group one basically just had water, group two had sweetener drink.
Speaker 1:What they found was after two years actually of this long study that the sweet, the diet soda groups of the Pepsi Max or whatever lost slightly more weight than the water group, 16.5 pounds versus 13 pounds. No difference in hunger. So what this means is like drinking water before your meals, after meals is very effective and, you know, Pepsi Max and stuff is is effective as well. By the way, it's not sponsored by Pepsi Max. So if you like having a can or two a day, I had a tactical can yesterday.
Speaker 1:It was going into the evening. I was like, oh, I've just had my meal. Do do I have a sweet tooth right now? I was like, I just have a Pepsi Max. Salted me right out.
Speaker 1:I don't know why I would need that sweet tooth. Like, I'm trying to work out what what happens, but I think it's just that, you know, you've had your meal, and maybe some meals hit spot spartan and some don't. And, you know, you get some people if you eat it, like, a dessert, whatever, but Pepsi Max just sorted it out. So have it if you like diet sodas and stuff, moderately drink them. I'm not saying have 10 cans a day, but have one or two tactically through the day.
Speaker 1:If you know you get, like, some form of craving at, 2PM, have a have a diet have a diet coke or something at 2PM. Have a water, go for a walk. Then before you know it's 3PM and you're not hungry, then you're like, oh, it's nearly five when I'm meant to have my meal. Little things like this. So, yeah, don't, just don't go and guzzle it down right now.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of all the three studies I found that are quite interesting. You are the scientist of your own life, remember that. And every day, every day you take things one day at a time, you get to have an insight about yourself. So you get an insight into your behavior, your food intake, into how you feel, into that internal monologue you're listening to that could potentially be harmful. How do you think about your weight?
Speaker 1:How do you think about yourself? All of these things need to be addressed, but we address them slowly. But just want your task today to be like when you do feel an urge to eat or you want to turn to food, journal it down. Why? What will the food solve?
Speaker 1:And after that, do you think food is the solution to your current problem? And let me know if you find anything that's, you know, could change everything. But other than that, guys, have a good day, and I will speak to you all tomorrow.