The HG Media Content Development Team produced a series of Promotional Videos for Dr Rameck Hunt, Weight Management Program Director at the University Medical Center in Princeton New Jersey. In this promotional explainer video Dr. Rameck Hunt describes the science behind this new diet and exercise, healthy living app.
“Welcome to No Guess Work, the app that takes the guess work out of healthy living.
This is one of my most favorite things to talk about. We’ve learned a lot about weight management and weight-related conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. In fact, I think one of the most stunning things in managing your weight is that it’s not about willpower. We know that your body resists changes in weight, something called a set point. In your brain, there’s something called the hypothalamus which regulates a lot of things, including weight. Your body keeps a number of things regulated.
For example, your pH balance. Your body keeps a pH of 7.40. If your pH changes, your body has mechanisms to get it back to 7.40. Your temperature is set at 98.7. if your temperature changes, your body goes haywire in order to get it back to 98.7. Just imagine if your temperature was 100. You would be sweating and feeling awful until your body got back to its normal temperature.
The same goes for weight. The weight that you are today is tightly regulated in your hypothalamus, and if your weight changes, your body has mechanisms in place to bring your weight back to its baseline at any cost. This is why patients can say they lose five pounds, but then they gain it right back. This is because your hypothalamus is regulating your weight and wanting to be back to its baseline. That is what your body thinks is normal. That’s what we call the set point. The good thing is we know how your body does this. And with that knowledge we’re able to help you get back to a healthier weight.
Your body has a powerful hormone called ghrelin. I like to call it a gremlin. When you try to lose weight, your body increases this hormone to make you hungry so that you will go out and seek food. When you get back to your baseline weight, the ghrelin level goes back down and you become less hungry. Your body also has a craving center that lights up to make you crave food when you attempt to lose weight. That might all sound bad, but the good thing is we have ways to help block this. The way we do that is through protein.
Protein can help decrease grehlin and cravings, therefore decreasing your hunger and your cravings. Our motto is, if you’re hungry, eat, but eat protein and fats. If you’re craving, eat, but eat proteins and fats.
When we work on weight loss and weight maintenance, we don’t starve people in an effort to lose weight. We actually feed them in an effort to lose weight. This nutritional plan is opposite of what we all been taught.
Two major points I want to point out. When you’re hungry, you should eat, but eat proteins and fats. When you’re craving, you should eat, but eat proteins and fats. The second thing to realize is that fats doesn’t make you fat. Carbohydrates make you fat. Actually, eating fat can make you skinny as long as you limit your carbohydrates.
A good example to explain how your body works is bariatric surgery. There are three main types of gastric bypass surgery. The lap band is the one that they put a band around your stomach. The sleeve is the one where they cut out about 80% of your stomach. The actual gastric bypass is the one where they not only cut out 80% of your stomach, but they also move your intestines closer to your stomach.
The effectiveness of these three surgeries is in the order that I just listed, and it’s not just because of the size of the stomach. The lap band gives you the smallest stomach but is the least effective. So much so that it has fallen out of favor by most bariatric surgeons because it doesn’t work as well. How does it give you the smallest stomach but yet it’s the least effective?
That’s because the lap band doesn’t do anything about changing the hormones that regulate your weight. That hormone ghrelin that I was telling you about is primarily in your stomach. When you cut out 80% of the stomach, you cut out about 80% of ghrelin. The reason that the sleeve works and is more effective than the lap band is because it cuts out about 80% of the ghrelin. The reason that the gastric bypass works better than the sleeve even is because not only does it cut out 80% of the ghrelin, but it also moves the intestines up closer to the stomach so that it secretes hormones that make you more satiated, meaning less hungry.
The good thing is, because we know this information we can use it to help people with their weight loss without having to have surgery. We can help people regulate their hormones with fats and proteins, and if needed, medications. Why is this all important? Why does the program work? The same thing that put a man on the moon: science and the application of that science.” ~ Rameck Hunt, MD
Click Here for More ‘No Guess Work App’ Videos by Dr Rameck Hunt
