Have you been trying to lose weight for some time and haven’t seen any results? Dr. J. Scott Ries is the founder of iFactor Health. He describes one of the top weight loss mistakes everybody makes.
“People oftentimes will say, ‘Ok, I’m going to lose weight so I’m going to count my calories.’ That is actually that one of the top five weight loss mistakes everybody makes: counting your calories.”
Dr. Ries explains why counting calories is a common mistake that we make when it comes to losing weight.
“What I was taught in medical school is that your weight basically is the calories you put in, minus the calories you burn, equals your weight. It sounds very simple like four minus two equals two. You want to lose weight so you subtract some calories, burn some more, but the problem is it’s wrong.”
“Your weight is not simple math so counting your calories doesn’t work, there are other factors involved. One calorie isn’t the same as another calorie; it just won’t work for the long-term.”
So why doesn’t this simple equation of work for our bodies? Dr. Ries says there are other factors involved that are important to consider, including the iFactor.
“Little “i” stands for insulin, or more specifically, insulin resistance. There’s a problem that’s ubiquitous in our Western culture, in our diet, and that’s this: it’s a high iFactor or elevated insulin resistance. Basically, something’s at work in your body preventing that simple math from working.”
Dr. Ries points out that cutting back on calories isn’t necessarily the key to effective weight loss.
“They’ve done some studies on those hundred calories packs. For example, little packages of chips or cookies that are only 100 hundred calories… the problem is people think, ‘OK I’m only going to eat 100 calories,’ but then you get a big response in your body with, specifically a hormone called insulin, that not only doesn’t let you metabolize it well, it converts that into fat. It doesn’t let you burn the fat that you want to burn.”
“The net effect is you’re reducing your calorie number, but you can’t burn fat because your iFactor is too high. The bottom line is that mistake is thinking that it’s so simple, ‘All I need to do is count the calories; less in, burn more, and I’ll lose weight,’ but it doesn’t work it and frustrates people time and time again.”
By avoiding this common weight loss mistake, we will be well on our way to losing the weight we want, and keeping it off.
Dr. J. Scott Ries is a board certified Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine physician, and founder of iFactor Health. A gifted communicator, he specializes in helping people make sense of today’s complex medical issues in a way that is clear and understandable. To learn more about the iFactor Course and “The Top Five Weight Loss Mistakes Everybody Makes,” visit Dr. Ries’ website.
The iFactor
