The Obesity Code Quotes

“But diet and exercise are not fifty-fifty partners like macaroni and cheese. Diet is Batman and exercise is Robin. Diet does 95 per cent of the work and deserves all the attention; so, logically, it would be sensible to focus on diet. Exercise is still healthy and important—just not equally important. It has many benefits, but weight loss is not among them. Exercise is like brushing your teeth. It is good for you and should be done every day. Just don’t expect to lose weight.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code

“Once we understand that obesity is a hormonal imbalance, we can begin to treat it. If we believe that excess calories cause obesity, then the treatment is to reduce calories. But this method has been a complete failure. However, if too much insulin causes obesity, then it becomes clear we need to lower insulin levels.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code

“This is the ancient secret. This is the cycle of life. Fasting follows feasting. Feasting follows fasting. Diets must be intermittent, not steady. Food is a celebration of life. Every single culture in the world celebrates with large feasts. That’s normal, and it’s good. However, religion has always reminded us that we must balance our feasting with periods of fasting— “atonement,” “repentance” or “cleansing.” These ideas are ancient and time-tested. Should you eat lots of food on your birthday? Absolutely. Should you eat lots of food at a wedding? Absolutely. These are times to celebrate and indulge. But there is also a time to fast. We cannot change this cycle of life. We cannot feast all the time. We cannot fast all the time. It won’t work. It doesn’t work.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“THE LAST PIECE OF THE PUZZLE THERE ARE FIVE basic steps in weight loss: Reduce your consumption of added sugars. Reduced your consumption of refined grains. Moderate your protein intake. Increase your consumption of natural fats. Increase your consumption of fiber and vinegar.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“The healthy snack is one of the greatest weight-loss deceptions. The myth that ‘grazing is healthy’ has attained legendary status. If we were meant to ‘graze,’ we would be cows. Grazing is the direct opposite of virtually all food traditions. Even as recently as the 1960s, most people still ate just three meals per day. Constant stimulation of insulin eventually leads to insulin resistance. (For”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code

“Coffee, even the decaffeinated version, appears to protect against type 2 diabetes. In a 2009 review, each additional daily cup of coffee lowered the risk of diabetes by 7 percent, even up to six cups per day.23”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“Diet is Batman and exercise is Robin. Diet does 95 percent of the work and deserves all the attention; so, logically, it would be sensible to focus on diet. Exercise is still healthy and important—just not equally important. It has many benefits, but weight loss is not among them.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“A recent study suggests that 75 per cent of the weight-loss response in obesity is predicted by insulin levels.29 Not willpower. Not caloric intake. Not peer support or peer pressure. Not exercise. Just insulin.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code

“OBESITY IS NOT caused by an excess of calories, but instead by a body set weight that is too high because of a hormonal imbalance in the body.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“BREAKFAST: THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL TO SKIP?”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“In a modern twist to the classic overeating experiments, Feltham decided that he would eat 5794 calories per day and document his weight gain. But the diet he chose was not a random 5794 calories. He followed a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet of natural foods for twenty-one days. Feltham believed, based on clinical experience, that refined carbohydrates, not total calories, caused weight gain. The macronutrient breakdown of his diet was 10 percent carbohydrate, 53 percent fat and 37 percent protein. Standard calorie calculations predicted a weight gain of about 16 pounds (7.3 kilograms). Actual weight gain, however, was only about 2.8 pounds (1.3 kilograms). Even more interesting, he dropped more than 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) from his waist measurement. He gained weight, but it was lean mass.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“Let’s face the truth. Low-calorie diets have been tried again and again and again. They fail every single time.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“The government is subsidizing, with our own tax dollars, the very foods that are making us obese. Obesity is effectively the result of government policy.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“THERE ARE TWO prominent findings from all the dietary studies done over the years. First: all diets work. Second: all diets fail.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“This is the ancient secret. This is the cycle of life. Fasting follows feasting. Feasting follows fasting. Diets must be intermittent, not steady. Food is a celebration of life. Every single culture in the world celebrates with large feasts. That’s normal, and it’s good. However, religion has always reminded us that we must balance our feasting with periods of fasting— “atonement,”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“Too often, our current model of obesity assumes that there is only one single true cause, and that all others are pretenders to the throne. Endless debates ensue. Too many calories cause obesity. No, too many carbohydrates. No, too much saturated fat. No, too much red meat. No, too much processed foods. No, too much high fat dairy. No, too much wheat. No, too much sugar. No, too much highly palatable foods. No, too much eating out. It goes on and on. They are all partially correct.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“Refined carbohydrates are easy to become addicted to and overeat precisely because there are no natural satiety hormones for refined carbs. The reason, of course, is that refined carbohydrates are not natural foods but are highly processed. Their toxicity lies in that processing. p101”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“Paracelsus (1493–1541), the founder of toxicology and one of the three fathers of modern Western medicine (along with Hippocrates and Galen), wrote, ‘Fasting is the greatest remedy—the physician within.’ Benjamin Franklin (1706–90), one of America’s founding fathers and renowned for wide knowledge, once wrote of fasting, ‘The best of all medicines is resting and fasting.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code

“Hormones are central to understanding obesity. Everything about human metabolism, including the body set weight, is hormonally regulated. A critical physiological variable such as body fatness is not left up to the vagaries of daily caloric intake and exercise. Instead, hormones precisely and tightly regulate body fat. We don't consciously control our body weight any more than we control our heart rates, our basal metabolic rates, our body temperatures or our breathing. These are all automatically regulated, and so is our weight. Hormones tell us when we are hungry (ghrelin). Hormones tell us we are full (peptide YY, cholecystokinin). Hormones increase energy expenditure (adrenalin). Hormones shut down energy expenditure (thyroid hormone). Obesity is a hormonal dysregulation of fat accumulation. Calories are nothing more than a proximate cause of obesity.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“In 1960, we ate three meals a day. There wasn’t much obesity. In 2014, we eat six meals a day. There is an obesity epidemic. So, do you really think we should eat six meals day? While”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code

“IF YOU WANT to avoid weight gain, remove all added sugars from your diet. On”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“What would happen if the body continued to expend 3000 calories daily while taking in only 1500? Soon fat stores would be burned, then protein stores would be burned, and then you would die. Nice. The smart course of action for the body is to immediately reduce caloric expenditure to 1500 calories per day to restore balance. Caloric”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“There are an almost infinite number of ways that the body can dissipate excess energy instead of storing it as body fat.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“Unfortunately, we spend obsessive amounts of time and energy trying to understand what we should be eating and devote virtually no time to when we should be eating. We are only seeing half the picture.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“Fasting carries significant health benefits. Metabolism increases, energy increases and blood sugars decrease. The only remaining question is this: Can you do it? I hear this one all the time. Absolutely, 100 percent yes. In fact, fasting has been a part of human culture since the dawn of our species.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“Simplistic arguments that “Carbs make you fat!” or “Calories make you fat!” or “Red meat makes you fat!” or “Sugar makes you fat!” do not fully capture the complexity of human obesity. The”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“The Parable of the Cow”: Two cows were discussing the latest nutritional research, which had been done on lions. One cow says to the other, “Did you hear that we’ve been wrong these last 200 years? The latest research shows that eating grass is bad for you and eating meat is good.” So the two cows began eating meat. Shortly afterward, they got sick and they died. One year later, two lions were discussing the latest nutritional research, which was done on cows. One lion said to the other that the latest research showed that eating meat kills you and eating grass is good. So, the two lions started eating grass, and they died. What’s the moral of the story? We are not mice. We are not rats. We are not chimpanzees or spider monkeys. We are human beings, and therefore we should consider only human studies.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“Obesity is a hormonal disorder of fat regulation. Insulin is the major hormone that drives weight gain, so the rational therapy is to lower insulin levels.”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“Throughout most of human history, obesity has been rare. Individuals in traditional societies eating traditional diets seldom became obese, even in times of abundant food. As”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss

“If you reduce your consumption of flour and refined grains, you will substantially improve your weight-loss potential. White”
― Jason Fung, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss