Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Is a Low-Sugar Diet Actually Better For Weight Loss?

Episode Date: April 5, 2018

If there’s one thing that would-be diet “gurus” everywhere agree on, it’s that a low-sugar diet is one of the most reliable ways to lose weight.Cut the heinous sugar molecule out of your life, they say, and watch the pounds melt away.Keep eating it regularly, though, they claim, and you’ll always look in the mirror with shame. (Yeah, you know, I like to flex my lyrical muscles too…)…Please clap?Er, anyway, sugar’s relationship to weight loss is all so neat and tidy…until someone like me comes along and points up the glitches in the matrix.You know, the professor that lost 27 pounds in 10 weeks on a “convenience store diet” consisting of protein shakes, Hostess and Little Debbie snacks, sugary cereals, and Oreos.How in the hell?Or the well-designed and well-executed studies that have found no difference in weight loss whatsoever between low- and high-sugar diets.Uh, that’s just funding biases, right?Well, we’re going to clear all the fog in this episode. By the end, you’re going to know what sugar is, how your body reacts to it, how it does and doesn’t affect weight loss, and what, if any, changes you need to make to your diet to lose weight with ease.Let’s start at the top. Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

This episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my 100% natural weight gainer slash meal placement supplement Atlas. Specifically my 100% natural weight gainer slash meal placement supplement Atlas. Now Atlas is a delicious powdered supplement that provides you with 38 grams of high quality protein per serving, along with 51 grams of nutritious food based carbohydrates and just six grams of natural fats, as well as 26 micronutrients, enzymes, and probiotics that help you feel and perform your best. Atlas is also 100% naturally sweetened and flavored and contains no chemical dyes,

cheap fillers, or other unnecessary junk. So if you want to gain muscle and strength as quickly as possible while also improving the nutritional quality of your diet, then you want to head on over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of Atlas today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast at checkout and you'll save 10% on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100% money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back, period. You don't have to return the products. You don't have to fill out forms. You don't have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can't lose here. Head over to www.lesionathletics.com now, place your order and see for yourself

why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet. And if for whatever reason, they're just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot. All righty, that is enough shameless plugging for now at least. Let's get to the show. Hey, Mike here from Muscleful Life

and Legion Athletics. And in this video podcast, we're going to talk about sugar and dieting. Is a low sugar diet necessary for weight loss or even better for weight loss? Now, if there's one thing that mainstream health and diet gurus agree on. It is just how heinous the sugar molecule is, how responsible it is for so many of our physiological diseases and dysfunctions, including, of course, obesity. But then you have some glitches in the matrix, like Professor Mark Haub, who lost 27 pounds on a convenience store diet of protein shakes and hostess and little Debbie snacks, sugary cereals and Oreos. And the teacher, John Cisna, who lost 56 pounds, I think it was eating nothing but McDonald's for six months, as well as studies that have found absolutely

no difference whatsoever in terms of weight loss between low sugar and high sugar diets. So what does that mean? What are you supposed to take away from that? Well, in the spirit of keeping this video short and sweet, pun intended, I want to give you the bottom line and then explain a little bit of why that's true. So the bottom line is the amount of sugar that you eat has no direct impact on weight loss. You can lose as much weight as you want, eating as much sugar as you want. And I'm not saying you should do that, but you can. You see, so long as you know how to manage your energy balance properly, so long as you know how to manage your calories in versus calories out, you can lose weight

regardless of what you eat, whether it's sugary foods or fatty foods or highly processed, you know, just junk foods. None of that matters in the context of weight loss. If you are managing your energy balance properly. Now, if you're not sure what I mean by energy balance, just click the link up here to read an article I wrote on it. Now, our goal should never be just to lose weight though. Of course, we want to lose fat and not muscle. And depending on where we're at in our personal fitness journey, so to speak, we may even want to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, which is possible when you are new to resistance training. And when that's the goal, you have to

go beyond just calories in calories out. When that's the goal, you have to go beyond just calories in calories out when that's the goal you have to also pay attention to how those calories break down in terms of protein carbohydrate and fat in terms of macronutrients now if you do that if you manage your calories and your macros properly you can greatly improve your body composition while still eating a lot of sugar again it's not something i recommend but you can do it and so why do I not recommend just eating a bunch of sugar? Well, first studies show that the more sugar you eat, the higher your risk of developing micronutrient deficiencies. Because of course, most of the sugar that people eat comes from highly processed, just nutritionally bankrupt foods. Unfortunately, most people are not sugaring their salads or their vegetable medleys at dinner. And another reason why you don't want to be eating too much sugar too often is it can have other unwanted physiological effects. For example,

you will often find in people who have high sugar diets, even who are very physically active and whose diets are otherwise decent, if you add high sugar intake, Even who are very physically active and whose diets are otherwise decent, if you add high sugar intake, you will often find that triglyceride levels are also quite high. So anyway, the real practical takeaway here is to manage your energy balance properly, manage your macronutrient balance properly, manage your micronutrient balance properly, which is easy. Just make sure that you're getting 80 plus percent of your daily calories from relatively unprocessed foods that you cook yourself, which are primarily going to be probably plant-based foods. Sure, you're going to have some protein from animal foods. You might have some lean meats, you might have some dairy, but if you're doing it right, most of your carbs

should be coming from relatively unprocessed plant foods. And you should also be getting some quote unquote healthy fats in there. Of course you need someed plant foods and you should also be getting some quote-unquote healthy fats in there of course you need some saturated fat but you should also be making sure that you are getting unsaturated fat in your diet particularly mono unsaturated fat so my favorite sources of mono unsaturated fat are nuts these days i like walnuts and avocado and you can also get polyunsaturated fats from oils. Like I cook my dinner in some olive oil. So there's some polyunsaturated. I eat some avocado and some nuts every day for some monounsaturated.

And for my saturated fat, there's the nuts and the meat that I eat, which is usually these days it's ground turkey or chicken and also some red meat here and there. Okay, so now let's talk about how that works. How can that be true in light of how many mainstream experts and gurus say otherwise? How many of them say that sugar is the reason why so many people are fat? And if you don't completely cut sugar out of your diet, you will never have the body you really want. Well, for that, we should start at the top and define what sugar is, because these days it's kind of a vague term that encompasses all kinds of things ranging from fruit to honey to candy. Well, sugars are molecules that are comprised of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. And therefore,

they are, of course, forms of carbohydrate oxygen. And therefore they are of course forms of carbohydrate and they break down into three forms. You have monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. I don't want to go too far into the chemistry here because I want to keep this video short. So what you need to know is that monosaccharides are also called simple sugars. So for example, glucose is a monosaccharide. Glucose is also referred to as blood sugar. Fructose is a monosaccharide, which is found of course in fruit and high fructose corn syrup. And glucose and fructose are in table sugar, of course, sucrose. So these are the simple sugars, monosaccharides. Next are oligosaccharides, which are simply several monosaccharides. Next are oligosaccharides, which are simply several monosaccharides bound together. Oligo is Greek for a few,

and saccharide is Greek for sugar, so you have a few sugars. Now you find oligosaccharides in many of the whole grains and the legumes and the fruits and vegetables that we eat. And last, we have the polysaccharide, which is the most complex form of sugar in our diet. It's comprised of 10 or more monosaccharides bound together in a chain. And two examples of sources of polysaccharides in our diets are starch, and starch is simply an energy store for plants, as well as cellulose, which is a natural fiber found in plants. Now, a key thing to understand here is whether we are talking monosaccharides, simple sugars, including table sugar, or more complex

sugars like the sugars found in fruits and vegetables, they all end up as glucose in the end. And what I mean is that's what your body does. Metabolically, it breaks all carbohydrates ultimately down into glucose, which of course is then shipped off for use. So your brain needs a lot of glucose. Your brain really likes glucose. It prefers to run on glucose. Your muscles use glucose. Your organs use glucose. And regardless of how complex the sugar is when it goes into your mouth, in the end, it's turned into glucose. So in this way, the carbohydrate, the sugars in broccoli are similar to the carbohydrate or the sugars in a candy bar. Both end up as glucose. The difference though is the rate at which this happens. Simpler sugars are of course processed faster than more complex sugars.

Now, some people say that's the key. They say that the glycemic index or the glycemic load is very important when it comes to weight loss, that you want low glycemic index, low glycemic load foods to maximize weight loss. Again, that is completely false. I don't want to go off on that tangent here because it'll make the video too long, but if you want to learn more about that specifically, just click that link and you will be taken to an article I wrote on it. What you need to know though, is it is basically impossible to avoid sugars altogether. You eat a vegetable, it contains sugars. The only way to really cut sugar completely out of your diet in all its forms would be to do something like following a

ketogenic diet. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you.

You can find me on Instagram at MuscleForLifeFitness, Twitter at MuscleForLife, and Twitter at Muscle for Life, and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. Now, as far as weight loss goes, as I mentioned earlier, how much sugar you eat has no direct impact on it. Physiologically speaking, it does not matter. Now, functionally speaking, I'd say it does matter because if you're cutting and you're eating a lot of sugar, you're probably eating a lot of foods that aren't that filling, at least for the calories, which are going to be restricted. You're already tight on calories. And if you're eating foods that contain a lot of sugar, they probably also contain a fair amount of fat. So they're very calorically dense. They're

not very filling. So that means that you're going to have a harder time of it. If you're eating a lot of sugar, when you're cutting, you're probably also going to be a lot hungrier than you need to be. You're going to have more cravings than are necessary. And you're probably not going to feel that great, especially if your cut is going to take a while because again, most foods that contain sugar are also pretty weak nutritionally. And as I mentioned earlier, this has been shown again and again in various studies. For example, one study conducted by scientists at Duke University found no difference in weight loss between subjects who were getting 4% of their daily calories from sugar, and that's table sugar, and 43%. Now think about that for a second. 43% of your daily calories from sucrose,

that's hard to do. One gram of sucrose contains four calories. So let's say you're eating 2,000 calories a day. So you're looking at approximately 850 or 860 calories from sugar, which then of course breaks down into like 200 plus grams of sucrose a day. That's hard to do. You cannot get more high sugar than that. Another study worth reviewing was conducted by scientists at Maastricht University. And they found that so long as protein and fiber were kept equal, there was no difference in weight loss or body composition between people who ate a low sugar and a high sugar diet. So how much sugar should you be eating when you're cutting? Well, the simple answer is eat as much or as little as you'd like to eat. And if you

really want to do it right, then eat a high protein diet. Make sure that you're getting somewhere around 0.8 grams to maybe one gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. Or if you are very overweight, set protein to about 40% of your daily calories. Make sure that you're eating a good amount of carbs. I like to start with about two to two and a half grams per pound of body weight per day. Get the majority of your daily calories, 80 plus percent from relatively unprocessed, highly nutritious food, stuff you have to prepare yourself, a lot of plant foods, colorful fruits, colorful vegetables. Make sure you have some dark leafy greens in there. And then you can play with your final 20% or maybe 10% of calories and use those for whatever you want. Use those for sugary foods.

Enjoy yourself. If you just do that, you will never struggle to lose weight, period. One other tip is don't drink your calories, especially when you're cutting. Drinking calories in general is a bad idea unless you are trying to bulk and you need to eat a lot. So if you're one of the 170 pound ish guys that I've emailed with many, many times, 150 to 170 pounds who need to eat upward of 4,000 plus calories per day to gain weight, then yeah, I understand. Let's say, you know, drinking, maybe not a gallon of milk a day. That's a bit excessive, but drinking calories and milk is particularly good for drinking calories. But if you bit excessive, but drinking calories and milk is particularly good for drinking calories. But if you're cutting, do not drink calories, do not drink soda, do not drink

sports drinks, do not drink fruit juice. And the reason for this is those beverages often contain a lot of calories, like a cup of orange juice, I think is about a hundred calories and they do not trigger satiety like food. So what can happen is you can drink hundreds of calories and be hungry an hour later. But if you were to have eaten those calories, and especially if you were to eat in a meal that contains like a good mixed meal, you know, some protein, some carbs, some fat, some fiber in the same amount of calories, you know, that might keep you full for three, four, five hours. I also recommend that you eat fruit instead of random sugary snacks. So if it's the afternoon and your energy is dipping and you need a pick-me-up instead of going for the candy,

go for some fruit instead. For example, check out strawberries, check out the calories in strawberries, check out how much you can eat for just a hundred calories. And speaking of fruit, eat fruit instead of drinking fruit juice. Much better. Much better to eat an apple, which is going to fill you up and it's going to give you good prebiotic fiber and it's going to give you various micronutrients. Much better to do that than drinking the equivalents in calories in apple juice. And my last little tip here is to buy low sugar or sugar-free prepackaged foods. If you're buying prepackaged foods, you might be surprised how

much sugar is packed into stuff like yogurt, jam, dairy, and dairy alternatives, salad dressings, applesauce, oatmeal, and the like. Basically, if it comes in a jar or a can or container or a tub, check that ingredients label before buying it because it may contain more sugar than you realize. And remember that added sugar can go by many names. For example, you have molasses, you have cane sugar, you have fruit juice concentrate, malt sugar, corn syrup, honey syrup, and words ending in O-S-E-O-S-E, right? So you have dextrose, lactose, maltose, fructose, glucose, and of course in O-S-E-O-S-E, right? So you have dextrose, lactose, maltose, fructose, glucose, and of course sucrose, which is table sugar. Hey there, it is Mike again. I hope you enjoyed this episode and found it interesting and helpful.

And if you did, and don't mind doing me a favor and want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you're listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any of the new goodies. Lastly, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscle for life.com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself

and I'm always looking for constructive feedback. So please do reach out. All right, that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my 100% natural weight gainer slash meal placement supplement Atlas. Now, Alice is a delicious powdered supplement that provides you with 38 grams of high quality protein per serving, along with 51 grams of nutritious food based carbohydrates and just

six grams of natural fats, as well as 26 micronutrients, enzymes, and probiotics that help you feel and perform your best. Atlas is also 100% naturally sweetened and flavored and contains no chemical dyes, cheap fillers, or other unnecessary junk. So if you want to gain muscle and strength as quickly as possible while also improving the nutritional quality of your diet, then you want to head on over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of Atlas today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast at checkout and you'll save 10% on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100% money-back guarantee that works like this.

You either love my stuff, or you get your money back, period. You don't have to return the products. You don't have to fill out forms. You don't have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can't lose here. Head over to www.Legionathletics.com now,

place your order and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet. And if for whatever reason, they're just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot.