Many will say that if we want to lose weight, we need to expend more calories than we consume. But is that true? No. It’s not. And the reason is because of the way our bodies make energy.
It turns out that we make most of our energy in a little organelle inside our cells called the mitochondria. How? Through a process called the ELECTRON transport chain. It’s not called the calorie transport chain or the carbohydrate transport chain, it’s the ELECTRON transport chain. As such, in order to make the energy we need to survive (breathe, walk, talk, circulate our blood etc.) we need electrons. Humans can get electrons from many sources in our environment, but one of our biggest sources of electrons is food. However, not all foods have the same amount of electrons in them. Foods that were exposed to a lot of sunlight – think vegetables and pasture raised animal meat – have a lot of electrons. Wild caught fish also have a lot of electrons because water is a super conductor. Processed foods – think anything that comes in a box or a plastic bag – have very few electrons. Quick refresher on what an electron is: an electron is a small, subatomic particle that carries electricity.
We gain weight as a defense mechanism when we don’t get enough electrons from our environment, including in our diets, regardless of how many calories we consume. If you eat 100 calories of a carrot which has been programmed by sunlight and is full of electrons you will be satisfied. If you eat 100 calories of mac and cheese, which has very few electrons, your body will think that electrons are scarce in your environment. As a result, your body will store every bit of energy it can as fat – because remember fat has a noble purpose. It allows us to store energy for a rainy day so that we don’t die if we go a few days without eating, which was important during hunter gatherer times. In addition to storing fat as much as possible, your body will also tell you to keep eating, so that you can get the electrons you need. But if you keep eating low electron foods and not using nature to help offset this, your body will continue to think you are experiencing famine and virtually convert everything you eat into fat. So, the real reason we gain weight is because our body isn’t getting enough electrons. It’s not about the number of calories we eat.
What about exercise? Exercise is important, yes, but NOT because we burn calories. It’s important because it makes your mitochondria work more efficiently and allows them to store more electrons. Exercise is also important because when we exercise, we create more electrons due to a phenomenon called the piezoelectric effect. The more electrons we have, the less we have to eat!
Framing the concept this way is much better to achieve your goal of health. How do I know this? I mean, can you lose weight if you stop counting calories and start counting electrons? Well, you can ask my patient Bethany (not her real name), who at 74 years old, with a blood pressure of almost 200 systolic (extreme danger – normal is 120), in less than 3 months lost 22 lbs (14 of which were fat), lost 3 plus inches off her waist, and her blood pressure came down to consistently below 120 systolic and often in the low 100s systolic (extreme health). She now only takes a quarter of the medicine for blood pressure that I originally prescribed her. And it wasn’t an extreme diet or a killer workout program that got her these results. It was her willingness to follow the coaching that Eleonora (Solymar Health Coach) and I gave her on how to get more electrons from her environment and which low electron foods to avoid. The personalized plan focused on reconnecting her with nature, fixing her circadian rhythm, coaching on which foods to eat, helping her sleep, AND protecting her from the artificial environment we have inadvertently created. It’s NOT about calories, it NEVER was about calories.