Take a Load Off – Lose Weight by Eating More Fiber

By Alex White, MD

Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

When most people think about dieting, they think about eating less.  This is due to the fact that traditional diets work by reducing the number of calories you consume.  The thinking is that by reducing caloric intake, the body will naturally have less fuel to burn.  Once it runs out of food, it will then begin to burn fat.  The problem with this philosophy is that modern science has proven this tenet to be in error. 

The human body was designed to literally deal with feast and famine, but not in the way most people think.  When food is scarce, the body’s first response is to adjust the metabolism in order to slow down the burning of fat.  It’s a defense mechanism that is hardwired into all of us to allow us to survive periods of famine.  Radically reducing the amount of food you eat will actually tip the body into survival mode.  This is the reason most people gain weight the minute they stop dieting.  It also goes a long way toward explaining why there are so many diets out there.  If one doesn’t work, you can always try another.

Can You Eat Yourself Skinny?

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So, if reducing caloric intake isn’t the best way to lose weight, what is?  There are all kinds of diets that try to break the cycle of obesity by stressing the reduction of certain food groups.  Currently, one of the most popular is the so-called low-carb diet.  Low-carb diets should really be called low-fiber diets, since they restrict participants from consuming such things as grains, starchy vegetables and fruit.  In their place, these diets substitute such things as meat, fish, poultry and eggs, along with some non-starchy vegetables. 

The premise behind low-carb diets is that by reducing the intake of carbohydrates, you will also reduce the body’s insulin level, which will then cause the body to burn stored fat to produce energy.  In order to achieve this, many low-carb diets limit you to as little as 60-120 grams of carbohydrates per day.  This translates to 240-500 calories per day. The problem is that this is only about a quarter of the level of carbohydrates recommended by the American Heart Association, which for a typical adult is the equivalent of 900-1,200 calories per day. 

Here’s what the Mayo Clinic has to say about low-carb diets:

“Most studies found that at 12 or 24 months, the benefits of a low-carb diet are not very large. A 2014 review found that higher protein, low-carbohydrate diets may offer a slight advantage in terms of weight loss and loss of fat mass compared to a normal protein diet. At a year, the difference was only about a pound (about 0.4 kilograms), though, and those who had the greatest benefits stuck to the diet long term.”  http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/low-carb-diet/art-20045831?pg=2

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Your body relies on carbohydrates as its main source of fuel.  During the process of digestion, the body converts starches into simple sugar that is then absorbed into the bloodstream.  So your body needs carbohydrates.  It turns out the real culprit in weight gain isn’t carbs, it’s in the type of carbs we ingest.  Not all carbs are created equal.  There are two kinds of carbohydrates: simple and complex. 

Simple carbohydrates are found in everything from white bread and pasta, to cookies, cake, candy and sodas. They are also routinely added to processed food in the form of sugars.  Fiber-rich carbohydrates such as edamame, lentils, peanuts, and chickpeas, are complex carbohydrates that digest slowly, provide protein and have a reduced effect on blood sugar.  If you are serious about losing weight, you need to avoid simple carbs and consume complex carbs.

Fiber is Your Friend

While all fruits and vegetables have fiber, most of it is found in the skin, seeds and membranes.  As a result, it is healthier to peel and eat an orange than to drink orange juice.  Strawberries, raspberries and blackberries are also great sources of fiber, as are whole grains and raw vegetables, such as celery and carrots.  (Nutritionists recommend that you eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily.)

Imge courtesy of en.wikipedia.org

The sad fact of the matter is that most Americans get far too little fiber.  The recommended level of dietary fiber is 25 grams daily.  The typical American only consumes a fraction of that.  A recent blogpost on WebMD summed it up like this,

“A recent study found that people who added more fiber to their diets -- without changing anything else -- lost almost as much weight as people who followed the heart-healthy, low-fat eating plan recommended by the American Heart Association. The study added to a growing body of evidence that people who eat more fiber tend to have a healthier body weight.” http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/fiber-weight-control#1

The reason that fiber is your friend if you are looking to lose weight is due to the fact that it makes you feel full without adding extra calories.  It also passes through your digestive tract without causing your blood sugar to rise.  This is in essence the best of both worlds.  The trick therefore is to find a way to increase your intake of fiber, right?  The answer is yes and no.  Yes, it is a good idea to increase your daily intake of fiber if you are trying to lose weight.  No, it is not a good idea to radically alter your diet, unless you intend to do so over the long haul. 

Just like buying a gym membership is only going to help you shape up as long as you keep going to the gym, changing what you eat is only going to help you lose weight as long as you keep it up.  Be honest, how long are you going to keep munching on carrots and celery as a snack before you go back to eating potato chips?  But what if there was a way for you to get more fiber without radically changing your diet?

Fiber Supplements to the Rescue?

Image courtesy of MicrobeFiber.com

Just as there are a myriad of diets on the market, there are also a myriad of dietary supplements.  Coming in every form from capsules and powders to chewables, fiber supplements can come from a plant or a laboratory.  Many also contain fillers and sweeteners, neither of which is going to help you lose weight.  If you want to gain all the benefits from the fiber contained in plants, you need to find a natural fiber supplement, as opposed to manufactured fibers, such as polydextrose and maltodextrins.  You also need to avoid supplements that use chemicals to separate the fiber from the host vegetables, as well as those products that are based on genetically modified organisms.

MicrobeFiber™ guarantees the quality and freshness of its products. Fiber is critical for gut health but unfortunately less than 3% of Americans eat the recommended amount daily.  MicrobeFiber provides the right quality and quantity of microbes and fiber to improve your gut health. Our clinical trials have indicated that MicrobeFiber can be an effective weight lose tool.

In short, if you are looking to take a load off without completely changing your diet and your lifestyle, fiber supplements like MicrobeFiber™ could be the natural way to help you win the battle of the bulge. 

Alex White, MD is the Clinical Research Director of MicrobeFiber™.