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If you’re like most people who have struggled with their weight for years, you’ve watched helplessly as the growing obesity rate increased the diabetes rate – and worried about your own vulnerability to this disease. Now, there’s a new name for it, diabesity, and all you can still do is look around helplessly.

There are still no effective answers to help people lose weight and maintain that weight loss without being hungry all the time. You know the frustration of yo-yo dieting, of working so hard to lose 40 or 60 pounds, only to gain it back easily and quickly. You’ve been on too many diets to count. Losing weight has never been your problem; keeping it off has been the issue.

But your doctor or nutritionist or personal trainer usually has only one answer for you when you ask them what to do about your “weight problems”: eat less and exercise more. They might not say it in so many words, but the message is clear. It’s your fault. You’re not doing enough. You must do more, stay hungry, count every calorie if you want to enjoy permanent weight loss.

They’re wrong. Obesity is a disease, not something that you can fix simply by monitoring your calorie intake, starving yourself – especially not by starving yourself – and doing hours of cardio a week. In fact, this attitude promotes obesity and yo-yo dieting. Indeed, it may have helped spur the diabesity epidemic.

Obesity, Diabetes, and Diabesity

Experts and government health agencies have been concerned about rising obesity rates for years, knowing that it could become a public health crisis. Obesity not only increases the risk for many serious medical conditions, but it is also the main risk factor for type 2 diabetes. But none of the supposed “experts” knew exactly what to do about this issue.

Try as they might, they couldn’t get people to eat less of the diet they usually eat, live with hunger rumbling in the pit of their stomachs, and exercise more. Oh, hundreds of thousands of people would do it for awhile, but it didn’t last long. They fell off the diet wagon, and then they’d gain all the weight back.

Despite their efforts and intelligence, experts couldn’t solve the obesity puzzle. The worldwide population gained more and more weight while nutritional experts, scientists, and government officials tried to figure it out. Now, we have a worldwide epidemic called diabesity that may result in astronomical healthcare costs, shattered lives, and massive numbers of deaths. There is a solution to this puzzle, but it cannot be solved with the same mindset (weight loss theory) that created it. Diabesity takes a more in-depth approach.

A Look at Obesity and Diabesity

Doctors have known about the link between obesity and diabetes for some time. Both are metabolic dysfunctions stemming from the same cause. Diabesity (diabetes + obesity) is the new name created to show the close relationship between these two diseases. Diabesity includes something as minor as insulin resistance (if you can call that “minor”) or as major as full-blown diabetes.

Diabesity has become a global health crisis, an epidemic that may be worse than any the world has ever seen. This disease affects more than one billion people worldwide, 100 million of them, Americans.

Just look at the numbers for obesity, diabetes, and diabesity:

• More than 70 percent of Americans are overweight or obese.
• About 90 percent of people who are obese will develop type 2 diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
• The CDC also estimates that more than 100 million U.S. adults have diabetes or prediabetes, a condition that often becomes diabetes if not treated.
• 50 percent of Americans over 65 have diabesity.

Health Effects of Obesity and Diabesity

Diabesity causes serious health problems, including death. Some of the health effects include:

• Cardiovascular disease
• Stroke
• Kidney disease
• Some Cancers
• High blood pressure
• Arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Nerve damage
• Blindness
• Death

Diabesity: The Metabolic Link Many Doctors Still Don’t Know

Though genetics play a role in obesity and type 2 diabetes, your dietary habits have a huge influence on the development of both diseases. But doctors often treat them differently. Consider this:

If you have type 2 diabetes, your condition is caused by a breakdown of your body’s ability to use insulin. Doctors know it’s a disease, so your doctor gives you dietary guidelines to stabilize your blood sugar levels. If your condition warrants, your doctor prescribes insulin and gives you instructions for measuring your blood sugar so that you know how much insulin to give yourself at certain times, which will also balance your blood sugar levels. At no time (usually) does your doctor make you feel to blame for your condition.

If you’re overweight, your condition is caused by a breakdown of your body’s ability to balance calories naturally and effortlessly. If you ask your doctor for weight loss advice, you will probably get some version of the “calorie deficit” theory involving counting calories and exercising. Your doctor thinks you are in charge of how many calories your body takes in and burns. They think you need to count your calories because your body is incapable of doing the job it was designed to do.

Obesity is Not Your Fault

It is time to stop blaming yourself for your weight problems, for years of yo-yo dieting and your inability to lose weight. It is not your fault. Repeat this out loud: IT IS NOT MY FAULT.

It has nothing to do with a lack of willpower or moral failing. Rather, it has everything to do your setpoint and metabolism.

Setpoint: The Hidden Cause of Obesity Revealed

An elevated setpoint is the real cause of the out-of-control obesity rate and, by extension, the diabesity epidemic. The setpoint weight is the amount of fat your body has determined you need. It gets this information from your hormones, which bases its decision on the quality of the foods you eat and other lifestyle factors.

It vigorously defends this weight, and it will fight you if you go try to lose weight by starving yourself or cutting calories very much. You will lose weight if you slash calories, but as soon as you go off that crash diet and eat normally again, you’ll gain all that weight back and then some.

If you want to maintain the weight you lost, you can do that. But you’ll be condemned to eating 1,200 calories, or whatever low amount it took for you to lose those pounds, for the rest of your life. Guaranteed.

Most people cannot stay on a diet for the rest of their lives, so they go off of it and gain the weight back…again…and again…and again. That’s right. These types of calorie restrictive diets cause yo-yo dieting, not long-term weight loss. Experts and the diet industry have been promoting methods guaranteed to make you pack on the pounds – and keep them on.

Some of these methods include:

• Processed foods, delivered right to your door (Jenny Craig, Nutri-Systems)
• You can eat anything you want, as long as you don’t exceed a certain number of points. (Weight Watchers)
• Any diet plan that has you counting calories, and treats all calories the same. (Pretty much all diets.)

Your setpoint weight is raised or lowered by the quality of the calories you eat. If you eat primarily poor quality food, such as sugar and refined carbohydrates, it will raise your setpoint and you will gain weight, or you will not be able to keep the weight off once you lose it. You’ll also eat more of these foods than you should.

About those Calories…

Calories are important. If you eat too many of them, you will gain weight. But the standard calorie deficit advice is far too simplistic. It treats all calories the same, when they actually have different effects on your body, depending on where the calories come from.

It takes more calories, for instance, to digest protein than it does starch. Plus, research shows it is impossible for your body to turn protein into fat. All macronutrients go through different metabolic processes and have different effects on the body.

Once your body and hormones are healed, your body regulates your calories for you, which is the job it was designed to do. You don’t have to count calories; your body does it for you.

There are also a number of simple lifestyle changes you can make to get your metabolism to burn fat like a naturally thin person. All of these affect your setpoint, the real cause of weight gain.

Want to Reduce your Risk of Diabesity? Lower your Setpoint Weight!

Here are simple principles to lower your setpoint weight:

• Keep your food selections as close to nature as possible, for example, plants you could gather or animals you could hunt. This does not necessarily mean organic. It means cut out, or cut WAY down, on packaged and processed foods.
• Load your plate with non-starchy vegetables at each meal, at least half of your plate, and at least 10 servings a day. Green, leafy vegetables are best, the darker green, the better they are for you. Good choices include kale, spinach, and broccoli.
• Eat nutrient-dense protein, 3-6 servings a day. Sardines, tuna, salmon and cottage cheese are great choices.
• Enjoy whole-food fats, 3-6 servings a day. Great examples are chia seeds, coconut milk, flax seeds.
• Have some yummy low fructose fruits (0-3 servings) Good choices are goji berries, orange, strawberries, blueberries
• You can also occasionally enjoy up to 1 serving a day of most dairy products, and up to 1 serving per day of other fats.

Foods to avoid

Starch/Starchy Vegetables: Avoid starches as much as possible. Because they are low in fiber and low in protein content, they are very easy to overeat. Our bodies don’t need starches at all, so it’s best to stay away from them.

Sweets and Sweetened Beverages: Stay away from any foods that have extra sugar added. Like starchy foods, sweets are very easy to overeat. Several studies have shown that sugar “turns off” leptin, the hormone that makes you feel full, and is as addictive as cocaine. That is likely why you can’t stop chowing down on the donuts or sticking your hand in the cooking jar. Sugar also raises the setpoint regardless of the calories in the food.

Beyond Food

There are a few other SANE ways to lower your setpoint weight.

Stay hydrated

Staying hydrating is crucial for reprogramming your setpoint weight. Getting enough water helps your cells burn fat, and it may keep you from overeating. If you drink a glass of water before every meal, you’ll be surprised at how full it will make you feel. This is an easy, healthy way to keep you from overeating, so why not give it a try?

Get Enough Sleep

Sleep is incredibly important for your health and to help you achieve your long-term weight loss goals. A number of studies have shown that folks who don’t get enough sleep have elevated levels of cortisol, a stress hormone known to cause belly fat.

For your SANEity (and SANE weight loss), try to get 7-8 hours of quality sleep a night. If you usually struggle with insomnia or have trouble staying asleep, see what happens after you’ve been eating SANEly for a few weeks. The SANE way of eating will heal your body, which could also fix your sleeping problems. You may be sleeping like a baby in no time at all.

De-stress Regularly

Stress is a huge part of daily life, but it is terrible for your setpoint. Extended stressful periods cause cortisol to flood your bloodstream, elevating your setpoint and depositing fat on your stomach. There are many ways to distress.

• Practice formal meditation
• Go to the symphony
• Take a walk
• Visit a petting zoo
• Have a massage
• Practice yoga
• Anything that makes you happy is actually relaxing, so go for it.

Next Step: Helping Obesity and Diabesity with SANE

Ready to finally break free from the yo-yo dieting rollercoaster that can lead to diabesity? By balancing your hormones and lowering your body’s set-point weight, SANE is the solution you’ve been dreaming of.

Want to know the exact foods and serving sizes scientifically proven by over 1,300 peer-reviewed research studies to boost metabolism, burn fat and enjoy virtually effortless weight loss like a naturally thin person?

Begin your exciting journey to lasting, healthy weight loss today. Download the free SANE metabolism boosting food list, cheat sheet and “Eat More, Burn More” weight loss program by clicking here.