Feel Great, Lose Weight Book Summary - Feel Great, Lose Weight Book explained in key points

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Feel Great, Lose Weight summary

Name: Feel Great, Lose Weight
Rating: 4.6 (358 reviews)
Author: Rangan Chatterjee

Rangan Chatterjee

Long term, simple habits for lasting and sustainable weight loss

4.6 (358 ratings)

20 mins

Topics

Weight Loss Diets Healthy Living

Table of Contents

Feel Great, Lose Weight
Summary of 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? A guilt-free guide to losing weight.

You’ve cut out the extra carbs. You’ve banished fats. You’ve subjected yourself to grueling 6:00 a.m. workouts. In short, you’ve tried it all – but the weight remains, or it comes roaring back faster than you can shed it. Sound familiar? If so, and if you’re ready for change, then you’re in the right place.

You’re about to discover why you tend to carry extra weight – reasons that you may not even be aware of. And they all point to the same conclusion: It’s not your fault. Your body is just doing what it’s designed for.

But it is possible to work with your biological systems to reset your health and lose weight. In these blinks, we’ll explore the science behind weight loss. More importantly, you’ll discover a path to feeling great and living your life with more energy and ease.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

what car mechanics have to do with your health;
that we burn as many calories as ancient hunter-gatherers; and
why exercising too much could be working against you.

The biological signals controlling our eating habits can sometimes get out of whack.

If a car is running low on fuel, what happens? A light appears on the dashboard, indicating that it’s time to refuel. If the driver ignores the light, the car will run out of gas – or electricity – and die. It’s as simple as that.

The human body is similar. But, instead of gas or electricity, it needs food. And instead of displaying a low-fuel light, it feels hunger, signaling to you that it’s time to eat.

Unfortunately, things can sometimes go awry under the hood. The body’s signals can break down, telling us to eat when we don’t need to or to store fat when it isn’t necessary.

The key message in this blink is: The biological signals controlling our eating habits can sometimes get out of whack.

The first step on the path to sustainable weight loss is getting familiar with these signals. There are four in particular that we’ll keep coming back to.

We’ve already touched on hunger, the first of these signals. So let’s move to the second – the full signal, which tells us when to stop eating. People feel full when a chemical called leptin is released by fat cells. This tells the body that no more fuel is needed. You know how a gas pump will click off when your car’s tank is full? It’s sort of like that. If this signal malfunctions, then you’ll be prone to overeating.

Third is the store-fat signal. This one is controlled by a hormone called insulin, which is released within moments of eating. The presence of insulin tells your body to stop breaking down fat, and instead burn the food you just consumed – sort of like a hybrid car that changes seamlessly between gas and electricity.

And fourth, we have the weight point. This is the weight your brain believes is ideal for you. As soon as you start losing weight, your body will adjust things like metabolism and hunger to keep you at your weight point. Anyone carrying excess fat likely has the weight point set too high. It would be like a small car that thinks it has the fuel tank of an SUV.

All four of these signals can be reset. In the blinks that follow, you’ll learn how to become the mechanic of your own health and work with the signals your body is sending.

Real foods keep your signals working. Processed “blissy” foods can throw them off.

Ah, donuts. Who doesn’t love them, be they filled with cream or drizzled with chocolate? The moment your teeth sink in, you’re carried down a river of decadent bliss. But then – uh-oh. The bliss begins to disappear, and soon you’ve returned to boring, sugar-free reality. So you reach for the box. Just one more.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with the occasional indulgence. But what you may not realize is that bliss-inducing foods like donuts can throw your body’s signals into chaos.

When we eat is often as important as what we eat.

Meet Alan, a father and general practitioner. He struggled to lose weight for years. During the day, he’d be fine: a berry smoothie for breakfast, a healthy soup for lunch. But after a hectic day at the office, he’d give in to his hunger: helping himself to a second serving, indulging in dessert, and capping it off with chips in front of the TV.

The author suggested Alan eat more for breakfast and less for dinner. Reluctantly, Alan switched to an omelet in the morning and leftovers for lunch. And it worked! He found he was no longer starving at the dinner table, often joining his family with just a salad. Over several months, Alan watched the weight fall off.

Focusing on movement rather than exercise will help you feel great and lose weight.

Our hunter-gatherer ancestors moved a lot. Running, walking, bending, climbing: hunting game and foraging for berries involves tons of movement. All this moving around must have consumed a great deal of energy, right? Well, as it turns out, they burned roughly the same number of calories that we modern humans burn, even though they spent their days exercising and we tend to spend ours glued to a chair.

We’ve been led to believe that the key to weight loss is burning more calories than we consume. This calories-in/calories-out idea has helped fuel a fitness craze. While it may hold some truth, it’s also overly simplistic and doesn’t take into account the complexity of the body’s signals.

Good sleep is essential for losing weight.

Your alarm goes off at 6:30 a.m. and you drag yourself out of bed. As you shuffle through your morning, you feel groggy and half-awake. You meant to go to sleep earlier last night but found yourself scrolling through social media before realizing how late it got.

Sound familiar? We all know we should get more sleep, but it’s hard to prioritize in our busy lives. For many, those few hours before bed is the only me-time available. But insufficient sleep makes it much harder to lose weight.

Stress and emotions are common causes of overeating.

Emily was in her mid-thirties and feeling particularly worthless after years of dieting without success. She’d recently moved to a new city for a job, which she was finding stressful. Far from family and friends, Emily spent her evenings in the company of pizza and chocolate bars.

Emily’s story is common. When feeling down, we often turn to blissy foods – not because our bodies are energy-starved, but because we’re love-starved. We’re not after nourishment; we’re after dopamine.

Changing how you eat can help you lose weight, and improve your relationship with food.

When you think of someone in Paris enjoying her lunch, what image comes to mind? Maybe she’s seated on a green lawn with friends. There’s definitely some Camembert and a crusty baguette – possibly a bottle of wine as well.

French cuisine is some of the world’s finest. Yet, despite all the cheese and cream sauce, the French tend to be much thinner than their American counterparts. It’s puzzled weight-loss scientists for a long time. While the French paradox is far from solved, it could have something to do with that image of the Paris picnic – that is, with how they eat.

Design a sustainable weight-loss plan that works for you and your body.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to losing weight. It’s important to pick the tools and strategies that resonate most with you. It takes practice to fine-tune your body’s signals. But, in time, you can become the mechanic of your own health.

The key message in this blink is: Design a sustainable weight-loss plan that works for you and your body.

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What is Feel Great, Lose Weight about?

Feel Great Lose Weight (2020) isn’t just another diet book of quick fixes and fads. Drawing on Dr. Rangan Chatterjee’s expertise, it gives you the tools to be the mechanic of your own health, showing you how to fine-tune your eating habits and lifestyle to lose weight sustainably and feel great for the long term.

Who should read Feel Great, Lose Weight?

Fad-diet skeptics
Anyone who wants to understand the science of weight loss
People seeking a judgment-free, sustainable approach to improving health

About the Author

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee is a British medical doctor. He is a best-selling author of three previous books, including The Four Pillar Plan. He also stars in the hit BBC One TV series Doctor in the House.

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