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You could have all the hormones in the human body and tens of thousands of calories coming in every day. And if you simply remove one single hormone, it is impossible for that person to get fat. Totally and completely impossible. Now, I am a scientist enough that I like to avoid hyperbolic language. I don't want to state anything in the extreme. And yet, in this case, I actually can. I can revel in all of the um the power of this declaration which is you simply wipe out a person's insulin, it is completely impossible for them to get fat. Dr. Bickman has spent his entire career
studying exactly one thing, insulin, and what it does to the human body. He is a professor at Brigham Y Young University. He runs one of the world's most advanced metabolic science labs. And what he found will change everything you think you know about losing belly fat. Think about what he just said. Not difficult, not rare, completely impossible to get fat without insulin. So the question was never how do I eat less? The real question is how do I keep insulin low? And the place to answer that question is your morning every single morning before you eat a single bite. But first, let me show you
the type 1 diabetes proof because this is the moment that silenced the entire podcast studio when Dr. Bickman said it. You have people with type 1 diabetes who abuse that fact and will deliberately underdose their insulin. So they can eat whatever they want. They could go to a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner and indulge in all the sweets and just simply underdose their insulin and be as skinny as they want to be. Now there's disastrous metabolic consequences, but it's just a testament to the power of insulin. They can eat whatever they want, chocolate, sweets, everything, and stay
thin because insulin is low. This is not a diet tip. This is biology. And once you understand it, the morning habit becomes obvious. Insulin as a hormone is the one metabolic hormone to rule them all. It will determine what the body does with energy at every single cell. This is a principle even many very educated clinicians don't understand. They think that insulin only controls blood glucose. That's just the most obvious thing that it does because we can prick a finger and measure it or slap something on our arm and measure the glucose. Insulin will tell every single cell of the body from brain cells to
bone cells, liver cells to lung cells, and everyone in between what it needs to do with energy. And insulin is so determined to store energy that it will slow the metabolic engine of the body down in order to store more. Every time you eat something that spikes your insulin, your body is not just slowing down fat burning. It is actively slamming the brakes on your entire metabolic engine to store more fat. And here is the cruel irony that Dr. Bickman revealed next. You could have millions of calories stored in your belly, enough energy to survive for weeks, and your brain will still tell you it is
starving. Here is why. Dr. David Lewig at Harvard, a friend and colleague and collaborator, he published a report looking at the same kind of dynamic that I outlined a moment ago, two isocaloric or equal calorie meals. And he found that when they ate the meal that spiked insulin, the what he called, I think he called it total energy availability. So they measured every calorie molecule in the blood. So ketones, you know, BHB, they measured uh lactate, they measured fats, they measured glucose, and they found that when with the insulin spiking meal, the total energy availability went down.
The brain doesn't have that storage capacity. You know, you could have big fat cells with lots of energy. You could have a liver with tons of fat and glycogen, which is a stored form of glucose, ready to go, but the brain doesn't have a big storage reservoir, and yet it has a high metabolic rate. And so, the brain is constantly relying on the energy in the blood that it can use, especially glucose and ketones, the two primary fuels for the brain. And so, when you spike insulin, you lower your glucose and you stop your liver from making ketones. So, the two main brain fuels have gone down. Same number of
calories, two completely different outcome because of one variable, insulin. You ate a bowl of cereal at a.m. You ate a bowl of cereal at Your blood sugar spike. Insulin locked all that energy away into fat cells. Your brain, which is no storage, found itself with almost no fuel. And by a.m., it started sending out emergency signals. Hunger, craving, the urge to eat again. Not because you are weak. Because your biology worked exactly the way Dr. Bickman described. And this leads the question, what is actually happening in the average person's body from morning until
night?
Fat cells might be bigger than they've ever been. So that's the sort of disconnect that you end up having when you're spiking insulin so frequently. You may have hundreds of thousands or even millions of calories stored on your body in your fat cells primarily. And yet the brain is saying, "I'm hungry." We shouldn't be hungry. We have so much energy that we can use, but only if we can access it. And this is where ketones come in. And I hate to change the topic, but if if a person has fat and they can burn that fat, then they're making ketones. And ketones are the brain's preferred fuel. Let's just state
that with an exclamation mark. And so if the brain is getting ketones or even if it has access to plenty of glucose, it senses, hey, there's no energy deprivation. We're fine. We don't need to eat. And that's what these studies find. millions of calories locked inside your fat cells and your brain is still screaming that it is starving because insulin is a lock. And as long as insulin is elevated, that lock stays on no matter how much energy is stored. No matter how little you eat, the brain cannot access it. But when insulin drops, the lock opens, fat flows to the liver. Ketones are made. The
brain says, "We are fine. We have fuel. We do not need to eat." That is the fix. And it begins every morning in the window right after you wake up. Most people only look at the calorie control. The problem with calorie control is that we've seen what it looks like when you only focus on calorie deprivation. And that is in in a word hunger. And there was this within the US there's been this game show over the years called the greatest loser. These people one lose a fantastic amount of weight and yet you never see them again because they gain it all back. So, if your weight loss strategy is based on
cutting calories without addressing insulin, which is the other of the two variables, then you're going to be
hungry.
Every calorie restriction diet ends the same way. You fight your hunger for days, weeks, maybe months. And then hunger wins always, but this approach is different because when insulin is low, there is nothing to fight. No hunger, no cravings. And the best time to lower insulin is the morning because while you slept, your insulin was already naturally dropping. The window is already open. The only question is, are you about to destroy it? So, what is the number one morning habit that burns belly fat faster than exercise? It is not a supplement, not a special food, not an expensive program. Dr. Bickman
was asked directly, "What is your own morning protocol? What do you personally do every single morning?" His answer is one of the most practical and honest things I have ever heard from a scientist. Here it is, word for
word.
So, first of all, zero to little to no carbs for um breakfast and lunch. You wake up in the morning, anyone who's wearing a continuous glucose monitor will find that their glucose levels naturally rise in the morning and that coincides with a mild state of insulin resistance every morning because of changes in cortisol and other hormones. So my view is don't doubly load to the glucose that's already happening by eating in the morning with starchy sugary stuff. So be very strict with all of your meals up until dinner. So for me, I actually don't eat breakfast. In the morning, I make breakfast for my
kids every morning. I am sipping on a cup of yerba mate the whole time in part because I like the taste. There's a good GLP1 effect, so it helps me feel a little more satiated. Um, and it's just a habit. It's a little bit of a perk, a little pickme up. Notice what he said. Your glucose levels naturally rise in the morning, even before you eat a single thing. Your body is already mildly insulin resistant when you wake up. It is called the dawn effect. Dr. Bickman's view is simple. Do not double load this. Your blood sugar is already rising. If you then eat toast or cereal or oatmeal on
top of that, you're pouring fuel on a fire that is already burning. Your insulin spikes. the fat burning window that your overnight fast just created in minutes. Instead, wait, drink water, have black coffee or yerba mate. Let that morning fat burning window stay open as long as possible. And when you do eat, here is exactly what to
choose.
If a person wants to as much protein and fat as they'd like. And I would say, especially for lunch, let lunch be your biggest meal because they won't have an insulin effect. And that's the key. Like my approach to staying lean at 50 years old and having my wife like what she sees is keeping my insulin low and still not being hungry all the time. And so protein and fat are the two macronutrients with carbohydrates being the third. But protein and fat have little to no effect on insulin. Let me make this completely simple. These are the exact two lists that decide your morning fat burning. Keeps
insulin low. Eat as much as you want. Eggs any style. As many as you like. Avocado meat, beef, chicken, bacon, sausage, fish, salmon, tuna, sardines, full fat Greek yogurt, plain, no added sugar nuts, almonds, walnuts, macadamia butter, olive oil, black coffee, tea, yerba mate, water, 500 ml minimum on waking. Cross mark spikes insulin. Destroy your morning window. Toast, bread, bagels, kas on cereal, granola and oats, orange juice, fruit juice, flavored yogurt with sugar lattes, cappuccinos, sweet coffee drinks, pastries, muffins, pancakes, waffles, granola bars, protein bars with sugar, no calorie counting on
the green list. No portion measuring. Eat until you are completely full. Your insulin stays low. Your belly fat keeps burning. The morning window stays open. When insulin is down, the metabolic rate goes up. in my lab published a report um finding that part of that is through the production of ketones. That when ketones move through the bloodstream and come to our fat cells, they will increase our metabolic rate in our fat tissue by three times. And we did this in humans. Studied fat cells in a petri dish. We studied fat tissue from animal models. And then we studied fat tissue from
humans where we actually were pulling biopsies of belly fat from people that were in ketosis or not. And when they were in ketosis, their metabolic rate in their fat tissue was three times higher. They weren't than the group that was not in ketosis. When you're making ketones, every ketone has a caloric value roughly similar to that of glucose. And so what happens now in ketosis or when ketones are up, you start wasting those ketones from your body. You're breathing ketones out or you're urinating ketones out. And those are calories that are just coming from your body that would have
had to be burned through exercise or stored in fat tissue and yet in the in a low insulin state so antithetical to fat storage that the body just starts literally wasting energy. So every breath they're taking out when they're breathing out ketones those are calories just coming out of their body through stored energy at three times the rate it does when insulin is elevated. And on top of that, you are breathing out actual calories. Every exhale in that low insulin state is carrying ketones out of your body. Calories that would otherwise need to be burned through exercise or stored as fat
are just leaving with every breath. This is what happens when you protect your morning window. When you skip the cereal, when you extend your overnight fast, when you choose eggs instead of toast, the fat burning does not just continue. It accelerates to three times its normal speed automatically. No gym required. If we were to look at any one thing someone could do, anyone who says, "Ben, what is the one thing if I'm putting a question in your mouth, I'd say stop snacking in the evening?" Anything you can do to not overeat and go to bed hypoglycemic or elevated or spike your
blood glucose levels, do it. When you go to bed hypoglycemic, it activates a part of the nervous system, an aspect of the nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system. That's also known as the fight orflight. Hypoglycemia will have that effect. And that is terrible timing because when you're going to bed, you're wanting to rely on your what's called your parasympathetic nervous system. The part of your the aspect of your nervous system that is calming. It's lowering your heart rate. It's slowing your heart. It's lowering your blood pressure. It's helping you calm down to sleep better. Hypoglycemia
throws that into opposites. So, the morning habit actually starts the night before. Stop snacking after dinner. Dr. Bickman said it himself. If he could give one piece of advice to anyone, it is stop snacking in the evening. Let your insulin drop completely before you sleep. 7 to 9 hours of sleep. Non-negotiable. In another room, no eating for 2 to 3 hours before bed. When you wake up, insulin will already be at its lowest point of the day. Your fat cells will already be beginning to open. All you have to do is not destroy it. Every diet works until you stop doing it. Uh that might be a
maxim that people can leave with. Um a ketogenic diet because it's not based on hunger I think has the potential to work. But we know there are people who've done it their whole lives, right? There are people who from childhood adopt a ketogenic diet in order to control their seizures, their their their epilepsy, or people will do it to control their migraines because if there's one tissue in the body that thrives in the midst of ketones, it's the brain. you can almost throw a dart at a board that lists all of these chronic brain disorders, whether it's schizophrenia, whether it's bipolar,
whether it's depression, whether it is um dementia, like Alzheimer's disease. Every one of those instances, there's evidence to show even things like multiple sclerosis. There's instance evidence to show improvements in humans with a ketogenic diet. The brain and to say that in a different way, the central nervous system loves ketones. Every diet works until you stop doing it. That is the key insight. Every calorie restriction diet requires daily willpower, daily hunger, daily white knuckling. And eventually, always hunger wins. You stop and the weight comes back. But a low insulin approach is
different in one fundamental way. There is no hunger because your brain is fully nourished by ketones because your fat cells are open and feeding you. Because you can eat as much protein and fat as you want. When there is no hunger, there is nothing to stop you. No craving to fight, no temptation to resist. The brain just says we are fine. We do not need that. This is not a 90-day challenge. A permanent change in how you understand your own biology. Stress is one of the three cardinal causes of what I call fast insulin resistance. When the body becomes insulin resistant in like hours, stress
is one of them. Poor sleep is the main cause. Most people believe alcohol helps them sleep and it does help you fall asleep faster, but it destroys the quality of your sleep throughout the rest of the night. You sleep lighter, you wake more often, less deep sleep, and poor sleep, as Dr. Bickman said directly, is the main cause of fast insulin resistance. One night of poor sleep from alcohol raises your cortisol, raises your insulin, and the next morning you are more likely to store every calorie you eat as fat and more likely to crave the exact foods that make it worse. One small change,
stop drinking in the evening, your sleep improves, your cortisol drops, your morning insulin drops, and your fat burning window opens wider than it has in years. I I think that the CGM a CGM is one of the best ways for a person to make their own changes. So, if you put a CGM on your body, you're able to look at your phone and see what's happening in your blood. I have seen more people make changes of their own valition. They just are wearing a CGM and they don't need someone to be nagging them. You know, you're you have that internal motivation because you see what's happening in your own body.
Imagine wearing one of these for 14 days and watching what happens. Monday, eat your usual bowl of cereal. Your glucose line shoots up like a rocket. Insulin floods in. For the next 3 to 4 hours, fat burning is completely off. Tuesday, try the morning habit. Black coffee only. You wait until a.m. coffee only. You wait until Eggs and avocado. Your glucose line barely moves. Insulin stays low. The fat burning window stays open all morning. You do not need anyone to tell you which is better. You see it yourself in real time on your own body. This is why Dr. Bickman says it changes behavior
more than any diet book or coaching program because the evidence is undeniable when you see it with your own eyes. Science behind it. I think you need to have a reason because making change is hard. You have to have a reason that is that is motivating you to do it that goes beyond yourself. That's I should add that that you'd mentioned a handful of internal motivations. You want to feel better. You want to look better. Those are all valid. Sometimes it's not enough. Have an external reason. And when you're a parent, you have a reason. You have a child. You're living for your child. Have a reason for
doing what you're doing that goes beyond your own motivations that touches someone else's life. And then two, you need to find a way to control your cravings. I think the more I look at the debates around obesity, weight loss, um, which is so central to looking and feeling better, more I think you have to learn to control what you're addicted to. And so I would say start with the simplest habit and and change
it.
Have a reason beyond yourself. That is a first step. Not a meal plan, not a gym program. A reason, then one habit, just one. tomorrow morning. Don't eat immediately when you wake up. That is it. One change, one morning. And from that one change, everything else becomes easier. Your insulin drops, your fat cells open, your brain gets ketones, your hunger quiets, your cravings ease, your sleep improves, your cortisol drops, your morning window gets bigger. One change, a cascade of results. Dr. Benjamin Bickman spent his entire career studying this. Lab proved it in human tissue. The
people in the comments of this very episode lived it. And now you know it. English (auto-generated) episode lived it. And now you know it.