Never Diet Again with Max Lowery

Blood Sugar vs Calories: The Real Key to Losing Fat

• Max Lowery

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You’ve been told that stabilizing your blood sugar is the key to weight loss. That insulin resistance is what’s keeping you stuck. That tracking every spike with a CGM will finally unlock fat loss. But here’s the truth—most of that is just noise.

In this episode, I break down:
 🔥 The real impact of blood sugar on fat loss (it’s not what you think)
🔥 Why women over 40 struggle with weight gain—and what actually works
🔥 How metabolic flexibility can make weight loss effortless
 🔥 The sneaky habits making a calorie deficit 10x harder to stick to

No gimmicks. No biohacking nonsense. Just real, sustainable strategies to help you lose fat forever.

Watch my The Cravings & Fat-Burning Masterclass:   https://www.neverdietagain.uk/register-podcast

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/max.lowery/

Book a Food Freedom Breakthrough Call: https://calendly.com/maxlowerycoaching/food-freedom-breakthrough-call



Max Lowery:

If you ever felt like you're doing everything right, you're watching your calories, eating healthily, but you're still struggling to lose weight, your blood sugar levels might be the reason, but not in the way that you think. If you take a look on social media, most people fit into one of two extremes. Either they are blaming insulin and they believe that if your insulin is high you cannot lose weight, or they think it's just calories, it's just a calorie deficit. But the truth both of these extremes are wrong. So today I'm going to break down the real impact of blood sugar levels on your weight loss and why controlling it won't necessarily lead to effortless weight loss, but equally why ignoring it is a huge mistake. I'll also show you exactly how to balance your blood sugar levels whilst eating the foods you enjoy the carbs, the pizza, the chocolate and lose weight at the same time. Let's get into it. How do you create a life that allows you to lose weight, eat the foods that you love and sustain the results? Over the last 10 years, I've helped thousands of people do exactly that.

Max Lowery:

I'm Max Lowery. I'm an author, personal trainer and weight loss coach. In this podcast, I'm going to share my top tips and tricks from within my one-on-one coaching program. It's my goal to give you the tools and understanding so that you never diet again. Do you really need to worry about blood sugar levels to lose weight? Some say insulin controls everything and that if insulin is high, fat loss is impossible, whereas others say calories are all that matter. They say that blood sugar and insulin don't make a difference as long as you're in a calorie deficit. At the end of the day, calorie fucking deficit. But here's the truth your blood sugar levels won't directly dictate fat loss, but they absolutely impact how easy or how hard it is for you to stay in a calorie deficit. If your blood sugar level is constantly spiking and crashing, you're going to be hungrier, you're going to have cravings and you're going to feel more fatigued, and this makes overeating almost inevitable. And recently people have become obsessed with continuous glucose monitors or CGMs. So there's an app called Zoe, which most people have heard of, and people are now thinking this is it. This is the new exciting thing. This is the reason I've been overweight and struggling with my weight is because of my blood sugar levels. So all I need to do is to control my blood sugar levels and everything will be fine. But is that really the case? That's exactly what we're going to discuss today.

Max Lowery:

So there are two opposing theories when it comes to fat loss. There is the insulin hypothesis, and they believe if insulin is high, you can't lose fat. It's the idea that if insulin is high, your body locks fat inside your fat cells and blocks fat burning. It comes from the low-carb, keto world and the logic goes something like this Insulin is a storage hormone and when insulin is up, fat burning is switched off. Carbs spike insulin, so eating carbs leads to more fat storage. Therefore, lower insulin equals more fat burning. Meaning low carb or keto diets are the key to weight loss.

Max Lowery:

I'm going to be honest here. I did fall for this. I was low carb and keto for a good year right at the start of my personal training career. There were some benefits to it, but it had a fundamental impact on my relationship with food and it took me a long time to get out the guilt mindset when I ate carbohydrates. So all this might sound logical right, as long as I keep my insulin low, I'll lose fat.

Max Lowery:

But here's where it falls apart. Studies show that people can lose weight on both high carb and low carb diets, as long as they're in a calorie deficit. So you can eat carbs, spike insulin and still lose fat if your calorie intake is low enough. And the reverse is also true you can have low insulin levels and still gain weight because you're eating too many calories. So insulin doesn't block fat loss, but it's not completely wrong. We can't completely ignore it.

Max Lowery:

If you are insulin resistant, if you have constantly fluctuating blood sugar levels or if you are metabolically inflexible, this could cause a few problems. You're more likely to store fat around your organs, also known as visceral fat, which is the most dangerous type of fat. You're likely to feel hungry and crave food all the time. You'll often feel out of control with food and you'll struggle with energy crashes. The mid-morning and mid-afternoon slump in energy levels just becomes normal. This is why blood sugar balance still matters, not because insulin prevents fat loss, but because it affects how your body regulates energy and hunger, and it can indirectly mean to more calories consumed because of the issues that I just listed.

Max Lowery:

And then we have the calorie deficit argument. Calories are all that matter. We've got people like James Smith just saying calorie fucking deficit, that's all you need. Eat less, move more. This is the mainstream weight loss argument, and it's really quite simple. Fat loss happens when you burn more calories than you consume, no matter what you eat. If you're in a calorie deficit, you'll lose weight. Blood sugar and insulin don't matter. Just eat less and move more. And, to be honest, this is true to an extent. You cannot lose weight if you are not in a calorie deficit, and you can lose weight eating carbs, even processed carbs like donuts or ice cream, as long as you stay in a calorie deficit. And this is exactly how I help my clients enjoy their favorite foods and lose weight at the same time. So insulin spikes from carbs don't directly block fat loss.

Max Lowery:

But again, here's where this argument falls apart. If your blood sugar is constantly spiking and crashing, it makes sticking to a calorie deficit 10 times harder. Not just that although a calorie deficit is a simple concept, it's not exactly complicated. In practice, it can be really really hard, especially for the type of client that I work with, which is women over 40 who have been dieting their entire lives. Their hormones are changing, they've had children, their self-belief has been knocked, their relationship with food is all over the place, and it means staying in a calorie deficit consistently can be very challenging. So anyone listening to this who is looking for help with weight loss be very careful when someone is trying to downplay how hard this can be.

Max Lowery:

It is complicated, and it's ultimately why myself and my team have a job, because if it was simple, no one would need us. So there's a problem with blood sugar obsession. So are CGMs and the Zoe app the answer. Recently, a lot of people have started CGMs, or continuous glucose monitors, and, alongside them, using apps like Zoe to track their blood sugar levels in real time. The idea is if I can keep my blood sugar stable, I'll lose weight. And, yes, tracking your blood sugar can be insightful.

Max Lowery:

But here's the problem Blood sugar spikes don't directly cause fat gain. It's still about your total calorie intake. You can have a perfectly stable blood sugar and still overeat and gain weight. It's easy to get obsessed with avoiding blood sugar spikes, even from healthy foods like fruit, beans or oats. What actually matters is how your body handles those spikes over time, which brings us into metabolic flexibility. So what is metabolic flexibility? Metabolic flexibility means your body can easily switch between burning glucose from the food that you eat, but also from your stored glucose, which is known as glycogen, and body fat. If you're metabolically flexible, you're going to have stable energy levels throughout the day. You can go longer without eating without feeling shaky, starving or hangry. You're going to feel less hungry overall and you're going to be able to tap into your stored fat reserves instead of relying on a constant stream of food. On the flip side, if you're metabolically inflexible, your body will crave sugar and carbs constantly. You're going to struggle to burn fat efficiently. You're also going to feel sluggish and tired when you go too long without eating, and it's likely to make weight loss very difficult because it's going to be almost impossible to stay in control of your calorie intake.

Max Lowery:

Really quick one for me, guys. I don't run ads on this podcast and I do aim to give you as many high-value tips and tricks as I can for free. All I ask in return is that you help me spread the word. That way I can help as many people as I can to never diet again. The way to do that is to rate, review and share this podcast. A review will only take 30 seconds, but it would mean the world to me. But, more importantly, it could help change the life of someone else. It could help change the life of someone else.

Max Lowery:

There are long-term consequences to having chronically high blood sugar levels and being metabolically inflexible. If your blood sugar is chronically high due to insulin resistance, it can lead to increased fat storage, higher inflammation levels, a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cognitive decline and many other problems. So, while blood sugar spikes don't directly cause fat gain, chronically high blood sugar over time can lead to metabolic dysfunction and make weight loss harder. So what's the middle ground? What do you do with this information? So the objective with all my clients is to get them metabolically flexible, so they have more control over their food, so they have less cravings and so they're not feeling hungry all the time, but still eat their favorite foods, still incorporate carbohydrates, the pizza, the ice cream, the chocolate or whatever they like. So I'm going to share with you some tips directly from my one-on-one coaching program.

Max Lowery:

So the first tip is to eat more at mealtimes, and this might sound completely counterintuitive, but what it means is you're going to feel full and satisfied and feel less hungry overall, and what we see is that when this happens, people naturally eat less and snack less. Next, prioritize protein and fiber at each meal. If you double your protein intake, most people don't eat nearly enough protein, and especially if they're trying to lose weight. If you double your protein intake, you are going to feel far less hungry and crave food less, but both protein and fiber also slow digestion, which prevent blood sugar spikes. One of the best things that you can do is to start your day with a high protein meal instead of a high carb meal. Once you're eating more at mealtimes and prioritizing protein and fiber, you're going to feel far less hungry, which leads into the next tip stop fucking snacking.

Max Lowery:

Snacking is a huge problem, but it's become normalized. In my lifetime, this has been a big shift. When I was young, snacking was frowned upon. You're going to ruin your appetite for your main meal. Now it's the societal norm. People eat four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 times in a day.

Max Lowery:

A study was done in 2023 on 20,000 people in the United States. Of those 20,000 people, 93% snacks, and those that did snack were eating anywhere from 400 to 600 calories, and most of them were trying to eat healthier and lose weight. So their meals weren't a problem. They were eating quality, nutritious meals, but they were sabotaging themselves by snacking. So when you eat more at mealtimes, prioritize protein and fiber, you should not need to snack. If you feel like you do need to snack, it's going to be boredom, habit, routine stress, procrastination or emotional eating. And again, the less frequently you eat, the more stable your blood sugar levels will be.

Max Lowery:

And finally, aim for 7,000 to 15,000 steps per day. Walking is a great way to regulate your blood sugar levels. You will also potentially burn more calories getting close to 15,000 steps in than a structured. Also, getting 15,000 steps in, you'll burn far more calories than a hard workout. The best thing is it's not going to raise your hunger levels or make you feel stiff and sore. It's also free and it's safe for people with injuries and who are very overweight. So, to summarize, blood sugar does matter, but not in the way that most people think.

Max Lowery:

Cgms and blood sugar tracking can be useful, but they are not the key to weight loss. If a client asks me should they get a CGM, the first thing that I say is do the basics consistently. Once you've done that for six months to a year, you've improved your relationship with food. You're not feeling hungry at the time, you're not craving food all the time. Then you can start to dial into blood sugar levels and start to take it a layer deeper. The real goal is metabolic flexibility teaching your body to burn both fat and glucose efficiently. In other words, get out of sugar burning mode and into fat burning mode. When you do this, you're going to be less hungry, feel more in control with food and weight loss is going to be almost effortless. Thanks for watching. If you've enjoyed this video, make sure you hit subscribe. Even better, share this with a friend that you think needs to hear it, and let me know in the comments what else you would like to learn about.