Nearly every overweight person has an addiction to refined carbohydrates. It is natural and logical that they do. The problem is that it needs to be addressed or itt will gradually begin a metabolic shut down, one disorder at a time. This is how it should be addressed, and can be complete changed with this basic understanding of what to do and how this started.
Gaining weight
Gaining weight is about storing calories to fat without burning anything, so an obese person could always feel as if they are starving. That is a hard place to be, yet it is possible to change things.
Why people are driven to eat processed foods
Now, with all the added chemicals in processed foods, people are driven to eat more of them because they taste good. The chemicals in processed foods have our neurotransmitters down to fine art and, in essence, they are trying to stimulate dopamine deficiency.
Dopamine deficiency
Dopamine is about anticipation. When you have dopamine deficiency, it is because you have had prolonged periods of too much dopamine from eating a lot, feeling satisfied, and floating on a high as a result. Drugs work in much the same way.
Glucose, drugs, and dopamine
Various drugs, like heroin, cocaine, and even glucose, will increase your dopamine. When you do not have those things, your dopamine level will drop, and a low level of dopamine will drive you to feed your addiction to bring your dopamine level back to normal.
Keto carnivore addiction and weight loss
People get hungry. And they usually think that they want very refined carbohydrates, like chocolates, donuts, or candy. What they want, however, is the kick they get from eating those things. And without that, they go into withdrawal mode.
Refined carbohydrates in abundance
When you have refined carbohydrates in abundance, it drives your glucose and insulin up. It overcorrects, and then people usually have "the fall", where they become hypoglycemic, and they want to eat their way back to normal. In that way, glucose is not getting used for energy. It is getting packed away.
Making a transition to keto
By gradually decreasing the carbohydrates and increasing the amount of fat they eat, people can slowly recover from their carbohydrate addiction. That can happen over many months.
Microbiome
As a healthy individual, you are here to feed your microbiome, which is primarily your small intestine. That is where all the nutrients in your body are absorbed. And where your vitamins are created for you by your bacteria.
Becoming fat-adapted, and a fat burner
Becoming fat-adapted and becoming a fat burner is a huge transition, and it takes quite some time to happen. Your microbiome has to adapt and change its mechanisms to break down the new kind of food that you are eating, especially if you are starting to eat whole foods.
Ketones
If your body is producing ketones, it does not mean that the mitochondria in the rest of your body have become efficient in using ketones. Your body has to adapt, and it needs to return to the process of being efficient in utilizing ketones. Your microbiome also has to change.
The easiest change for weight loss
To lose weight, you need to get your metabolism off the track of needing carbohydrates. The easiest change you can make will be to increase your fats while decreasing the carbohydrates you eat simultaneously. That could take between one and six months.
Once you have made the change, your addiction will come down a lot.
Links and resources
Join our Keto Naturopath Facebook group