Metabolism
Before You Struggle with Weight Loss…
Before you start a diet, understand your iron levels. A new study shows that high iron leads to insulin resistance—and how to use this to your advantage for weight loss.
Metabolism
Before you start a diet, understand your iron levels. A new study shows that high iron leads to insulin resistance—and how to use this to your advantage for weight loss.
Line items
Many who have experienced it will tell you that (severe) obesity is more like a disease than a personal failing. A kind of genetic predisposition. Just like with other conditions. Reducing this complex topic to «this person simply eats too much» is… actually presumptuous. It's striking how so-called experts—often thin, sixty-something professors with glasses—tend to denounce overweight people rather than help them. The motto seems to be: «I was never overweight myself and know nothing about it, but I paid attention in university and know that you just have to count calories to lose weight. Simple as that!»
Be that as it may. Before you torture yourself trying to lose weight, you should understand something about your metabolism. Otherwise, you'll be swimming against a current so strong that you'll likely give up after a few days. The goal should be to have a biochemical downhill slope as your foundation, not the opposite. Yes, you read that right. You may need to reprogram your metabolism first, so it works more naturally for you. Let me give you an example.
There's substantial evidence that high dietary iron (or iron in the body) causes insulin resistance (read more at genetisches-maximum.de). Conversely, there's plenty of evidence suggesting that relatively low-iron diets (such as vegetarianism or veganism) or artificially removing iron from the body has the opposite effect—making people more sensitive to insulin. Why does this matter? Because insulin is an anabolic hormone. When too much of it constantly circulates in the blood, your body doesn't understand what's happening. It's like fighting against your own cells, which have to reprogram their metabolism during a diet to cope better.
Many people don't know this at all. Especially men. They happily eat their sausage every day and then wonder. Testosterone also ensures that men absorb iron far better than women. But why this post now? Because in 2022, a new study was published that impressively shows how powerfully iron determines how much weight we can gain. We've reported on this often in the blog. Now here's confirmation again. Hold on: researchers overfed mice in an experiment, as they often do. One group additionally received an iron chelator—a substance that makes iron in the body unusable and lowers iron levels. The results:
The iron chelator worked so well that it even worked when obesity was already induced—meaning it helped even when given to already-overweight mice. The authors write:
«Mice fed Deferasirox ate no less in any of the experiments, not even in the first week after dietary change, suggesting that palatability was not impaired. In later parts of the studies, mice fed iron chelators tended to eat more but maintained their lower weight.»
Impressive, isn't it? Whether this works the same way in humans remains unclear. But: There are «strong epidemiological associations between iron intake, particularly heme iron intake (note: iron from meat) and the risk of obesity and diabetes.» The authors conclude that «reducing iron levels to a low-normal value is however a potential therapeutic strategy for treating obesity and related metabolic disorders.»
Two things must be said in conclusion:
The point is simply to understand that things other than calorie counting matter. This was a powerful example to keep in mind. You could also put it this way: before you try to lose weight, consider donating blood first. Or plan your diet without red meat—an old bodybuilder saying: when building muscle, eat beef (high iron); when dieting, eat turkey (low iron). Sometimes people know what works without knowing why ;-) This could help unexpectedly well.
