Tackling the Root Cause of Obesity Without Drugs Like Ozempic
Weight-loss drugs, even when they work, don’t solve the obesity epidemic, but we can dismantle it at its foundation without pills or injections.
New subscribers to our e-newsletter always receive a free gift. Get yours here: .
Have a question about this video? Leave it in the comment section at and someone on the NutritionFacts.org team will try to answer it.
Want to get a list of links to all the scientific sources used in this video? Click on Sources Cited at . You’ll also find a transcript and acknowledgements for the video, my blog and speaking tour schedule, and an easy way to search (by translated language even) through our videos spanning more than 2,000 health topics.
Thanks for watching. I hope you’ll join in the evidence-based nutrition revolution!
-Michael Greger, MD FACLM
Captions for this video are available in several languages; you can find yours in the video settings. View important information about our translated resources:
• Subscribe:
• Donate:
• Podcast :
• Books:
• Shop:
• Facebook:
• Twitter:
• Instagram:
For more on Ozempic, check out my new book, OZEMPIC: Risks, Benefits, and Natural Alternatives to GLP-1 Weight-Loss Drugs, available as an ebook, audiobook, and softcover: https://nutritionfacts.org/book/ozempic/
From my experience obesity comes from lack of muscle contractions, daily!
Once you contract the muscle daily, and by that I mean mid-deep contractions from moderate to heavy weight, you release irisin which helps burn fat. Along with walking to bring in more oxygen, and to help burn the fat which happens through the lungs, fat burn happens
You only need 1-5 contractions for each muscle group, daily, and walking for a few minutes to prevent fat build up, and bad weight gain, the good weight gain would be in the form of muscle
More carbs to protein, and fat, is also needed but that happens if you eat whole foods with ease
Anecdotal evidence isn’t evidence.
BUT, that’s where it starts!
Money talks, everything else walks. In the end, what solution is there other than high-potency drugs? The only rational alternative would be to rearrange the farm subsidies to make WFPB foods cost the avg person only pennies, and everything else cost hundreds of dollars (i.e, eggs for $20/dozen and lentils 50 cents/lb). That’s too rational and healthy an idea to get any wide scale buy-in or acceptance…
Or just ending the subsidies for unhealthy foodstuffs
But once again, lobbies galore
Been there, done that…and it works beyond words. Either make it a true lifestyle change, or, fail by following the latest “diet.” The literature shows that diets do not work, except for the publisher and the author, as folks on average stay on a diet for 6 weeks, and over time, the weight all comes back. Worse yet, they then start feeling guilty, and don’t bother trying anything again for a long, long time.
The sarcasm at the end made me laugh, but its actually very sad…
What should someone do when they are eating a whole food plant-based diet, but it doesn’t cause them to eat less calories?
Try a different dietary pattern, and ignore the outcries from the WFPB disciples.
eat more raw greens. There’s no way you eat more greens and not get full. There’s no way you eat more raw greens and are over eating calories. And if at this point you’re not losing body fat, it’s not because you’re eating too many calories.
It sounds like you probably need to change your meal composition. While of course there’s a limit to anything, think of the starchy and and protein-rich foods as having a set portion during a meal, and if you need more food to feel full, you can bulk up the serving of non-starchy vegetables. Sufficient water and fibre in a meal will help you feel more full and also slow down the breakdown of some of the higher calorie foods you consume at the same time.
Another likely culprit is if you’re using oil.
Dr Gregor’s Daily Dozen
I lost the 60 lbs I needed to loose and have sustained my goal weight without any problems. Just remember that there is no cure for obesity…. Not drugs or surgery work in the long run. Only a permanent and *sustainable* change will succeed.
Thank you!
I’ve been living on the edge of overweight and normal weight for over six months now. It has been hard for me to cross the finish line. Still, I’m not about to take Wegovy.
There is a non-surgical procedure called endoscopic gastroplasty and that’s basically just a few stitches are put to make the stomach smaller. It is not as dramatic for weight loss and surgery, but it doesn’t have any of the side effects like gastric reflux or malabsorption of nutrients. There is a clinic in North Carolina called truenorth where they have an add-on procedure called fundus ablation where they use heat to stop the ability of the stomach to produce hunger hormone gherelin
I get a lot of “buzz” sounds on these videos, and have to turn my volume way down to avoid it. Can you record differently to avoid this? I don’t hear it on many other lecture channels. Thank you.
Over 3 years I’ve lost 20 % of body weight & it’s all fat that’s disappeared – by buying real food & making meals (no WFPB bought products) – & much more exercise, weight & cardio. ABS now & bio scanner indicates I’m 24 years younger now as a result. Summary: small changes added continually & they compound positively over time.
Amazing how much work and effort you put into this. Makes me wonder why you complemetely ignore the Covid vax that was developed in 6 weeks? From your own logic, that is nowhere near enough time to judge longterm harmful effects.
I think Dr Greger has never had food noise. No one can truly understand how severe it can be unless they’ve had it. I have been vegan 23 years and hit all the goals in the daily dozen but still fight food noise and obesity. It’s not as simple as just quit eating junk food.
If there are whole wheat tortillas in my home, I can’t stop thinking about them. If a shop down the block has vegan burgers and buns, my brain can’t stop telling to go get them. If delivery of vegan pizza is easy, my brain will nag me to order it. I can do every trick; eat an apple, eat only whole foods, eat my greens, don’t get too hungry, don’t cook with oil, walk, use mantras. Nothing can fight the food noise.
Someone I respect a lot started taking Zepbound and he said the relief of food noise suppression is immense. He said this must be how people without it can eat normal portions. He’s been on it 6 months, losing an average of 2lbs a week. He’s always been active and ate well but this helps him not go back for seconds or crave high calorie density foods. It’s so tempting but I fear side effects.