Giles Yeo
Appearances
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
Why are African-Americans, for example, more likely to end up with cardiovascular heart disease, less likely with diabetes, whereas why are Indians more? And so you then begin to ask the question, and there we have genetics.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
And there's also our own internal psychology on it. Because now you feel a bit smug. You say, oh, I went for my run on Sunday morning, you know, and then so I can eat what I want. And there's that element too. So suddenly when you normally would say, oh, I better not eat so much today. I haven't. There are some internal controls that we sometimes have.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
Those internal controls are weakened once we've actually had our exercise because we feel that we have earned the food that's in front of us.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
Oh, okay. I probably don't have as good an answer. Genetics does not have as good an answer about why different people eat differently, aside from cultural differences at the moment. So the genetics. The reason behind that is because it's very difficult to accurately determine what someone has eaten in order to do genetics.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
There are more than a thousand genes for body weight. The obese gene in chapter two, which I talk about, is this leptin gene, is this gene which lets your brain know how much fat you have. Ah. So that's the exact gene. Leptin is the gene that I'm talking about in chapter two with the obese. It's called the obese gene because the mouse was called obese.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
There was a lack of imagination because the mouse was a naturally occurring mouse that had a mutation in the same gene. Scientists found out what that was and then found out that it was conserved in humans. And that's where my boss, Steve O'Reilly, then came in and found that that gene was also mutated in some humans. So that's the obese gene.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
It's the fat gene, fat gene, meaning gene from fat, that lets your brain know how much fat you have.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
So leptin, for whatever odd reason, is pretty much binary. So if you have a little bit of it, you're fine. If you have none of it, you're not. However, there is obviously a pathway. Leptin signals to the brain, which signals to something else. And there is another gene that I looked at called MC4R. It's part of the pathway. It's is a rheostat. It's like a thermostat.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
And so, for example, we have found thousands of different mutations in this gene. And you can imagine that depending on the severity of the dysfunction, some are completely dead, some are 70% functional, we can predict how much someone will eat in a test buffet meal scenario if they have a 50% functioning gene versus a zero functioning gene. And we now know that 0.3% in this country at least.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
So 200,000 people in the UK, a million people in the United States will carry mutations in this MC4R gene, making them more likely to end up with obesity. So that at 18 years old, if you carry a mutation in this MC4R gene, you are on average... 18 kilos heavier, 40 pounds heavier at 18 years old on average. And that's 200,000 people in this country. So it's not super common, right?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
It's still 99.7% of the people's body weight's not determined by this. But there are a lot of people's body weights who are dependent on this specific gene. But it is a tunable system. So it's a little bit or a lot means that you're either slightly heavier or a lot heavier.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
Yes, undoubtedly so. So there is certainly what we call, it used to be called a set point hypothesis, meaning that each of us has a weight we actually protect. It's probably more nuanced than that. It's a set range. There's a range that you can actually range that we find easy to keep to the weight. So in other words, I'm not thinking about my body weight at the moment.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
And this is the weight that I am, but I wish I was half a stone or a stone lighter. But if I lost that half a stone, I would then have to think about food all the time to keep that half a stone off. Whereas I get half a stone more and I don't raise my weight anymore. So that's the idea where there is a weight range is easy to protect. And each of us is different.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
What we do know, because we can actually observe, is how people of different ethnicities are susceptible to different diseases. So famously, East Asian people, people that look like me, South Asian people, Indian, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, cannot get as large BMI-wise, before becoming at risk of type 2 diabetes, right?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
There are some people who are skinny. There are some people who just find it more difficult to say no to food than others. That's pretty much it. So some people's thermostat in food is set a little higher than others. And you defend that thermostat, 25 degrees versus 20 degrees. And there's really next to nothing you can do. You can shift from 25 to 24 and a half.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
And maybe after Christmas, you're 25 and 0.5. And so you shift around there. But the likelihood of you getting down to 20 and staying there, you can get down to 20 if you do some stupid diet. But the moment you ping, you ping right back up again. So we do defend. There is very, very little choice in inverted commas in where we end up with the body weight over a lifetime.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
Any given meal, we have a choice, you think, right? Pizza or no pizza, pizza or no pizza. But over thousands of feeding events, there's very little choice.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
A, weight is inexorably up, okay? Even though we've stopped growing when we're 18 years old. Actually, there's some later science. I used to, if you would ask me the question five years ago, I would have said that by the time we hit 40 or 50, our metabolism starts to dip. That's part of the reason. That's not true. As it turns out, our metabolism doesn't start to dip till we're 60.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
But what happens as we get older are a number of different things. First of all, we tend to get richer. We tend to get more money. We tend to sit on our arse more, okay, just in terms of the type of jobs we do, okay? And because of both of those things, we tend to exercise less because we're busier, and so we lose muscle mass. Those are all three things.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
Metabolically, the most active part of your body are the muscles. So when you're younger and you're doing things and you have more time to go to the gym, first of all, your metabolic rate is linked to the amount of muscle you have. And so as you get older, you're sat on your arse, you eat a bit more. We don't eat less, we eat more. And we can buy richer food because we got more money.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
And you begin to lose muscle mass. So all of those things put together means that you inexorably become larger. Then what happens at 60 years old, your metabolism then starts to drop as well. And then you get even larger middle-aged spread, et cetera.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
But completely accurate. So the numbers, so what the numbers that we have is, yeah, I think that's right, actually. So between 20 and 50 years old, those 30 years intervening, the average person, average, will gain about 15 kilos in weight, which is 32 point, yes, two pounds a year, one to two pounds a year. 15 kilos in weight is gained over 30 years on average.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
Some gain very little, others gain a hell of a lot more. We look at ourselves in a mirror. I look at myself in a mirror, but it's true. I don't want to be that guy. Yeah.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
Compared to white people, Polynesians famously, who can get pretty large before they actually end up getting diseases. So that's a classic example where this is why South Asian people, East Asian people have a higher predisposition of diabetes, even though... obesity is not particularly a big thing in their cultures. But then you then begin to look at body shape. That does matter as well.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
So I think there are two elements there. First of all, there is doing the things that we want to do. Okay? Like that. Because you're exactly right. These are the things which I can still do that. I can still walk up a mountain or down a mountain because I'm still fit enough to do that. And I want to stay as fit as long as I can to do that. And weight will inhibit that, undoubtedly.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
But then there's a second element to actually consider. Now that's healthy. Look, none of us are going to live longer. We hopefully... And anyway, if we lived longer but was unhealthy, would you want to live longer? So you want to live longer but healthier for longer, okay? And undoubtedly, the thing that is closest related to health when you age is not your total weight.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
There's a role to play there. The amount of muscle you have. It is your muscle mass as you age, independent of how much fat you have, okay? that will determine how healthy you are as you age. So now I'm talking about going into the 60s, into the 70s, rather than when one is able to go down a 200-meter set of steps, okay?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
So now, as you get older, the most crucial bit of information is to maintain resistance training, not lifting, and that's not what I'm talking about. Sitting on a wall, getting up and down a chair, because that, the amount of muscle mass you have, really, really, really marks the level of health that you're going to get. And then the science is startling.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
It is so, so, so related, independent of weight, you know, from there. So muscle mass is the most important for healthy aging the moment you get 60, 70 plus.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
Correct. Always keep resistance training. And lifting weights as long as I can. Lifting weights as long as you can. At some point, you won't be able to lift weights. Well, I don't know. Don't write me off.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
16%.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
And there's a sweet spot. So if you eat too much... and you're not lifting, you're stressing your kidneys because your kidneys have to get rid of the nitrogen from the protein, okay? So 16% is a sweet spot, and it doesn't mean steaks only. It can mean beans, tofu, any kind of protein from anywhere, 16%. Second is fiber. We need to eat as much fiber as physically possible, okay?
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
Where do you put your fat? Do you tend to put the fat on your bum, on your tummy? How tall are you? How short are you? And all of these things, which we can see visually, we can see, there are people who are then susceptible or not susceptible to specific diseases. Other things you can't see.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
30 grams we wanna aim for. Although we're looking at the moment on average in this country, we're probably only eating 15 grams. We need to double the amount of fiber we actually eat. Third, we need to limit the amount of added sugars into our diet. Added sugars, meaning sugars not tied up in fiber. Powdered stuff, maple syrup, algarve, nectar, all those are added sugars you put in.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
Keep it to 5% or less of the energy content in your day. And those are the three numbers that I want you to think about. So 16% of protein, 30 grams of fiber, 5% or less of added sugars. Apply that to whatever you want, keto, whatever you want to do. Apply that. And I think that will be a sustainable, healthy way to eat.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
It is a good strategy for weight loss if you're an Olympic athlete. or a Tour de France rider. What if you are a muggle like me? A muggle like you, a muggle like me, then exercise, okay, exercise, you can never replace the goodness and wonderfulness and health benefits of exercise. Is exercise a good weight loss strategy for a muggle like Steve? No. It's a good weight maintenance tool though.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
So in other words, once you've lost the weight, which means you need to eat less somehow, exercise helps you keep the weight off. So once you've actually lost the weight that you're aiming for, whatever that might be, then do the exercise and that will help keep the weight off. But it's not going to help me get the weight off in the first place. No.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
Only because we don't do it enough. So now if you had, okay, let's put it this way. Let's put it this way. The way that it would work is if you had a personal trainer and a chef. Then what would happen is your personal trainer will make you work hard. and your chef will make your meal, okay? Therefore, what happens is it's controlled on both sides.
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
That is not typically what happens in the real world. I go on my run, my cycle, what have you. I come back, I'm ravenously hungry. I open the fridge and I stuff my mouth full of carbs. That is my story, right? And so it is very difficult to control your diet after you've done long, hard exercise bouts because you get ravenously hungry. So professional sports teams...
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Moment 209: The Real Reason You’re Gaining Weight (Even If You’re Exercising!)
a they exercise ridiculous they train three times a day so that there's that but they still have chefs and dietitians and they eat what they what what they the you know the canteen puts up for them which is healthy food so someone is looking after their diet for them but they are burning so much they don't have to worry too much about how much they eat whereas we we do it's i know it's counterintuitive in some sense but it's purely because we don't exercise enough