Thread by @DoctorTro

My parents came to this country with nothing in their hands, from a generation of people literally slaughtered and robbed of everything.

They worked two jobs each as young immigrants, going to college at night.

I remember being a kid w/ @okalayjian @aramazto hungry w/o food

Literally we had to eat mayonnaise and pita sandwiches b/c my parents were out working.

To ensure we had food, my family literally bought fast food sandwiches when on sale & froze them so we could eat if they couldn’t cook dinner.

I know my parents did their best for me. They worked tirelessly and they have done the amazing service of being an amazing example of sheer tenacity & hard-work

But this was the food environment that kept me trapped for years to come

Growing up the doctors literally shamed me and my parents for our obesity

My mother went to weight watchers several times.

The doctors gave her fen-phen

They told us to “just eat less”…

And yet at every party, my brothers and I would try to control our Doritos & Diet Coke consumption.

I remember my first attempt at losing weight was when I was 13. I was already 205lbs (more than my current weight)

To try to lose weight I said I would only eat raw vegetables and if I needed I would fill up on Diet Coke.

I would drink 4-6 liters of diets drinks per day to try to control my appetite.

Actually my first success at weight loss was at 13, when I decided that I was going to stop eating.

Although this was terrible, inspired by a fat shaming society, it did give me an early glimpse into something that would change my life forever.

I suffered from anorexia, fat shaming, weight stigma, and doctors without empathy pushed me into an eating disorder. I wanted control and I saw my whole family had no appetite control.

So I stopped eating

The first two days were horrible. I was starving and I drank liters of crystal light and diet soda to try to manage incredible signals to keep eating

But after two days, it’s like the screams in my head to eat just dissappeared.

Now it’s not like I knew what was going on, but I didn’t want to give that up. So I didn’t eat for just about a month.

Then to keep off the weight I turned vegan. Because low calories…

It was that small escape from hunger that I envisioned a life on healthcare. I thought about writing a book “beat the gene” because everyone in my family was obese and I had momentarily beat it.

It was at that point that I wanted to go into medicine. Everyone needed to be vegan, everyone needed to drink Diet Coke and eat less calories. When in reality I had disordered eating, and no idea the power of ketosis.

So inspired at a young age, given amazing tenacity from my parents I eventually got personal training certification and then into medical school. But although my brain muscle was busy getting exercised my body was back to always hungry.

What happened?

I thought it was my mental drive to not eat and eat less that was my saving grace. I thought my appetite suppression came from willpower.

In medical school, I planned to run a marathon over 15 times all to lose weight. Didn’t work.

I eventually made it though medical school and residency and eventually went back to literature to understand appetite and hunger, inspired by my wife @rosettesmix to understand my condition: obesity

I read 400 diet books, I read 2000 papers on obesity & 3 textbooks

What I found out was those FUCKERS have been lying to us.

ALL OF THEM.

Corporations, scientists, academics, doctors… ALL OF THEM.

No animal eats because of calories, they eat because they are hungry.

I asked myself what drives hunger? What drives fullness?

And what I found in the medical literature was this:

LOW CARB ALWAYS DOES equal or better in interventional trials for obesity or diabetes… but the messaging doesn’t reflect that.

When I started low carb dieting it wasn’t because I loved meat. I never, NEVER cooked a steak in my life prior to 7 years ago.

I started this what because as a board certified internist, I followed the evidence.

The evidence was CLEAR.

Now the rest is history. I’ve devoted my career to understanding obesity, to understanding why certain diets works in which patients. I’ve published 4 studies & gotten certified in obesity medicine.

What I’d like you all to take away from this is that most doctors and scientists actually don’t know the evidence. They don’t know what a 350lb brain thinks like. They don’t know what a 350lb feels like.

So when they look at the evidence they see calories.

I see hungry people

Most people with obesity, if they could “eat less”they would

What they need is awareness of what is stoking their appetite & what will make them less hungry, how to prepare for their unruly appetite. They need to understand what it takes & why

then they need a partner to help

The problem is, the eat less, move more & take responsibility messaging is HARMFUL. It’s like yelling at poor people to make more money.

This is why I’m so inspired & why I’ll never give up.

Until every Lame & Yanni is out of this business