DoctorTro Profile picture
Sep 29, 2021 15 tweets 4 min read Read on X
🚨THREAD

Why calories NEVER mattered...

1/n
We have known as far back as 1982 that tracking calories, food logging is inaccurate & doesn’t predict weight loss

10.1093/ajcn/35.4.727.

2/n
Meta-analysis in 2008 by Harnack and French, then follow-up in 2014 from Eblel, Kiszko reviews and assesses the evidence on the effectiveness of calorie labeling at the point of purchase

"Concerns on the effectiveness of calorie labeling policies"

10.1007/s10900-014-9876-0

3/n
Less than 0.1% of people getting fast food actually care about calories...

10.2105/AJPH.2008.136457

4/n
Men actually INCREASE intake with calorie information

10.1186/1479-5868-5-63

5/n
nutritional labeling in a college setting caused some people to eat more....

10.1016/0271-5317(95)02001-C

6/n
dietitians miscalculate calories by 10-20%, lay people around 20-30% and some patients with obesity up to 50%

10.1016/s0002-8223(02)90316-0

7/n
Head to head, calorie counting performs worse than EVEN the low fat diet (the diet that failed the last half century)

10.1136/bmj.314.7073.29

8/n
There are millions of people with access to calorie information with no END in sight to the obesity pandemic

9/n
Many patients actually DONT like tracking or counting calories

10.1016/j.invent.2016.12.003

10/n
There's more

11/n
SUMMARY:

Calorie estimation for both intake & expenditure are inaccurate, even for orthorexic dietitians/trainers

Several real-world examples from NYC, college cafeterias, menus etc have shown that calorie information has no clear positive impact on food intake

11/n
Educating patients on calories has been an overall disastrous experiment with no signs of real world improvement

Calorie counting and point tracking diets HAVE never been shown to be superior to ANY approach

Consider stopping the bullshit & actually helping people instead

/end
If you want to hear me lecture on this join me this Saturday for a Grand Rounds for @TheSMHP @DougieReynolds

We will discuss why calories NEVER mattered and the history & importance of glycemic variability...
@DrBubbs this one is for you!

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More from @DoctorTro

May 13
1/
🧵 Can you reverse heart plaque?
Yes—and not just with meds.
Let’s walk through the top human trials showing how exercise, nutrition, and smart supplements can slow or even reverse plaque buildup.

A thread for your arteries… 🫀
2/
🏃‍♂️ CENIT Trial (2022)
Supervised HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training)
📉 PAV shrank −1.2% per year
This isn’t casual walking—this is structured, high-effort cardio.
Result? Plaque regression.
Control group? No change.
3/
💪 Cardiac Rehab Studies
Regular exercise improves artery function and slows plaque growth.
When combined with other therapies, it can lead to actual regression.
Movement is medicine
Read 16 tweets
May 4
1/
Most people don’t know the real results of the Minnesota Starvation Study…

Yes, the men lost weight.
But they also developed anxiety, depression, binge eating, low libido, cold intolerance, and obsession with food.

Caloric restriction isn’t benign.
Let’s dig deeper… Image
2/
A new review in Nature Reviews Endocrinology exposes what calorie restriction really does to the body.

While it may extend lifespan in rodents, the human data is less clear—and the downsides are serious.

Here’s what the science actually shows:
3/
Wound healing slows down.
Cut your hand while calorie restricted? It’ll heal slower.

CR reduces collagen production, growth factors, and immune cell infiltration. Refeeding reverses it… but only after damage is done.
Read 14 tweets
May 3
1/
🧵 Can you reverse heart plaque?
Yes—and not just with meds.
Let’s walk through the top human trials showing how exercise, nutrition, and smart supplements can slow or even reverse plaque buildup.

A thread for your arteries… 🫀
2/
🏃‍♂️ CENIT Trial (2022)
Supervised HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training)
📉 PAV shrank −1.2% per year
This isn’t casual walking—this is structured, high-effort cardio.
Result? Plaque regression.
Control group? No change.
3/
💪 Cardiac Rehab Studies
Regular exercise improves artery function and slows plaque growth.
When combined with other therapies, it can lead to actual regression.
Movement is medicine
Read 17 tweets
Apr 29
THREAD: 🧵

CGMs - continuous glucose monitors

Having looked at 10,000+ CGMs let me tell you what you will learn...

1/9
Lesson 1: Hidden carbs are everywhere
- you will find hidden sugar & carbs everywhere.

You didnt know you could find carbs/sugar but you will:
hotdogs, sausage, beef jerky, spices, condiments, sauces, soups, broths, basically everywhere you didnt look.

2/9
Lesson 2: consider avoiding seed oils, vegetables oils, especially from restaurants.

Patients who switch to olive oil and avocado oil & hoke cooking seem to have improvement not otherwise explainable on CGMs

3/9
Read 9 tweets
Apr 13
🔔 Where did Ozempic & Monjauro come from? 🤔

Bookmark, save, and follow along Image
🦎 The Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum), a unique lizard known for its binge-eating behavior, produces the hormone exenatide, the basis for diabetes medications such as Ozempic and Mounjaro.
This reptile stores significant amounts of energy in its fatty, moisture-rich tail, aiding in weight and hydration maintenance. The GLP-1 hormone is exclusively released from its saliva through the act of chewing. When liquified food is injected directly into its stomach, the hormone is not released, highlighting the importance of chewing in this process. GLP-1 is thought to signal satiety and help regulate blood glucose levels during digestion. The Gila monster consumes large quantities of food relative to its body weight, often ingesting whole rodents and digesting them over 1-2 months.
Read 7 tweets
Mar 30
When I entered medicine, it was deeply personal. My family’s struggles with obesity and metabolic disease were my driving force. I watched my brothers reach 400 to 500 pounds, and our family was plagued by diabetes, hypertension, and more. I thought becoming a doctor would give me the tools to help, but what I found was a system that often prioritized profit over patient outcomes.
In the early 2010s, I began noticing issues with the CMS reimbursement structure. The payment model seemed designed to incentivize procedures and chronic disease management rather than prevention. Spending time with patients to address root causes wasn’t valued. Instead, quick fixes like medications were prioritized.
My skepticism grew as I delved into public health issues. Water fluoridation, for example, was accepted without question. Yet, when I examined the data, I found no significant difference in dental outcomes between fluoridated and non-fluoridated countries. This revelation made me question other unquestioned practices, like the push for flu shots without considering individualized risk-benefit analyses.

I marveled at people like @gorskon who claimed that herd immunity was an efficacious endpoint for mandatory mass flu shots… for a product with 10-60% match rate 🤔

To make this simple, it’s the equivalent of making the false claim that we can keep out mosquitoes with a chain link fence.

These people were liars, plain and simple and now post COVID we know this even better than ever.

Just look at the exaggerated claims we had to endure.Image
Image
Image
Read 5 tweets

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