Do THIS to Boost Your Metabolism, Lose Fat, & Feel Better Now With Dr. William Li

Mel Robbins (00:08):

Well, hold on, let me just stop you right there.

 

Dr. William Li (00:09):

Yeah. Everybody can do it. No matter where you are in your health journey, no matter what type of struggles you've had in order to be able to lose weight and be able to achieve better health,

 

Mel Robbins (00:20):

The world renowned Dr. William Li is back to unpack the science of metabolism. Dr. Li is around physician and scientists. Dr. Li's work has impacted more than 50 million people worldwide and it's led to the prevention, treatment, and even reversal of diseases spanning cancer, obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Whether you're looking to lose weight, burn fat, or just be healthier, Dr. Li has the science, the research, and the simple steps to help you unlock the power of your metabolism.

 

Dr. William Li (00:49):

Everyone thinks they know a lot about metabolism, but there are a lot of myths about it. Everyone's metabolism is different.

 

Mel Robbins (00:56):

Is that true?

 

Dr. William Li (00:56):

Not true. The second myth is that when we reach middle age, our metabolism is going to automatically slow down. Not true. Third thing, teenagers in their adolescence, their metabolism is going sky high, not true. Fourth myth is that,

 

Mel Robbins (01:14):

Holy cow, what do I do to jumpstart my metabolism?

 

Dr. William Li (01:19):

Alright, so

 

Mel Robbins (01:23):

Dr. Li, I'm so excited that you're here and the way that I wanted to start is, could you tell the person that's listening how they could experience life differently if they take to heart everything that you're about to teach us about the science of metabolism and they put that to use in their life today,

 

Dr. William Li (01:41):

Your body's metabolism is your energy source. And if you want more energy in your life, what you want to do is tap into your, what's already hardwired into you in order to be able to unleash that energy and everybody can do it no matter where you are in your health journey, no matter what type of struggles you've had previously in order to be able to lose weight and be able to achieve better health.

 

Mel Robbins (02:06):

Wow. Well, about a third of our listeners have set a goal to either lose weight or to start a new diet. And I would love to know how to leverage my metabolism to be healthier, to be in better shape. But what does metabolism mean? Because maybe when you say metabolism, I'm thinking something else. Let's start there. What does metabolism actually mean?

(02:46):

Okay? Metabolism is how your body gets energy and burns down energy. Just like if you are a car. So think about it. I mean, most of us have driven a car that uses gas and when you're driving a car, which relies on fuel to actually drive forward, you are just sitting in the driver's seat, going about your way, thinking about how to get to point A to point B. You're not thinking about the fuel. And that's basically how we operate with our metabolism. We just keep going, doing our thing, we've got the checklist, got to go shopping, we got to go pick up the kids from school or whatever. We don't think about our metabolism, but like a car, which requires fuel when the fuel gauge goes towards empty, suddenly if you're sitting in your car, all of a sudden you're like, where do I find that filling station? I got to get some gas.

 

Mel Robbins (03:36):

Yes.

 

Dr. William Li (03:36):

Okay. Same deal in your body. When your energy runs low, suddenly you got to get fuel. And it turns out the fuel that we use for a car, which is gasoline, petrol, depending on where you live, if you actually look at what happens in the body, the fuel for our body is our food.

 

(03:54):

We call gasoline in gallons or liters depending on where you live. Food, the measures in calories. So it's very simple. When we eat food, we're actually putting in fuel into our bodies, alright? And we call them calories. Don't get confused about the word calorie. There's a lot of misunderstanding about that. It's just fuel. Now in the car you're putting, you pull by the filling station, you're taking up the nozzle, you're filling up the tank in your car with fuel, it fills up to the top and now it goes click. And now no more fuel will come out, thank goodness. And you put the nozzle back on the pump, get back in your car. Now you're not even thinking about the fuel anymore. You're on your way. In our body, the same deal. We sit down, we're looking where fuel's running low. Our body says, go find some fuel. We sit, go to the dinner table, go to a restaurant, go get delivery, food delivery

 

Mel Robbins (04:49):

Or stand in front of the fridge and open it up or pull out the drawer and put your hand in the chips with me last night.

 

Dr. William Li (04:54):

It's your choice and this matters. This matters a lot. And I'm going to tell you, this is how you derail your metabolism. So this is actually the unlock, what you just said is about the choice that you can make when you need fuel, alright? You can put good quality fuel into your body or poor quality fuel. So think about it. Pull your car to the filling station and you got a choice of three or four different kinds of gasoline you're going to put into your fuel tank. Now, most of people will tell you put the best quality fuel you can into the tank. But all of us, I'm running a little low on cash this month. And so what do you do? You go out and I'm going to put some of that cheap stuff in there.

 

(05:33):

You know what? You fill up your car with a tank full of cheap gas once in a while, you're not going to know the difference. But if you do that every single time you go fill up your tank day in and day out, week after week, month after month, I guarantee you your car's not going to run as well. Or as long as somebody who really takes care of their car by putting higher quality fuel into their car. And by the way, beyond the quality of the fuel, that person who's making that choice is probably also taking better care of their car in general. And that's exactly what happens to our body when we're actually needing fuel. We go for food, we reach for choice, choice a, choice GC, just like at the fuel tank. And what we know is that if you actually choose higher quality fuel for your body, it's actually going to be a lot better for you in the long run.

Dr. William Li (06:33):

Well, I love the fact that you are inviting me to myth bust because there's so much myth when it comes to weight loss and metabolism and everyone thinks they know a lot about metabolism, but there are a lot of myths about it that everyone needs to find out. We've all heard of 'em, right? So you basically say, well, everyone's metabolism's different. It's the roll of the dice. My sister's skinny as a stick and she getting anything and I've been fighting with weight my whole life and I have to be careful with food. That's one myth or one idea.

 

Mel Robbins (07:07):

Well, hold on, let me just stop you right there. So are you saying Dr. Li, that it's not true that everybody's metabolism is different,

 

Dr. William Li (07:15):

Not true

 

Mel Robbins (07:15):

What?

 

Dr. William Li (07:16):

Not true. We're all born with the same metabolism because our metabolism is the operating system of a computer. Mel, if you went to the computer store and I went to a different computer store, we bought the same model of laptop out of the box, plug it in, charge it up, start it operating system, be the same, you hear the same sound, and then the screen would come on the same way. That's how we're born. We born with the same kidneys, the same eyesight, the same brain function, the same ability to move our tongue. What makes us think metabolism is different?

 

Mel Robbins (07:51):

Well, I guess because I've just always thought that some people have a metabolism that's faster and some people have metabolism that's slower. And I mean, is that true?

 

Dr. William Li (08:03):

It's not true. So let's come back and talk about that myth based on a research study that was done. So that's one myth,

 

Mel Robbins (08:10):

Okay.

 

Dr. William Li (08:10):

The second myth is that when you've got teenagers and they are growing up and they're eating two or three dinners and bouncing off the walls, you're thinking that in their adolescence, their metabolism is going sky high.

 

Mel Robbins (08:25):

Yes.

 

Dr. William Li (08:25):

Because they're feeding themselves, they're packed with energy. That's also a myth. Not true.

 

Mel Robbins (08:30):

You're kidding. I remember my mom saying to me when I was a teenager, oh, you better enjoy that hamburger now because it's not be going to be able to eat like that when you get older. And I've said that to my kids. That's not true.

 

Dr. William Li (08:45):

Not true. Third thing, that's a myth. We all think that when we reach middle age 40, 50 and beyond, our metabolism is going to automatically slow down. And we all dread that kind of portion of our lives where we're saying, you know what? I'm not going to fit into these clothes anymore. I just got to get used to it. You look at other people and you go, well, they must be entering their middle age. And you sort of just have this culture of giving up with your former body relationship and you're like, my metabolism's shot now I'm going to gain weight. I'm not going to fit into the clothes anymore. Also a myth. The fourth myth is that when our metabolism is slow, that that's why we gain body fat, not true,

 

Mel Robbins (09:37):

Then why do we gain body fat?

 

Dr. William Li (09:40):

Different reasons why we gain body fat, but it turns out the truth is that it's our body fat that slows our metabolism, not the other way around.

 

Mel Robbins (09:48):

Oh my god. Okay, so I just want to make sure that I am digesting, no pun intended, the things that you've come right out of the gate and said, which is we're all born with a metabolism that works the same way. That the idea that some people have a fast or a slow metabolism, and that's just what you got and that's what you're stuck with is not true. Nope. The fact that your metabolism is faster when you're younger and slower when you're older, also not true. Holy cow. And what are you going to teach us today? Because now I'm like, dude, how do I get my metabolism to get cranking?

 

Dr. William Li (10:26):

Alright, so let's go at this because I think that for the people who are listening and watching this, it's good to know that the breakthroughs actually give you power. And here's what it is. We are all born with our metabolism, hardwired in our body, just like an operating system of your computer, our metabolism. We come out of the womb exactly packaged to work in exactly the same way. It is what happens afterwards that starts to change. But a recent study that was done a couple of years ago by Herman Ponza at Duke University that he collaborated with 90 other researchers. This is a big research study. It was the largest study of human metabolism across the entire lifespan ever done. And it was done with just a drink of water.

 

Mel Robbins (11:22):

What does that mean?

 

Dr. William Li (11:23):

Well, what he was trying to do is to figure out, if you take a look at people from two days old, newborn to 90 plus years old, what does your metabolism look like and how does it change over the course of your life? So how did he study everybody in exactly the same way? This was across 20 different countries, 90 researchers, 20 countries, 6,000 people from two days old to 90 plus years old, the most ambitious landmark in metabolism ever. Okay? This is how we know that those myths are actually myths.

 

Mel Robbins (11:59):

Okay, but how did he measure it with a glass of water? You're way smarter than me, Dr. Li. So you got to explain this to me, I'll

 

Dr. William Li (12:05):

Tell you. So now water most people know is H2O, right? The H is a hydrogen, the O is the oxygen. And what the researchers were able to do is to tweak the hydrogen and tweak the oxygen so that when you drank the water, you could measure the breath, the blood, the urine, the sweat, and you can actually calculate what the metabolism actually was. Alright? Simple way of actually measuring metabolism applied across 20 countries in 6,000 people across the lifespan. So when they actually got the results of this study, initially it looked exactly like the myth. Everybody's metabolism was all over the map,

 

Mel Robbins (12:50):

Which I would expect,

 

Dr. William Li (12:51):

Which you would've expected. But we now live in the era of machine learning, artificial intelligence, we can use computers to really crank data. So here's what they did. They said, I wonder if we corrected the results of this study of metabolism by adjusting the metabolism to what the individual's body size is personalizing it.

 

Mel Robbins (13:18):

Okay?

 

Dr. William Li (13:19):

Okay,

 

Mel Robbins (13:19):

So by mass,

 

Dr. William Li (13:21):

So they knew the gender, they knew the height, and they knew the body weight, and they could actually figure out, well, how much excess body fat did this individual have and subtract out from the results. So the metabolism, the effect of excess body fat.

 

Mel Robbins (13:36):

Okay.

 

Dr. William Li (13:36):

So when they did that, so 6,000 people subtract out the effect of excess body fat. I'll tell you Mel, it was like pulling the cloak off the statue of David for the first time.

Mel Robbins (13:56):

Okay, what are they?

 

Dr. William Li (13:57):

We're all born in the phase one. We're all born in the same way. Phase one is from day zero to 1-year-old, human metabolisms goes skyrockets. Higher, higher, higher, 50% higher than the adult level of a metabolism. So 1-year-old is firing up their jets big time

 

Mel Robbins (14:14):

They have to because they got to grow fast.

 

Dr. William Li (14:16):

Totally okay, but I'll tell you what it tells us. It tells us whatever we're exposing them to in that first year of life, we better think about that. The microplastics, the whoopies, the pacifiers, the ies. What are we putting into this metabolic engine? Jet engine. So phase one is zero to one years old. Phase two is from 1-year-old to 20 years old. This is that time where the teenagers are bouncing off the wall eating two or three dinners and you would think that their metabolism is going up. But this research shows that between the ages of 1-year-old and 20 years old, metabolism going down, down, down, down, down to adult levels. So the teenager is getting bigger, but the metabolism is slowing down

 

(15:08):

Now, and this is the mic drop discovery. Alright? So for anybody who's watching this, you're going to want to rewind and listen to this again. This research discovery between the third phase is between the age of 20 and 60, right? The time when you think that your waistline is going to expand and you're going to gain all this weight, it turns out that when you remove the effect of excess body fat, our hard wiring for metabolism between the age of 20 and 60 is rock solid flat as an ocean on a calm day does not change. And what that means is that the way that we're hardwired is that 60 can be the new 20 when it comes to your metabolism. If you follow what your body wants to do. Now I'm going to come back to this because obviously people's weight changes and their size changes, but there's a reason for that. And the fourth phase, the final phase is from 60 to 90 years old, guess what happens to metabolism? It does start to slow down a bit. I mean, come on, you deserve it 60 to 90, but only by 17% by the time you're 90 years old. Your metabolism's only 17% slower than when it was at 60 and 60 should be rock solid at 20.

 

Mel Robbins (16:19):

I have a couple things though that I want to repeat back just to make sure that I understand this. So phase one, zero to one through the roof, phase two, one to 20, it's actually coming down to hit adult levels, which is what you're in from phase three, which is 20 to 60. And you're going to tell us the factors that can impact your metabolism. But if we remove those factors, your metabolism underneath the hood is hardwired to just work as well as the healthiest person you've ever seen your age. And then the fourth phase is 60 to 90 and it only comes down 17%, which basically means you're still cooking with a great engine. And I guess where I think maybe we should start as we start to unpack not only the myths you've just dropped a bomb on, but also how we unlock this exciting research. I can tell you're very excited about it. And what do we need to understand about just the science of metabolism? Because I think your message is really hopeful and it's very empowering because basically through the research reminding all of us, listen, your body is designed to burn fat. Your body is designed to burn through fuel. If you understand the science, then you're going to look at the topic of losing weight for overall health in a very different way because you can tap into your metabolism.

 

Dr. William Li (17:49):

Yeah, so our metabolism is hardwired in our body, just like in a laptop, the operating system is hardwired out of the box, it's going to be firing up, and our metabolism is designed to store energy and it stores it into our body fat and it burns energy just to allow us to do ordinary things. You don't have to run a marathon to burn energy. I mean that'll burn a lot of energy. But doing the laundry, washing the dishes, walking up a bunch of steps, making the bed, that also burns energy, okay, talking on the phone burns energy, moving your fingers to scroll down, your social feet burns energy by the way,

 

Mel Robbins (18:25):

But it's not getting rid of the visceral fat that none of us really want.

 

Dr. William Li (18:30):

So movement of any sort will actually burn some energy. So I'm trying to make sure people understand that any kind of movement is a good start. By the way, studies have actually shown that even fidgeting, shaky the leg, tap, tap, tap, alright, those actually rev up your metabolism as well by burning down some energy. But nothing substitutes from a burn perspective from actually really getting into motion. Because when you're burning down, when you need fuel to burn, it's like driving really fast on the highway, you're going to burn down fuel in your tank a little bit more. And that fuel is really the energy stored in body fat. So what are some of the great ways to actually burn down body fat? Going for a walk for 30 minutes. Anybody can do going for a run if you can do it. If your knees are good, I would consider doing that swimming great way to actually burn down extra body fat.

 

(19:25):

It doesn't put too much stress on your bones or your muscles. Dancing is a great way. So the amount you intake food, the quality of the fuel that you're actually putting into your body, the amount of fuel you're putting in your body is one side of the equation and you can control that. So that's super good news because just cut down a little bit and then burning it, burning down the fuel that's been accumulated. Now some people say, well look, I have a really big body and I haven't been able to lose this fat. It's not going to happen overnight because guess what? You have been accumulating those extra tanks on your pickup truck for a long time. Those extra cans of gasoline that you fuel, you've been piling up for a long time, it's going to take some time to burn it down. You got to be patient. So whenever you see these things like lose x number of pounds in two weeks or 10 days, if you can do that, alright, it won't be sustainable. You are looking for sustainable, healthy fat burn

 

Mel Robbins (20:29):

On this topic. It would probably be helpful if you could just explain what fat is because I think it's something that we talk about in culture and then we get upset at ourselves over when it starts accumulating. But as a medical doctor and a researcher and an expert on metabolism, what is fat?

 

Dr. William Li (20:49):

Alright, so fat is a substance that we all recognize and maybe recoil from hearing like, Ugh, I dump too much fat. You want to cut it off on your plate and put it onto the side. But I can tell you fat is one of the most important tissues in your body. And in fact, it forms within weeks after your dad's sperm met your mom's egg and you were just a ball of cells, your fat form before you had a face, before you had a waist, before you had thighs, you had body fat forming. And here's how it's really interesting about how fat forms first organ that forms are your blood vessels because everything needs a blood supply. So again, you're just a ball of cells, a few days old, starting to be a few weeks, the first organ that forms is your circulation. Second, because you need blood flow. Second organ that forms are your nerves because every organ needs an electrical system. Think about building a house. You got to start with the basics, right?

 

Mel Robbins (21:52):

Yeah.

 

Dr. William Li (21:52):

You need a circulation, you need an electrical system, a nervous system, third tissue that forms body fat and body fat forms around the blood vessels. No face, there's no arms, there's no thigh, there's no waistline. It forms around the blood vessels like bubble wrap does. The question you ask is exactly the interesting question, why does fat grow around blood vessels very early in life? Because fat winds up becoming the fuel tank and you want the fuel tank to be near where the fuel is.

Mel Robbins (22:47):

Wow. Are fat cells like all the other cells or how are they different?

 

Dr. William Li (22:52):

They can stretch and expand. They fill up with the energy from food. Alright, they can expand 300%

 

Mel Robbins (23:00):

So they can expand 300% in size.

 

Dr. William Li (23:03):

They can expand three times in their size. So a regular fat cell you can't see with a naked eye under a microscope. You could see it, but I'm telling you, and this is why when fat expands, when you're loading it with fuel, which is the food that we eat, which is energy that we actually need. I mean, think about it. Our body's designed to find fuel, put the fuel into our body by eating it, storing it, stores it in our fuel tank, which is our fat. And then when you're ready to burn the fat, it takes the fuel from the fuel tank just like your car and runs it through the engine so you can actually burn it down. It's very simple. That's what metabolism is. The very simple way to think about it.

 

Mel Robbins (23:42):

I'm thinking about my two daughters. I know that my daughter will not be upset that I shared this. We wrote about it in the Let Them Theory book. And one of the first myths that you talked about is that underneath our body type and underneath how much fat we have or how little fat we have, everybody's metabolism works the same and everybody's metabolism is capable of rewiring. And when somebody like my daughter, Sawyer hears that and she for her entire lifetime has looked at her younger sister and been like, it's not fair. You can eat anything you want and you don't balloon. You have a very fast metabolism. I have a slow metabolism. I have a hard time losing weight and staying in shape. And so it just doesn't seem fair. If you could talk specifically to a person who's listening who feels like my daughter does, who's like, well, I don't believe you Dr. Li, because I see people with a fast metabolism. I see people that can just eat whatever they want and just sheds right off their body. What do you want them, first of all, to know that the science says and what's possible for them if they embrace what you're sharing with us in understanding how to turn your metabolism back on?

 

Dr. William Li (25:02):

Yeah. Well first, the first and most important thing is don't compare yourself to other people. Okay? You're comparing yourself to yourself. That's where healthy weight loss starts. So you want to fight body fat.

 

Mel Robbins (25:15):

It's true. And you said we all have the same metabolism underneath it all. And if I'm struggling, I basically go bullshit. You know what I'm saying? That's not true, but you're saying it's something you can activate in yourself.

 

Dr. William Li (25:31):

You want to actually get back to your own body's operating system. And remember that analogy I gave you out of the box? The computer looks really great and it works really well. And over time it slows down the processing. The functions don't work quite as quickly. It's just accumulated all kinds of little dings over time.

Dr. William Li (26:13):

Yeah, well, so I think that there are some actual food items that people consume that they don't realize that will do that. Alcohol is one of them.

 

Mel Robbins (26:22):

Really?

 

Dr. William Li (26:23):

Yeah, because alcohol is, first of all, it's carbs, but when you have a lot of alcohol, it changes the chemistry in your body, affects your hormones, it makes you less eager to actually exercise the next day. You don't get as good enough quality sleep. We haven't talked about sleep and metabolism, but you don't actually get to that real fat burning part of sleep if you're not getting good quality sleep. So you want deep sleep in order to be able to really burn as much fat as possible.

 

Mel Robbins (26:53):

Gotcha. So alcohol and not getting a good night's sleep in terms of deep sleep,

 

Dr. William Li (26:58):

Which kind of go hand in hand,

 

Mel Robbins (26:59):

You're right. And that impacts your metabolism

 

Dr. William Li (27:02):

And that'll impact your metabolism. And not only the alcohol, sort of the empty calories that will have you grow more body fat, but now it's actually affected your behavior as well. And one of the things that we haven't really touched on, I think it's important, is that, remember I told you that the research shows that between the third phase of metabolism between age of 20 and 60 is rock solids a flat line and that's how we're hardwired. But obviously people in their forties and fifties and even sixties and they see they're gaining weight, their body shape changes. And so what's actually happening there? Well, life is happening there. By the time you're 40 and 50, you've got so much going on in your life that you are less likely to have the same time that you had when you were 20 or 30 to be able to exercise regularly. You didn't talk about stress yet, but when you're super stressed out, you're in a constant fight or flight mode and you're not burning fat as efficiently as you could.

 

Mel Robbins (28:05):

Hold on a second. Let me ask you a question about that. That's really interesting because there's been a lot of experts that have come on the show that have talked about that fact that like 80% of people are stuck in a state of chronic stress. So if you're somebody that struggles with anxiety or depression and you're in that kind of fight, flight or freeze, that impacts your metabolism.

 

Dr. William Li (28:28):

Yeah, absolutely. So a small hit of fight or flight, your catecholamines, your sympathetic nervous system, firing up intruders in your house, boom, car accident, you're totally awake. A little jolt like that actually will burn fat because you're ready to fend off the enemy or react to the disaster. Chronic stress where the hormones, stress hormones are continuously high, they interfere with your ability to burn down body fat. So people who are depressed, people who are chronically stressed, PTSD, all those kinds of things actually will interfere with that body. And this is starting to explain why when you get to that stage in your life, forties is in fifties and it's not just exclusively there, but most of us is that middle age level. We're dealing with so much. You're worried about your employment, you're worried about your boss, you're worried about your job, you're worried about the war, you're worried about the economy, and what about the climate? What about your kids? What about your mortgage? So many things pile up that you're in a constant state of fight or flight. So this is why I think one of the most powerful things that you can do to reset your health is to really address the stress in your life, people talk about self-care. I'm just telling you, if you want to look better and feel better and you want to live longer, address that stress. It's this silent thing that robs us of our ability to be able to burn down body fat.

 

Mel Robbins (29:56):

Wow. Well, I think it's true. We have a lot of really young listeners and there's so many of them that are struggling with the cost of living and this sense of not knowing what they want to do with their life or hitting their twenties and feeling completely lost as their friends scatter and people move in different directions and loneliness. And I think that's a really important thing that a lot of us don't stop and think about. It makes sense that if you've been struggling to lose weight and you've got any one of those factors, you're not sleeping well, you got a lot of stress at work or something going on in your personal life, or you're struggling with any kind of issue like anxiety or depression or like I used to, you drink a little too much to take the edge off the stress. All of that's impacting your metabolism, which is what's making it hard to lose weight.

 

Dr. William Li (30:42):

And then think about stress eating right now, you're super stressed.

 

Mel Robbins (30:45):

Do we have to go there? I need one good thing, Dr. Li.

 

Dr. William Li (30:49):

So what I'm saying is that all these things conspire.

 

Mel Robbins (30:51):

Yeah, if I'm not drinking, I got to stress eat for God's sakes. Okay,

 

Dr. William Li (30:54):

So this helps to explain why even though we're hardwired to have a stable metabolism between 20 and 60, when life happens to us and all these things start to penetrate our lives, it's harder to get back to that baseline of your metabolism, but it's possible.

 

Mel Robbins (31:11):

You know what I love about you and this conversation Dr. Li, is that I think when you're not happy in your body and you're not feeling healthy and good just day to day, you literally think there's something wrong with you. And this research I find to be very empowering because you can then look outside yourself and say, oh, all of those factors make sense. And if those make sense and they're impacting my metabolism, it makes sense why this weight's not coming off. It makes sense why I feel down and discouraged about this. And then the flip side becomes also true, which is if you see all of these things based on research are negatively impacting your metabolism and we accept at face value everything that you've taught us that your research of 30 years has shown and is helping people beat diseases and lose weight, you're also offering us a pathway to reactivate and rewire our metabolism in a very positive way. Tell me something about weight gain, Dr. Li, that nobody would know.

 

Dr. William Li (32:17):

Okay, weight gain does not start with your muffin top. Alright?

 

Mel Robbins (32:22):

What

 

Dr. William Li (32:22):

Or your thighs weight gain starts with in a very subtle way, and this has been studied with clinical research, it's the visceral fat, the fat that's inside our body. You can't see it. That starts to grow early. So when you have too many calories and you've overflow your fuel tank, the first fat that grows is inside your body, you can't see it. Can you guess where you start getting fat accumulating first?

 

Mel Robbins (32:52):

Well, I'm thinking about my own body right now. Well, I was going to say I kind of grow like a pear. I go from a twine to a pear. So the rear end,

 

Dr. William Li (33:05):

It's not there. The first place anybody starts to gain body fat is in the tongue, the tongue, the tongue. Now this is amazing because it's been studied in skinny people. Actually, even skinny people start to gain weight and the first place they gain it is in their tongue. So check this out. The human tongue is made of three parts. You got the tip of the tongue, which is like a Cirque dele acrobat. You got the middle of the tongue, which is really strong, packed with muscle. And the back of the tongue is a big fat pillow, a pillow of fat.

 

(33:41):

A third of it is all fat like marly fat in the back of your tongue to allow food that you've chewed up to slide all the way back down into your stomach. And so the back of your tongue is mostly visceral fat. And when you gain weight and start to grow extra body fat, one of the first places that it grows is in the back of your tongue. Okay, the last third of your tongue. Now, how do you know this?

 

Mel Robbins (34:05):

I was just about to ask you,

 

Dr. William Li (34:06):

How do you know it is if your bed partner you're sleeping with starts to say, Hey, you're starting to snore. Okay, you didn't snore before. You're starting to snore. So this is by the way, studying the skinny people. What happens is that when you actually start to gain weight and body fat grows in the back of your tongue, you got a fat tongue, alright, your tongue's getting fatter. Now what happens when you're sleeping? You're relaxing, including your fat tongue starts to relax, and now your fat tongue is occluding, your airways is blocking your airway. So you wake up and you snort, you start to snore and you wake up and this is what your bed partner notices. So this has been studied in Scandinavia with thin people who are gaining weight and trying to figure out where is it beginning? And the telltale sign is snoring or being startled when you're sleeping because the tongue is the first place to get fat.

 

Mel Robbins (35:00):

Wow. And it's also then a sign that your metabolism is slowing down.

 

Dr. William Li (35:04):

It's, a warning bell that things might actually be slowing down for you.