By: Bob Kupniewski

After my first article regarding Dr. Oz, I had to do a followup. After seeing the replies I got from posting the first article, and how the viewers enjoyed it, I found that I had to do some more research on Dr. Oz’s website to see more claims he does make towards nutrition and diet. In the first article (http://www.machinemuscle.com/who-is-dr-oz/) I slammed Dr. Oz regarding his stance on meal frequency and linked the article to multiple studies proving him wrong. His preaching regarding more meals per day will aid those to lose weight and his infamous crash diet that deals with an egg breakfast, slimming up salads, and lean dinner is not the best way to diet on top of a juiced drink everyday. The premise of a diet or a crash diet should be overall calories and keeping them as high as possible to help keep your metabolism from crashing. That is something I do not think Dr. Oz put into context before he ran his mouth on live TV and his viewers sat there brainwashed about his information.

Now after digging a bit deeper on his website I came across his 5 weight loss tips and one that really stuck out at me was that individuals should limit their caloric intake towards the end of the night. Now this is a topic I do want to cover because there is quite the research being done on late night eating and a famous “Carb-Backloading” approach which is getting some craze in the nutrition department.

First and foremost Martin Berkhan who I citied in my previous article has an outstanding article regarding Late night eating and fatloss that I am going to utilize in this article. Now before we get into that, let’s look at the big picture. How do individuals lose weight? Simple math, or calories in vs calories out, or as Lyle McDonald would say the “Energy Balance Equation.” Considering the amount of calories burned in a given day through all exercise, walking, non exercise physical activity, chores you do, workouts etc.. Those all add up, and when you input the amount of calories you eat if it is less than that, then you lose….simple. Now I am not advocating eating all your calories right before bed, if you train earlier in the day then yes you should allot calories around your pre/post workout meals or feedings. Also Layne Norton and his Muscle Protein Synthesis research shows that protein eaten ever 4-6 hours and containing at least 5g leucine will help illicit maximum protein synthesis and letting individual’s protein refractory levels reach the bottom before being spiked again. So therefore if you are eating more often it may actually impede fat loss because you are constantly spiking amino and insulin levels. Food for thought Dr. Oz!

Back to Martin and his research regarding fat loss and eating at night. He has some incredible studies to back this research and the first has to deal with increased sleep and BMI while consuming the majority of your calories towards bedtime. Northwestern University in Chicago did a great study regarding this and seeing the correlation of BMI and sleep.

Higher BMI was associated with shorter sleep duration, later sleep timing, caloric consumption after 8:00 p.m., and fast food meals. In multivariate models, sleep timing was independently associated with calories consumed after 8:00 p.m. and fruit and vegetable consumption but did not predict BMI after controlling for sleep duration. Calories consumed after 8:00 PM predicted BMI after controlling for sleep timing and duration. These findings indicate that caloric intake after 8:00 p.m. may increase the risk of obesity, independent of sleep timing and duration. Future studies should investigate the biological and social mechanisms linking timing of sleep and feeding in order to develop novel time-based interventions for weight management. Those who consumed the bulk of their calories during the day showed they had shorter sleeping patterns and those who consumed the majority around 8 p.m. had deeper REM sleep and also had longer sleep duration. Interesting to say the least right?

Another individual named Bored Fagerli marks his claims regarding his “Biorhythm Diet” or in essence carb back loading which shows that high fat meals in the morning (waking meals) is associated towards increased ability to respond to carbohydrate meals better later in the day. The higher carbohydrate (carbohydrate back loading) will aid in fixing metabolism later in the day and serotonin levels to aid in deeper sleep. One of the studies he backs up on his website shows women in taking 70% of their carbohydrates and calories earlier in the morning compared to later in the evening.  After 6 weeks it showed the AM groups dropped a touch more weight but also lost 30% Muscle. Those who ate most of the carbs later in the day only lost 7% muscle, so proof is in the pudding that there may be some correlation behind this. Both groups trained at the same time in the afternoon so that stayed consistent.

Another study was done on Israeli police officers over a 6-month duration and eating their carbs at 8 in the morning and the others at 8 in the night in 2011. The clear trend from the study shows those who ate at 8 p.m. experienced greater fat loss, less hunger, and had higher leptin levels (regarding their metabolism), better insulin levels and blood glucose control. This study was done in Nebreska by an individual named Sopheret as a reference.

And one more study to put the nail in the coffin from 1987 showed that there was no change in weight loss where individuals ate the majority of their calories at 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.. The only change was the amount of fat burning or lipid oxidation was higher in the PM eating group compared to the AM day. This was over a span of 15 days to show that there was also no difference in cortisol levels, blood pressure, or Resting Energy Expenditure between both groups. This was done and published in Italy by the Department of internal medicine.

Another Myth that Dr. Oz had on his website that made me raise my eyebrow is that Diet soda will lead to weight gain because it tricks your body into craving more food. All the while for most Diet soda will kill their appetite that will aid them in losing weight because it makes them not crave food due to what it does to the acidity in their stomach. Some people find diet soda as an “Appetite Controller” or something that curbs their hunger. Diet soda is often associated to those who diet because they enjoy something to curb their sweet tooth with the artificial sweeteners that they may not be able to get from whole foods. Other things that may be wise to invest in for those trying to help keep some weight off or kill their sweet tooth are Walden Farm Syrups (Pancake, Chocolate, Carmel, zero calorie salad dressings etc..). Most who diet find less caloric ways to cut back their intake and the diet soda is a great way to do so with 0 calories compared to a normal soda, which will be around 100-120 calories. Riddle me this Dr. Oz, how can you intake a 0 calorie beverage and say it prevents losing weight when it comes into the total energy balance equation as 0 calories compared to 120 calories from a normal beverage. In my mind, that really does not make much sense. Diet soda may have an artificial sweetener in them, but to assume that it will lead to cravings is an individual thing, not an overall assumption for everyone. We all have different ways to crave foods, but for most who drink diet soda it will curb hunger, help kill cravings, and aid in their weight loss.

In this article I hope you got the general gist of what I tried to get across with Dr. Oz and some of the claims he is making. Just like in the first article about nutrition and meal frequency this one detailed more on late night eating and diet soda leads to weight gain. I will do some more research regarding Dr. Oz and perhaps supplements he may consider, different options or meal plans he may suggest, or anything else I may get an e-mail/suggestion from for those who are reading these articles. I could find more ways to see where he may be steering his crowd wrong, but for now I have covered quite a bit just off watching 1 episode on TV and quickly browsing his website.

Till next time I will have to research Dr. Oz a bit more to see where his preaching does come from because for now it is really confusing to me how he gets away with telling this on live TV and people sit there praising him.

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