Does fat loss feel harder than it needs to be? Do you experience energy crashes throughout the day, maybe even constant hunger? What if I told you there's a simple addition to your diet that could solve most of these problems?

No, it's not protein... it's a nutrient that often overlooked yet found in many delicious foods.

Today, we're taking a concept from chemical engineering called buffer systems and showing you why this nutrient works the same way in your body. By adding this in, you can optimize your fat loss, stabilize your energy, and improve your overall health. 

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The five key ways THIS nutrient acts as a nutritional "buffer" in your diet

• Why increasing its intake could accelerate your fat loss efforts

• Practical tips for incorporating more of it into your meals

To get your free copy of the guide mentioned in the episode (with full lists of foods sorted by how much of this nutrient they contain)... join my FREE mailing list at https://witsandweights.com/email

Main Takeaways:

• One nutrient acts as a "buffer" to help maintain stability in nutrient absorption, energy levels, and digestion

• This nutrient stabilizes optimizes fat loss by mitigating hunger and spikes in blood sugar, thus avoiding late day energy crashes!

• You can set targets and track your intake of this nutrient using MacroFactor (try it for free with code WITSANDWEIGHT).

Related Episodes:

• Ep 177: How Anatomy Impacts Your Gut, Muscle Mass, Hormones, and Health with Justin Cottle

• The Hidden Brain in Your Gut Might Be Controlling Your Cravings with Dr. William Ferro | Ep 205

• Ep 151: The Surprising Link Between Gut Health, Fat Loss, and Body Composition with Josh Dech

Episode summary:

In today's fast-paced world, losing weight and maintaining a healthy diet can feel like a never-ending battle. Many people turn to complex diet plans and stringent calorie tracking, only to find themselves hungry and energy-depleted. But what if there was a simpler, more effective way to achieve your dietary goals? Enter dietary fiber—the often underestimated nutrient that can revolutionize your health and fat loss journey.

Dietary fiber is likened to a chemical engineering buffer system in this podcast episode, stabilizing your diet by preventing energy crashes and keeping hunger at bay. This analogy is apt, as fiber works to balance various aspects of your nutrition, much like a buffer stabilizes a chemical solution. While protein often takes center stage in diet discussions, this episode argues that for many people, fiber might be the unsung hero, especially when it comes to managing hunger during a calorie deficit.

One of the primary benefits of dietary fiber is its ability to stabilize blood sugar levels. When you consume fiber-rich foods like fruits and vegetables, the digestion of carbohydrates slows down, leading to a more gradual release of glucose into the bloodstream. This helps prevent the rapid spikes and crashes in blood sugar that can leave you feeling tired and irritable. By maintaining steady energy levels throughout the day, you can avoid those dreaded afternoon slumps and stay more productive.

In addition to stabilizing blood sugar, fiber plays a crucial role in digestion. It promotes regular bowel movements and supports a healthy gut environment, preventing issues like constipation. A well-functioning digestive system is essential for overall wellness and can significantly impact how you feel daily. Moreover, fiber-rich foods often come packed with essential micronutrients, reducing the risk of malnutrition, especially during fat loss phases when calorie intake is reduced.

One of the standout points of this episode is the emphasis on the simplicity of a fiber-rich diet. Instead of meticulously tracking calories and macros, focusing on increasing your fiber intake can make a noticeable difference in achieving your dietary goals. Fiber adds bulk to your meals, helping you feel fuller for longer, which is particularly beneficial when you're trying to eat fewer calories. This satiety factor can reduce the likelihood of overeating and make sticking to your diet plan much easier.

Practical tips on integrating more fiber into your diet are also covered in the episode. Starting with your first meal of the day, you can incorporate fiber-rich foods like oatmeal, berries, and chia seeds. Snacks can include vegetables and fruits with the skin, which provide additional fiber and nutrients. For lunch and dinner, adding beans, lentils, and whole grains can further boost your fiber intake. These small dietary changes can lead to significant health improvements over time.

To make this transition even more manageable, the podcast offers a free fiber guide available through their email list. This guide provides a list of fermentable fibers and specific foods to help you effortlessly incorporate more fiber into your meals. Whether you're already following a disciplined fitness regimen or just starting your health journey, this guide can be a valuable resource.

The episode also touches on the broader health benefits of fiber. Regular fiber intake has been linked to improved insulin sensitivity, which, combined with strength training, can enhance how your body uses nutrients and aid in fat loss. Fiber's role in promoting a healthy gut microbiome is another critical aspect, contributing to better digestion and overall wellness.

In summary, this podcast episode sheds light on the transformative power of dietary fiber for fat loss and overall health. By acting as a stabilizing agent in your diet, fiber can prevent energy crashes, curb hunger, and improve digestion. The episode provides actionable insights and practical tips for integrating more fiber into your meals, making it easier to achieve your dietary goals. So, if you're struggling with weight loss or just looking to improve your health, focusing on fiber might be the simple yet effective solution you need.

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Transcript

Philip Pape: 0:01

Does fat loss feel harder than it needs to be? Do you experience energy crashes throughout the day, maybe even constant hunger? What if I told you there's a simple addition to your diet that could solve most of these problems? And it's not protein, but it's a nutrient that is often overlooked and is found in many, many delicious foods. Today, we're taking a concept from chemical engineering called buffer systems and explaining how your body works in that context and why this nutrient works the same way. By adding this in, you can optimize your fat loss, stabilize your energy and improve your overall health.

Philip Pape: 0:53

Welcome to Wits and Weights, the podcast that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart, efficient systems to achieve your dream physique. I'm your host, philip Pape, and today we're talking about a concept from chemical engineering that could transform your approach when it comes to your diet and your food. We're talking about buffer systems. I know it doesn't sound very exciting yet, but trust me, this is going to be a very cool analogy for how your body works and how this concept relates to a crucial component of your diet, a nutrient that many people are not getting enough of, and that is fiber. Yes, I know, fiber isn't the sexiest topic. I know, gut health isn't the sexiest topic, so what I'm trying to do today is link this all together and talk about all of the different benefits of fiber that you may not have even considered and why it could be the missing piece right now in your diet for things that you didn't realize had anything to do with fiber. And before we even get into that topic, I want to let you know about a guide that I have. It's a free guide tied to fiber. It actually gives you a list of fermentable foods, fermentable fibers. That will help with all of the things we're talking about today yes, gut health, but also everything else. And if you're struggling to figure out where do I get fiber from, how much fiber is in different types of foods and I even have it separated by the different compounds you definitely want this guide. All you have to do is join my email list, go to witsandweightscom slash email and then reply to the welcome email and say, hey, can you give me the fiber guide? I'll be happy to send it over. Just click the link in the show notes or go to witsandweightscom. Slash email and then just ask me for my fiber guide, all right. So what we're talking about today is what are buffer systems, how they apply to nutrition and how does fiber act as a buffer in your diet? And before I even go there, I want to define what we mean by buffer and then, once we do, we'll see, it'll all make sense. And then I can talk about some of the tactical aspects of how much fiber, how to track it and how can you get more of it. And again, the guide that I just talked about will have a lot of details as to specific foods, but today I'm covering it at a high enough level so you get the big picture.

Philip Pape: 3:04

And many of us we approach the diet for fat loss with this all or nothing mentality. You know we're cutting calories effectively, that when I say all or nothing, it's usually from a calorie deficit perspective. Right, I need to go on a diet, so I need to cut out calories. Or I'm going to cut out entire food groups like carbs, or we go to some sort of extreme measure in terms of our aggressiveness with the diet, and then that leaves us feeling hungry, we're irritable, we're prone to energy crashes, and all of that is tied into concepts like hyperphasia and massive hunger and binging. And then the yo-yo dieting and all of that. What if, instead? Okay, what if, instead, instead of me telling you, okay, you just need to eat more protein, track your calories, track your macros which are all helpful tools what if there was a very, very simple thing, one thing that you could focus on that would create a lot more stability in your diet, a way to smooth out the energy peaks and the valleys, to control the hunger, to help you not feel deprived, so that you can then start to do those other things better. Kind of a backward approach I'm taking today, where, instead of telling you, track your calories, track your macros, track your this, and that I'm going to focus on one thing and I've already alluded to it, and that's fiber. Right, but I want to explain why that is so, so helpful, and we're going to try to make it sexy today. Okay, so you're like fiber's the new protein.

Philip Pape: 4:30

Everybody talks about getting more protein and yet if I were to split up my clients into two types one that didn't get enough fiber and one that got enough fiber, even when they're doing everything else their strength training they're getting their steps, maybe even they're hitting their macros and they're hitting their calories, but the fiber isn't there. Those that have enough fiber. They're checking off all the boxes. They're like, yeah, good digestion, hunger's fine. You know, I feel nice and full when I eat. I get to eat a lot of different foods, no issues with nutrients, no other weird things going on generally. That's not, you know, explained by something else. And then sort of check all the boxes and then when you look at the people who don't have enough fiber, um, and every time I onboard a new client, I would say 50% of the time they are far short on their fiber, and oftentimes these are people who are doing all the things. I love working with clients who are already lifting weights and already doing some of these and they're like there's something else happening here, and oftentimes it's just a lack of fiber, and you find that a lack of fiber leads to a lot of things that are otherwise prevented by that and you don't realize it.

Philip Pape: 5:35

So let's tie this to a concept in engineering Cause that's what these Wednesday episodes are for, and it's in chemical engineering, which is not my background, just so you know. But it's a simple concept called a buffer or a buffer system, and the point of a buffer is to maintain stability in a solution. Just think of a cup of water and you want it's either too acidic or too basic. You probably remember those terms from you know basic chemistry or high school or whatever. Ph balance, those kinds of things. You don't have to understand it, just go with me here. And a buffer works to keep that environment stable, even when external factors could disrupt it. Ah, so it's kind of like a concept of homeostasis in your body, but we're going to go ahead and apply buffer systems to nutrition to your food.

Philip Pape: 6:22

I want you to think of your diet. All the things you eat is this big chemical solution okay, a whole bunch of things that come together and in reality it is right Like chemical compounds, that's molecules. That's what food is made of, and there are a lot of factors that come into play when you eat your food Nutrient absorption, your energy levels, your digestion and your body's trying to keep all these things in balance, and one of the key ingredients that does that for us is a nutritional buffer is fiber. It is fiber and I'm not trying to force this topic in here why is it that people with sufficient fiber seem to have far fewer issues across the board? Across the board not just gut health, but also metabolism and hydration and like they don't seem to need as many supplements and they have better blood work, and like the list goes on and on and you're like this is amazing, what's going on?

Philip Pape: 7:20

Well, fiber, think of fiber as a buffer that keeps you regulated, that keeps you normalized, and there's five ways that this happens that I'm going to touch on today just because the number five is a nice concept, a nice number to grasp. The first way that fiber is a buffer is it stabilizes your nutrient absorption. All right, just like a chemical buffer neutralizes excess acid or excess base and maintains that pH balance. Fiber stabilizes nutrient absorption by slowing down the digestion of carbohydrates. Remember, fiber itself is a macronutrient. It is a, I'll say, a subtype of carb, but we give it very special treatment and so you could almost think of it as its own type of macro. And, in fact, if you're trying to track your fiber, it's really helpful to have a fiber target as its own macro, instead of just trying to get a certain amount of carbs, let's say 300 grams of carbs. Well, if you get 300 grams of carbs and they're all from white rice and they're all from different types of carbs that don't have much fiber, that's going to be a massively different outcome than some of those grams being from fiber. Not a lot of them, but some of them. And that's because they help prevent rapid spikes in blood sugar. They help you maintain a steady flow of energy. It is part of the balance.

Philip Pape: 8:46

When you have a macro balanced meal, it's not just fats, carbs, protein, it's also fiber. And I often tell people, hey, if you do nothing else, just have protein and fiber in every meal. Just have protein and fiber in every meal. Just have protein and fiber every meal. But I almost want to think, I almost want to say, like, start with fiber. I almost feel like fiber is even more important in many, for many people, because proteins kind of quote unquote easy to get to like. It's easy to eventually up your protein and get there. Fiber is a little trickier, especially for those who are picky about their vegetables or not used to preparing their food or cooking or making slightly more involved meals. And it doesn't have to be hard. I'm just pointing that out. So Number one fiber is a balancer.

Philip Pape: 9:29

It prevents spikes in blood sugar. It stabilizes the absorption of your nutrients Okay, it slows down digestion. Number two fiber balances your energy levels, just like a buffer prevents drastic changes in the solution. Fiber prevents drastic swings in energy by ensuring the more gradual release of glucose into the bloodstream, which is again related to what we just talked about, because it slows digestion. But this also helps avoid energy crashes. So if you're having problems with energy, especially in the afternoon, raise your hand right. I'm very prone to this, where, come 3 o'clock, I just want to crash and I'm out of the energy that I had in the morning when I had my caffeine and I'm ready to go and I go work out, you start to have this late day crash. You just may be shy of fiber, and that fiber, which slows down the release of glucose, could help you stretch out your energy from your food for hours and now you feel much better in the afternoon. So think about that, think about the importance of fiber, just for that Okay. Number three is it promotes the stability of your digestion. It promotes equilibrium because it regulates that's right your BMs, your bowel movements. It promotes a healthy gut environment. It prevents things like constipation, irregular digestion and then much worse issues for some people who just don't get nearly enough. All right, we're not even getting into the microbiome health and all that, that's great, but just regular EBMs alone is going to be hugely helpful for how you feel, your digestion, what you're up to doing throughout the day.

Philip Pape: 11:12

Number four is that fiber helps you manage fullness and satiety. Now, this is the big one that I usually throw out, bam first to everyone. I'm like all right, you're in fat loss, you're in a calorie deficit. How do we hack this whole hunger thing? Obviously, you're going to get hunger. Leptin is working against you. Grelin is working against you. Your hormones, your stress hormone, your gut hormones all of these are working against you. You've got so many appetite signals that are triggered.

Philip Pape: 11:39

But if you're, on top of that, eating a bunch of hyperpalatable, processed, calorie dense foods that don't have a lot of nutrients, even if you are eating a decent amount of protein, you're leaving a lot on the table when it comes to managing fullness, because fiber provides bulk to your meals. It fills up those meals. It helps you feel full a lot longer, not just a little bit, but quite a bit. It then leads to the likelihood that you will not overeat, right? Just like a buffer prevents pH from swinging too far in one direction. Now I'm starting to lose it here with this trying to force it into this engineering system. But you get what I'm saying.

Philip Pape: 12:18

Fullness and satiety go way up when you have more fiber, which is why one of the easiest hacks during fat loss is just to load up on vegetables, but don't forget fruit. There's also fruit when we're talking about not trying to get too many calories but trying to add in. Um, satiety, that's where I'm going to start is fruits and vegetables. Trying to add in satiety, that's where I'm going to start is fruits and vegetables. That's why it's so important. And then number five is having more fiber is directly correlated with enhancing your micronutrient intake, just by definition, because fiber rich foods are fruits, vegetables, whole grains, things with lots and lots of nutrients, and these provide a stable, food-based source of micronutrients so that you don't have to rely on supplements, right? And you're also not going to have major fluctuations in nutrient quality or food quality. So food quality goes up. And during fat loss, this is even more important, because that is when you have a higher risk of malnutrition. You have fewer calories coming in, or, for you ladies out there, who just naturally eat down in the 14 to 1600 range, you're constantly at risk of being undernourished or under nutrient. What am I trying to say Having malnutrition. So fiber can be the thing that unlocks that. And you know there's a lot of other benefits to fiber.

Philip Pape: 13:40

I just wanted to kind of to hit on the big ones that have to do with fat loss and have to do with health and nutrition. There are so many more, and I actually have spoken with several really interesting and knowledgeable experts on different aspects of gut health that end up coming back to fiber anyway, and so I'm going to throw some links to those previous episodes in the show notes. You can look for those. Those are interview episodes, because I'm not really an expert in gut health per se. I'm an expert in helping people find out what they're missing with their diet, with their nutrition and training, and doing those things and incorporating those things and then being consistent, knocking it out of the park and finally getting lean, finally getting the fat loss, finally getting the thing that they haven't gotten in years. They've been spinning their wheels because, A they weren't sure what was missing and, b they needed help actually making it happen, being consistent over time and looking at the data to tell them that it worked. Being consistent over time and looking at the data to tell them that it worked Okay.

Philip Pape: 14:43

So now that we understand the importance of fiber from the perspective of its use as a buffer in your body, right? It regulates so many things and makes it easier, makes fat loss easier, improves your health. How much should you be eating? How much fiber should you get? It's pretty simple. The more complicated answer is 14 grams per thousand calories consumed. The easier answer is men maybe 35 grams, women maybe 25 grams or more, and if you're far less than that, you'll know it. You'll know it if you start tracking. It doesn't have to be that tricky. You can simply use a food logging app. That's the easiest way to do it, or you can just manually track it. Either way, you'll know. Okay, I'm getting around 10 a day and I really need to be up at 25. If you're already in the ballpark, you're probably more or less okay.

Philip Pape: 15:29

Everybody has a little bit of a different tolerance. My personal favorite, of course, is Macrofactor. Others, like Chronometer, have decent nutrient tracking. What I like about Macrofactor is when you set up the nutrients explorer, it will automatically set up targets based on your gender and how much you're consuming, and those targets will float with your goal and with your targets, and then, every time you log a food, it'll tell you how many grams of fiber that contributes to the total and then you can look at the total for the day, the total for the last week, for the last three months Really good way to tell. Am I on the right track with my trend? You know, some days you're going to miss, some days you're going to go high, that's fine, it doesn't matter. Just as long as your trend is averaging out to that 25, 30, 35 grams, you're probably good.

Philip Pape: 16:18

As far as how to get more fiber, I mean, like with any food, you have to prioritize it, and I would start right with your first meal of the day, right with your breakfast. How do you get more fiber in there? Oatmeal, berries, chia seeds so many great foods to choose from. Again, they're in my guide If you join my email list and just ask for the fiber guide. So witsandweightscom, slash email and it has a whole list of things. Fiber guide. So witsandweightscom, slash email and it has a whole list of things. One of my clients who just joined last week she's eating a bunch of raspberries.

Philip Pape: 16:46

Raspberry is one of the highest fiber forms of fruit and berries. It's really good, very low calorie, but you can snack on vegetables. You can have whole grain options instead of refined options. You can add beans and lentils to things you enjoy. Fruits with the skin like eat your fruit, don't put it in a smoothie, eat it, get the fiber in there. Experiment with all sorts of fun foods that you may or may not like, but once you prepare them, you know, you roast them, you steam them, you stir fry them. Artichokes, brussel sprouts, avocados, like so many things have fiber that you might not even realize. And then, when you do this, just do it gradually. Don't try to solve it all in one day, just you know. Allow your digestive system to adjust. Make sure to drink plenty of water. Help fiber do its job, right those BMs right. Help it do its job and you'll be golden.

Philip Pape: 17:38

Now for those of you who listened to this episode because of fat loss specifically, it's not just about satiety, remember. More fiber actually allows you to eat more physical volume of food for the same calories. Ah, now think about that, right, fiber-rich foods, they're often less calorie dense, they're more nutrient dense. And so you can eat a huge bowl of strawberries, but you can only eat a half sleeve of Pringles, right, I mean, that's just an extreme example. The other one I like is sweet potato versus a Pop-Tart. They have the same macros, but one is much more processed and calorie dense, so you'll hardly feel like you ate anything. We're talking about the Pop-Tart, in case you were wondering, and then the sweet potato kind of like fills you up, right? Some of the top high satiety foods are also high in fiber. Not just white potatoes, but also an orange, and orange has a lot of fiber and it's also very filling and it's also sweet and delicious. So there we go.

Philip Pape: 18:31

The other cool thing remember how we talked about fiber stabilizing blood sugar and energy. This can lead to improved insulin sensitivity over time and that, combined with strength training, which is the other huge leverved insulin sensitivity over time, and that combined with strength training, which is the other huge lever of insulin sensitivity, is going to make your body then more efficient generally at how it uses its nutrients, and that can often help with fat loss as well. There's so many unintended positive side effects. By adding fiber to your diet, you're not just creating a more stable environment like a buffer, getting it back to our buffer system. You are potentially making all of your fat loss phases easier and more sustainable, and we love that.

Philip Pape: 19:13

So to recap the whole episode, it's basically just, if you do nothing else, you may be short on fiber and adding more fiber can potentially unlock a lot of the things you've been missing.

Philip Pape: 19:20

You may be short on fiber and adding more fiber can potentially unlock a lot of the things you've been missing. And if you found value in today's episode and you want my guide that I mentioned earlier a couple of times to identify the specific ways to add fiber to your diet and construct all these delicious, diverse meals so many foods to choose from just join my email list at witsandweightscom slash email and then reply to the welcome email and say hey, philip, can you send me that fiber guide? Send me that fiber guide. I'll know exactly what you're talking about and I'll send you your free copy, no strings attached. Again, go to witsandweightscom slash email or click the link in the show notes. All right, until next time, keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember sometimes the small changes, like adding more fiber to your breakfast, can lead to huge results. I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights Podcast.