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Eat Carbs Last — here’s why

The order in which you eat carbs affects insulin levels, and therefore how it influences body fat.

Dr. Jason Fung
7 min readMay 14, 2024

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Understanding obesity as simply calories in, calories out is not useful at all because it doesn’t try to understand WHY calories in> calories out — ie. ultra processed foods, food addictions, mindless eating, depression, poor habits, lack of eating schedules. If people are addicted to food, and therefore calories in> calories out, then we need to treat the addiction, not just tell people to ‘eat fewer calories’. It’s 100% not useful.

It is analogous to seeing the problem of alcoholism as alcohol in, alcohol out, which is obviously true. But treating alcoholism means you much understand WHY alcohol in> alcohol out — ie. PTSD, depression, addiction. Just seeing Alcohol In, Alcohol Out leads to some bad advice like ‘just drink less alcohol’. This is 100% true, but not useful in any way. You need to treat the addiction or PTSD or depression instead.

Calories in, calories out is a failed paradigm because it leads to no useful interventions or drug therapies. Drugs that simply affect calorie intake do not lead to lasting weight loss. Consider artificial sweeteners. Zero calories, so why doesn’t it cure obesity? When was the last time somebody told you “Oh, I just switched to diet soda and…

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Dr. Jason Fung
Dr. Jason Fung

Written by Dr. Jason Fung

Nephrologist. New York Times best selling author. Interest in type 2 diabetes reversal and intermittent fasting. Founder www.TheFastingMethod.com.