Diet That Makes You Look 10 Years Younger in 30 Days-The Best Way to Lose Weight Healthy

 The Easiest Weight Loss Program? Why Diets Fail and What Actually Works.

Einstein had a great quote. He said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Well, all these diet programs are the same thing: calorie restriction.

Especially the trends blowing in from America have brought us a bunch of nonsense, things that have no real scientific basis. Like eating "little and often." Another name for eating little and often is being a glutton. Humans aren't meant to eat 6-7 times a day.

This is my program. It's the easiest program to follow. Because in this program, you lose weight very comfortably, without calorie counting, without "this is forbidden, that is forbidden," without "eat this much," without "a matchbox-sized piece of cheese"—none of that nonsense. You lose weight very, very easily.

Hello, I'm Doctor Yavuz Yörükoğlu. I was born in Ankara in 1955. I studied and graduated from Istanbul Faculty of Medicine. I completed my specialization in cardiovascular surgery at Hacettepe University, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery. I went to England. I worked for one year at Cambridge University and for three years at London's St. Thomas' Hospital. Upon returning home, I worked in various hospitals and universities.

What are the ways to lose weight healthily, doctor?

That's certainly a 10-point expert question. For years, all over the modern world, people struggle with weight problems. And generally, in recent years, some very, very wrong discourses have been developed. Especially the trends blowing in from America have brought us a bunch of nonsense, things that have no real scientific basis. Like eating little and often. There is no greater betrayal of health than this. Another name for eating little and often is being a glutton. Humans aren't meant to eat 6-7 times a day.

If you look back to the 1950s and before, people generally ate 2 meals a day. They ate proper meals, and snacking in between was considered shameful. I remember from my childhood, I would run and play. Then I'd come and say, "Mom, give me ice cream, give me cake, give me an apple." My mother would scold me and say, "You don't eat anything before a meal."

I said something on a television program once that got a lot of attention. I said, those my age should find and pull out photos of their parents, and those younger than me should find photos of their grandparents. Photos taken in the 1950s and 60s. When you look at these group photos, what you'll notice is this: there isn't a single overweight person among them. Now, these people weren't poor. In those years, there were no dietitians, no diet books. There was no one on the internet saying "eat this, don't eat that." People ate an average of two meals a day, they ate proper meals, and as I said, they didn't eat anything in between.

After making this observation, let me try to explain the ways to lose weight healthily, point by point.

First, two meals a day is a sufficient number of meals for everyone. There are some wrongly believed urban legends. Go out on the street and ask, "What is the most important meal of the day?" 90% will tell you "breakfast." Now, breakfast isn't harmful, but it's not mandatory, and it's not the most important meal of the day. That's a line taken from an advertising campaign by a company selling breakfast cereal back in the 1950s. If you're not overweight, have no sugar or cholesterol issues, and feel like having breakfast, go ahead, enjoy. But it's not mandatory; don't expect any special benefit from it.

Now, generally, the healthiest eating style is one where you eat two meals a day. Of course, in the meantime, as we said earlier, the quality of what we eat is also very important. What's important is to establish a healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables, salads, legumes, and complex carbohydrates, rich in fiber.

My patients ask me about this very often. They say, "Doctor, we're confused, please show us a way." I recommend to them, first of all, my book "30 Günde 10 Yıl" (10 Years Younger in 30 Days), which is currently in its 19th edition. This is a book I published in 2015. It's based on the principle of intermittent fasting, a program based on healthy eating and movement. Many people think it's a weight loss book, but it's not. If it were, we would have called it "30 Günde 10 Kilo" (10 Kilos in 30 Days), but we didn't. The reason we call it "10 Years Younger in 30 Days" is that it rejuvenates your metabolism by 10 years. If we get the metabolism working normally as I describe, then weight, sugar, cholesterol—all of them improve.

The biggest harm this "little and often" eating does to people is this: No matter how little you eat, no matter how healthy you think you're eating, every food you eat causes an insulin secretion. When you continue this for a while, insulin resistance develops in patients, in people. What does insulin resistance mean? After a while, our cells start to ignore insulin. This is the first step towards diabetes. I always say this: drop this "little and often" eating, these snacks, these snacks, this nonsense. Let your pancreas rest, let your liver rest.

The intermittent fasting principle is a very important principle that came to the fore 5-10 years ago. All religions and cultures of the world have a fasting tradition. And the effects of fasting on human health have always been mentioned. The scientific world is only now discovering this. When we don't take in calories for a certain period, when we fast, usually around the 14th hour of not consuming calories, a mechanism called autophagy occurs in our cells. Autophagy is a cleaning action performed by the "garbage collectors" of the cells, called lysosomes, inside our cells. They eat the old proteins and organelles in the cells, and new ones are made in their place. So autophagy is also a recycling and rejuvenation movement.

Now, when we fast or practice intermittent fasting, our liver rests, our pancreas rests, insulin resistance in the cells is broken, our cells become more sensitive to insulin, and most importantly, as a result of all this, the energy metabolism of our cells speeds up. We can burn the sugar, the foods we eat, more quickly and more effectively. It's like putting super fuel in your car.

The intermittent fasting principle in my book involves not taking in calories for about 16 hours. The mechanism is quite simple. You don't eat anything after 8 PM. Actually, no one should eat after 8 PM. Food eaten after 8 PM cannot be digested properly, ruins sleep quality, and if you're prone to it, causes reflux. So we close the eating chapter at 8 PM. Let's assume we go to bed at 12, that's 4 hours gone. If we think we spend 8 hours sleeping in bed, what happens? That's 12 hours gone. We skip breakfast, we eat our first meal at 12 PM. So if you think about the fasting period, it's a total of 16 hours. But that last 4 hours, from 8 AM to 12 PM, is the most important 4 hours for autophagy to start and for our metabolism to enter fat-burning mode. Especially if you take a walk between 8 AM and 12 PM, our metabolism starts burning fat like crazy. This is the key point of weight loss.

Diet That Makes You Look 10 Years Younger in 30 Days

Doctor, what do you recommend to those who become obsessed with losing weight?

Well, these people are usually those who have tried methods like the so-called "dietitian diets"—this "eat little and often," calorie counting—multiple times. Now, scientific studies show this: the success rate of weight loss diets based on calorie restriction like this is around 9% at the end of one year. About half of those who start these diets "burst the tire" in the first 10-15 days. The remaining 50% can lose weight proportional to the effort they put in. However, it's observed that those pounds are regained very quickly, and as a result, only about 9% of those who go on such a weight loss diet are successful after one year.

Now, these kinds of attempts usually don't stop at one or two. These people, unfortunately, have gone to different doctors and dietitians with this trouble, have tried many times, and have failed many times. And this, of course, inevitably causes psychological stress. And they embark on some extremely wrong, completely nonsensical procedures like obesity surgery, which I am totally against. But because their psychology is damaged, they consider these things.

My recommendation to these people is, first and foremost, to try my program. Einstein had a great quote. He said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. All these diet programs are the same thing: calorie restriction. "Eat little, eat often." They've been saying this for 10 years. If one of these programs were successful, there wouldn't be a need to write 40 more books. So you must be doing something wrong. What is that thing? Well, when the basic philosophy is wrong, it always goes wrong like this. This needs to be broken. When these people are guided correctly, there is no one who cannot lose weight.

I have helped dozens, maybe hundreds, of people who had scheduled surgery appointments, who came to me as a last resort, to lose weight and saved them from those surgeries.

Besides weight, more importantly, I know you want to address this too. Along with the weight loss process, diseases like diabetes, cholesterol, even hypertension and heart disease can regress in patients.

Doctor, what are the superfoods that will help with weight loss?

There is no single food that causes weight loss on its own. However, the most important elements for weight balance are fibrous foods. By fibrous foods, we mean fruits, vegetables, salads, and legumes. Such a balanced diet also feeds the beneficial probiotic bacteria in our intestines. And these probiotic bacteria are extremely effective on our sugar and cholesterol metabolism. Now, these foods we're talking about, fibrous foods, are the most important food for probiotic bacteria. We feed them, and in return, they take good care of us. For a healthy weight balance, a balanced diet and especially complex carbohydrates—whole grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables—are essential.

Doctor, there are people around us who say, "No matter what I eat, I don't gain weight." What is their secret?

I don't think there's a secret to it. There is research on this. These people are generally, in essence, eating in moderation, and they are usually more active. Now, weight is a balance between the calories we eat, meaning the calories we take in, and the calories we burn. If you are taking in more calories than you burn, you gain weight. So, these people generally either eat in moderation, eat the right things. Because if you sit and eat a trough of salad, its calorie value is 50 calories. On the other hand, if you eat two pieces of baklava, that's maybe 300-400 calories. So what you eat, its quality, is very important.

How can an overweight person lose weight the fastest?

With the intermittent fasting method I mentioned earlier. So there's no easy way out of this. It requires a bit of effort. It's about changing our daily habits a bit. But let me put it this way: this is my program. It's the easiest program to follow. Because in this program, for 30 days, there are no restrictions except for alcohol and sweets. You eat as you wish in two meals. You don't eat anything in between. And very comfortably, without calorie counting, without "this is forbidden, that is forbidden," without "this much of that," without "a matchbox-sized piece of cheese"—none of that nonsense. You lose weight very easily.

Well, doctor, is it possible to lose 20-30 kilos in a week? And how healthy is it?

It's not possible. And it's not healthy either. Scientific guidelines recommend losing a maximum of 3-4 kilos per week. For example, in my program, if you follow it properly, you lose about 10% of your weight. Let's say you weigh 90 kilos. At the end of a month, you'll have lost 9 kilos. If 100, we lose 10 kilos, and so on. This is a good measure. Other than that, trying to lose weight at a much higher rate by starving yourself intensely or with some unusual foods is not a very smart or healthy thing.

There was this comparison, doctor. Ideal weight. Is this correct? Should ideal weight according to height be like this, like that?

Well, there are such criteria. The most commonly used one is something called Body Mass Index. It's related to dividing your weight by the square of your height. But there's no need to do that calculation. There are applications online that do it automatically. And according to that, up to a certain percentage you're normal, above that you're overweight, and after that you're obese, and so on. However, these are not very accurate measurements. The reason is this: First, these measurements do not account for age. The Body Mass Index of a 20-year-old and a 50-year-old will be different no matter what you do. On the other hand, it doesn't account for the body's composition. Sometimes you see two people. Both are 80 kilos. One is pot-bellied, fat. The other is an Olympic athlete. Because his weight comes from muscles. The other's comes from fat. Therefore, Body Mass Index is not that sensitive a measurement. It only gives an idea.

On the other hand, waist circumference measurement is used as a criterion. This also gives an idea. So, waist circumference, especially since it also indicates internal organ fat, is something that should be known as a disease risk factor. For men, a waist circumference of up to 100-105 cm is considered normal, and for women, up to 90 cm. But this also has a flaw. It doesn't account for height. Now, let's say there's a person, height 1.75m, waist measurement 105 cm. That's a pretty seriously pot-bellied man. But if that man is not 1.75m but 1.85-1.90m tall, that belly doesn't look bad. So that's not a healthy measurement either.

The healthiest measurement and ideal weight—I have a article or two on this topic—is the ratio of waist circumference to height. When you calculate this ratio, if it's 0.55 or below (up to 0.55 is normal), above 0.55 is considered overweight, etc. So this is a healthier, more sensitive measurement. We use this in the evaluation of our patients who come in.

Doctor, there's also the Turkish coffee thing. Can Turkish coffee make you lose 10 kilos a month?

No, there's no such thing. Filter coffee or Turkish coffee—so those real, proper coffees, not the frothy cappuccino-latte type coffees—genuinely have a very important effect on human health. When it comes to weight, coffee's helpful effect on weight loss comes from it slightly speeding up the metabolism. But this acceleration is around 1-2%. Therefore, thinking "I won't cut back on anything, I'll be normal, I'll drink 5 coffees a day, and I'll be thin"—there's no such thing. It aids weight loss.

Doctor, how many liters of water should I drink a day to lose weight?

You don't lose weight by drinking water. There's no such thing. Getting enough water is important for metabolism. But there's no one who is dehydrated. I mean, God gave us a sense of thirst. They always ask. How much water should a person drink? Some say 3 liters, some say 5 liters. It even made quite a splash on a TV program once. A young friend of ours attributed her beauty to the 6 liters of water she drank daily. She's 20 years old. No matter what you do, she's beautiful. Her skin is beautiful, she is beautiful. Come back at 45 and see, even if you drink it by the water cooler, it won't make a difference. So drinking water is important, but water doesn't have a fixed dose. You will drink water when you are thirsty. But more is not beneficial. I always say something: If something is beneficial, more of it is not necessarily more beneficial. If you drink 10 liters of water a day, you'll spend most of your time in the toilet. And you won't lose weight.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, "Fast, and you will be healthy." What are your thoughts on this?

Absolutely. Just as I explained earlier, the scientific world is only now discovering the benefits of fasting. When the famous Japanese scientist who conducted research on fasting and autophagy received the Nobel Prize in Medicine, this became more understood and came to the fore more. And because of this, the intermittent fasting principle was created in different forms.

Well, what is the secret to staying young?

Ah, there's a 10-point, even a 100-point expert question. Everyone wants to stay young. A famous writer said something like this: Everyone wants to live a long time, but no one wants to get old. Staying young has been an obsession for everyone throughout history, from Alexander the Great to Ponce de Leon who discovered America. Everyone has tried to solve the secret of youth and beauty. Unfortunately, there is no such secret, but what I mean by rejuvenation is being metabolically young. I mean, in the end, there is no way to prevent some changes like our hair graying or falling out, our skin wrinkling. There are ways to slow it down. And there is a way to stay metabolically young.

So, if we eat healthily as we talked about earlier, if we fast intermittently, if we lead an active life, we also stay metabolically young. Now, you look at a man, 40 years old, relatively young. We do his blood tests, run tests. He has insulin resistance, his cholesterol is out of control. This is high, that is low, etc., etc. Metabolically, the man is 75 years old. On the other hand, a 75-year-old comes in. As the Anatolian saying goes, the man is "fit as a fiddle." Sugar, cholesterol, everything is perfect. This is something entirely stemming from our lifestyle.

But to summarize, the secret to staying young is, one: movement, plenty of movement. Second: healthy eating.

Well, doctor, should I never use sugar at all?

No, it's not like that. It's not possible to say sugar is a beneficial thing. But sweets are a part of human life. That's a fact. So sugar is harmful. But that doesn't mean "I shouldn't eat sweets, I shouldn't eat fruit, I shouldn't put sugar in my tea or coffee." It's not like that. When consumed in moderation, anything our metabolism can handle is beneficial. Therefore, there's no such thing as "sugar must not be eaten."

Doctor, what is "Bloodless Bypass"?

Yes, "Bloodless Bypass," also known as Natural Bypass, is the expansion of EECP therapy. That is, a treatment method called Enhanced External Counterpulsation. The patients who undergo this treatment are usually those who have had bypass surgery before, and their bypasses have clogged. Or have had stents, and their stents have clogged. Patients who have no chance for another surgery, heart failure patients, or patients who do not want surgery at all can receive this treatment.

The main principle here is the development of new collateral blood vessels in the heart. EECP therapy has a special device. Cuffs, like blood pressure monitor cuffs, are attached to the patient's calf, thigh, and buttock areas. And the patient is monitored, meaning connected to an ECG. The device's computer tracks the patient's heartbeats and inflates the balloons at the point where the heart relaxes, sending more blood to the heart. In this way, the coronary vessels that feed the heart also get increased blood flow, and the vessels dilate. And most importantly, as I said earlier, it promotes the development of new collateral blood vessels in the heart.

Depending on the patient's condition, this treatment is applied in 20, 30, or 40 sessions, and our patients see great benefit. It's not just this treatment; we also apply medication therapy. We manage the patient's medication needs. And since most of these patients are also diabetic, we apply special diet programs for them as well. We have countless patients who, after 30 sessions, stop their insulin and most of their diabetes medications, and who, who couldn't walk 100 meters before, can now walk 3 kilometers.

This brings us to the principle of "disease reversal," which originated in America and has been spreading over the last 10 years. The chronic diseases we talk about, like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, have a genetic component, but to a large extent, they stem from our lifestyle. What we eat and drink, our bad habits, our activity level—when all these come together, over the years, a person becomes diabetic or has heart disease. Now, in the "disease reversal" principle, when you remove the harmful factors, the disease not only stops, but it's possible to reverse it to its initial state. So, one of the things I apply within this "disease reversal" concept is the complete reversal of cardiovascular diseases, coronary artery diseases, and diabetes under a special program.

I am in my 42nd year of professional life. I have no intention of retiring. I continue my mission of informing people about human health, even if in different lanes.

Thank you.