All language subtitles for Adam Ruins Everything s02e02 Weight Loss.e

(man)
Up next, the results of the weekly weigh-in.

Now back to Mandy.

(Mandy)
Remember, fat is the enemy!

I am fat!
I am the enemy.

You gotta lose weight
if you wanna look great!

I gotta lose weight
to look great

for my high school reunion-
slash-pool party.

Hey, great work, guys!
Hey, time for a healthy snack!

Whew!
Time for a low-fat snack.

(cartoon whale laughing)

Come on, Sam.

You can change
this monster body.

All you gotta do is eat
low-fat foods,

track your calories,
and work out like crazy.

Actually...
Aah!

Man in my fridge!

None of the things
you're doing are likely to make you lose weight.

You ruined my fridge!

Yeah, because
I'm Adam Conover,

and this is
"Adam Ruins Everything."

**

Oh!
Ugh.

(screaming)

Thanks for letting me
out of that fridge.

It got really creepy
in there overnight.

Ugh! You spilled
my low-fat yogurt!

I need this
so I can lose weight

for my high school
reunion pool party.

Wait, who would combine
a high school reunion with a pool party?

Sociopaths.

Sociopaths with
rock-hard bodies.

Even worse, my high school
crush is gonna be there.

Marcy Leonardo.

(male singers)
Marc *

And if I want to look
good for Marcy,

I gotta eat nothing
but low-fat foods.

Just like Snacky
the Snack Whale says.

(Snacky laughs)

I'll never be
as cut as that whale.

Sorry, but low-fat foods
don't help you lose weight.

And the only reason
you think they do

is because
of bad science and worse marketing.

Heh!
That's ridiculous.

When I eat fat, it goes
in my body and becomes fat,

and fat is bad.

Yeah, that's what
everybody thinks,

but it's not true.

Oh, hey, an egg timer!

(timer tingling)

(blows)
People have been eating fat

for as long
as humans have existed,

and their lives
were swell.

(whoosh)

Fat tastes good!

Also, salve
for tiger wound.

Okay, maybe not swell.

The point is, fat
is one of our oldest

and most basic nutrients.

Wow, thank you
for the history lesson, Adam.

But I need
to lose weight,

and the most
important thing is for me to cut out fat.

Yep, that's what
the sugar industry wants you to think.

(whoosh)

** (upbeat jazz playing)

Holy, hambone!

Are you trying to
give me a heart attack?

Funny you should
say that,

because in the early
20th century,

doctors began to notice
a disturbing rise

in a once rare condition
called heart disease.

Americans' hearts
are failing.

But where will
the love go?

And when
President Eisenhower

suffered a heart attack
in 1955,

it galvanized
the nation.

Mmm, mmm--
(gasps)

Someone look into this!
Uhh!

Americans were
determined to fight heart disease,

but instead,
they were bamboozled by the sugar industry

and one very suave
scientist.

(whoosh)

This is Ancel Keys,
a scientist so popular,

he once made the cover
of "Time" magazine.

(camera shutters clicking,
people cheering)

(wolf whistle)

Keys was certain
that fat

was the cause
of heart disease,

but only because
he cherry-picked his data

to get the result
he wanted.

This data's out of sight!
This data can sit on it!

Fat makes you fat.
Ehh!

(people laugh and hoot)

And nobody cared that
his research was bad?

Not really.

Except for one slightly
less popular scientist

named John Yudkin.

Actually, sugar
is the likely culprit.

When you eat more sugar
than your liver can normally process,

it's stored as fat.

Hey, get a load
of the nerd!

(laughter)

Keys denounced Yudkin

and made fun of his
research in public.

(Yudkin stammering)

Fat makes you fat.
End of story!

(people cheering)

And people
just believed this jerk?

Yeah, because
of a big assist

from a group with
a sickly sweet agenda,

the sugar industry.
(pop music playing)

In the '60s, these
candy-coated capitalists

started straight up
paying scientists

to downplay
the dangers of sugar

and shift
the blame to fat.

Here's a little something
for that big

"fat problem" we have.

You got it, sugar.
(music stops)

I mean, "you"
the sugar industry.

I wasn't
calling you "sugar."

When John Yudkin spoke out
against sugar in 1972,

the industry
publicly mocked him,

calling his research
"science fiction."

Now, now, we've been
eating fat for millennia,

but if we track the rise
in sugar consumption,

there's a clear correlation
with the rise

in heart disease
and obesity.

(laughing)
If we track the rise of sugar consumption!

Live long and prosper!
Beep beep!

I am a sugar robot!

(laughter)
I am not a sugar robot.

I'm not!

The sad truth is,
Yudkin was right.

We now know that sugar
is linked

to both heart disease
and weight gain

and has been found to be
more addictive than cocaine.

But Keyes
and sugar industry

spent so many years
swaying the research

that by the time
that Yudkin retired, the public was convinced.

Despite being right
the whole time,

he died in obscurity.

(wind blows)

Wow. Science is
a harsh business.

And Big Sweet's relentless
lobbying didn't stop there.

They spent years
packing health panels

with sugar-friendly
scientists.

We need reliable,
objective research!

I've got just the man.
(drum roll)

(playing whistle)
Fat's bad.

Their campaign reached
its sugar height

when the USDA
officially recommended

a low-fat diet in 1980.

("Star Spangled Banner" plays)
Fat is the enemy!

(laughter)

This lead to a full-blown
craze for low-fat food

starting in the '80s.

It eventually became
a $32 billion industry.

And misleading ads
made it sound like

we could eat
as much low-fat food as we wanted

and never
gain weight.

(female announcer)
McDonald's new low-fat frozen yogurt.

(male announcer)
It tastes fattening but if feels skinny.

You can eat cake!

What about the fat?
No fat!

(woman 1)
So how can she eat like that?

(woman 2)
And still be a size six?

Oh, this isn't a cookie.
It's a fat-free Newton.

Yes, and once everyone
switched to low-fat foods,

everyone started
getting thinner.

Right?
Quite the opposite.

After the USDA
came out against fat,

obesity rates
actually skyrocketed.

(laughing)
But why?!

Low-fat foods must help me
lose weight.

I mean, I'm cutting out
something, right? Wrong.

When you take the fat out,
it makes food taste worse,

so to make it
more palatable,

food companies typically
a little something--

piles and piles of sugar.

Oh! This fat-free cake
tastes like Styrofoam, y'all.

Let's just add
a little sugar.

And... much better.

(giggles)
Now, let's talk about

why I think white sugar
is superior to brown--

Okay, that's enough!
Oh, yikes.

But you said
that sugar makes you gain weight.

Exactly.

The sugar industry
peddled bad science

and demonized fat
in order to sell us more of the product

that actually causes
heart disease and weight gain.

And now, eating
so much sugar

has made us fatter
and unhealthier.

Et tu, Snacky?

Sorry, Sam, it's true!
(laughs)

(growling angrily)

(fitness tracker beeps)

Whew! Okay.

At least that little
outburst helped me burn a few calories.

I guess I'll just
have to rely on

good, old-fashioned
calorie counting,

the scientific
and precise way to lose weight.

Actually, counting calories
is totally imprecise.

Want me to tell you
about it?

(screaming angrily)

(fitness tracker beeping)

Whoa!
Where we goin'?

I am off to
count calories

so that I can lose weight
and look good for Marcy.

(singers)
Marc *

Sorry, but calorie counts
are so difficult to measure,

they're basically
useless for weight-loss.

Yeah, right.

Everyone knows that you
need 2,000 per day,

and if you have
less than 2,000,

you automatically
lose weight.

All I have to do is calculate
that number exactly.

It's like a fun little
math equation that makes your hungry.

Ah, yes, the fabled
government-recommended 2,000 calories.

So clean, so exact,

and so totally wrong.

The way the government
got that number is real stupid.

Our citizens can't
think for themselves.

How much should they
eat in a day?

Well, everyone's body
has different needs,

but I guess if you were
to grossly over-generalize and average them,

you'd get 2,350 calories.

Oh, say, can I see that?

2,350? Yuck!

How are you
supposed to remember such a weird number?

Let's round it down
to 2,000.

The fatties'll
thank us later.

So they literally
just rounded down?

Yes, they quite
literally did.

And the fact is, any single
number would be wrong,

because there is
a massive variation

in the number of calories
needed by men, women,

the elderly, tall people,
short people,

every people
in the background

who aren't supposed
to be part of our show.

It's basically impossible
to know with precision

exactly how many calories
your body needs.

Oh, but I can still
cut calories

but reading labels.

See, 100 calories.

Simple, precise,
scientific.

And essentially a guess.

Calorie counts on labels
are often estimated

based on century-old data.

Well, this old one
is 100 calories.

So I guess this one is
100 calories.

And the FDA legally
allows calorie labels

to be off by 20%

Or maybe it's 80 calories.
Or 120.

Who knows?
I'm lazy.

And that's just
packaged foods.

Calories in fresh foods
can vary year to year

or even item to item.

Step right up,
try your luck!

Guess which
farm-fresh meal

is 700 calories
and which is 1,000.

But beware!

Guess wrong and you'll
ruin your waistline.

And restaurant food
is the worst.

One study found that
menu listings

are often off
by hundreds of calories.

Aren't you worried
about misleading your customers?

Honey, I serve food
out of a wagon.

(fitness tracker beeping)

Wait, yes!

My fitness tracker
is scientific,

and it tracks how many
calories I burn.

And you can't ruin
fitness trackers

because I can see
you're wearing a Fitbit.

Oh, no, this is
my Factbit.

Every time I say a fact,
I get a point.

And while fitness
trackers are pretty good

at counting steps,
they've been found to overestimate

the number of calories
burned in a workout

by up 40%.

(Factbit)
Correct.

Oh!
What? Why would they overestimate?

Because it's flattering.
Correct, correct, correct.

Oh, man, I am
killing it today.

But I thought these were
scientific medical devices. Nope.

The company Fitbit
has actually said

their products
"are not intended

to be scientific
or medical devices."

Fitness trackers
are basically

for entertainment
purposes only,

not solid data.

Ahh.

(melancholy music playing)

(sighs)
I don't believe this.

Counting calories was
supposed to be simple.

Yeah, that's problem.
We think it's simple.

But when your food
label's off by 20%,

your fitness tracker's
off by 40%,

and your body's so complex
that you have no idea

how many you actually need,
well, you can think

you got all the math right
and still gain weight.

(buzzer)
Oh, no, my equation.

(fitness tracker beeping)

Sorry, Sam, it's true.

Sam, this is
Marion Nestle,

a professor of
nutrition at NYU,

and she literally wrote
the book on calories.

So here's the problem
with calories.

They're just almost
impossible to estimate.

You can't see them,
taste them, feel them.

You have no idea
how many are in food,

and people
of very similar

size, height,
weight, and gender

may need very different
number of calories,

depending on how active
they are

and what their basal
metabolic rate is.

But if-- if I can't
count calories,

what else am I
supposed to do?

You don't have to
count calories!

That one number isn't
going to take care of all of your problems.

You're much better off
cutting down on portion size

or weighing yourself.

The best thing
you can do for yourself

is to eat healthfully.

Thanks,
Professor Nestle.

But I don't want to
eat healthy!

That'll take forever!

I want to
lose weight now.

Like the people
on "Fatty Melt."

If you insist.

(insects buzzing)

Right this way.

Uh...

You want to be
on "Fatty Melt" or not?

(whoosh)

Okay.

(fitness machines
clanking)

(inspiring music playing)

I am in body heaven!

(animal roars)
More like body hell!

Now drop and give me
50, butterball!

Unh!

And find out why
shows like this are full of it.

(groans)

(announcer)
Previous on "Fatty Melt,"

we met Sam, a man
who thinks intense exercise

will help him lose weight

for a high school
reunion pool party,

whatever that is.

But Mandy Powers wasn't
going to go easy on him.

Come on, remember,
there's no body types!

There's only fat losers
and thin winners.

Agh!

(announcer)
But after Sam failed

the Supermodel
Wheelbarrow Derby,

Mandy doubted
his commitment.

No, get back up!
Come on!

You want to be happy,
or you want to be skinny?

Skinny.
Yeah!

Well, get ready
to be neither,

because the ultra-intense
diet and exercise programs

you see on TV actually
make it almost impossible

to keep the weight off.

And cut!
(bell rings)

Great job, everyone.
Let's take five. Thank you.

Hey, sorry, buddy,

but we're all full up
on fatties this season.

Time out.
I've been pushing models all day.

What do you mean
I won't lose weight?

Uh, of course
you will, stupid!

Just look at Erica,
our season leader.

(suspenseful music playing)

(dramatic music playing)

You can't fake
results like that.

Actually, you can.

Contestants on weight-loss
shows like "The Biggest Loser"

have reported being told
to gain extra weight

before going on camera
in order to make

their transformations
more dramatic.

Someone is not
a "before" photo yet.

(Sam)
Holy crow!

That is evil!

Even worse, some contestants
have reported

being pressured by the show
to dehydrate themselves

just to shave off
a few extra pounds.

So thirsty!

Ah! Nothing hydrates
as good as thin feels.

(breathing heavily)

Erica's gonna look
so hot!

But that's
so unhealthy!

Wait. You're telling me
it's all lies?

I mean, I bought
the "Fatty Melt" book,

and DVD and Blu-ray
for higher video quality,

and the phone app
and the video game,

and none of it
was real?!

Okay, a little
Hollywood magic

just makes the story
more inspiring, okay?

People eat it up.

Hey, don't eat that up!
(Sam gasps)

And contestants on our show
really do lose weight.

You know what?

Take a look at this
artist's rendering

of what you
could look like.

Huh? Inspired yet?

Well, now,
that is... sexy.

Yeah, I want to
look like that.

Unfortunately,
it probably won't last.

In a few years, you could
actually end up looking

more or less
like you did before.

Why?
Who are you?

Oh, this is Dr. Kevin Hall.

He's an expert
on metabolism

at the National
Institutes of Health,

and he conducted
a six-year study

of contestants
on "The Bigger Loser."

Hey, Sam,
while I can't speak

to how they produce
these shows,

what I can tell you is
that of the 14 contestants

that we studied,
80% of them

regained most of the weight
that they'd lost.

But why?
I don't understand.

When you work out,
you shed pounds.

When you go on one
of these extreme diet and exercise programs,

your body doesn't
have enough food energy available,

so it does burn
body fat.

Right!
Very thin-spiring.

Unfortunately, the body
soon lowers its metabolism

to offset
that energy deficit.

And that means
that you'd have to keep

exercising and dieting
at this extreme rate

just to maintain
the weight-loss.

But on the show
we work out, like,

18 hours a day
and eat nothing.

I can't keep that up.
That's impossible.

Exactly.

That's why most
of the contestants

we studied
regained the weight.

Aah! Okay, all right!

I'll work
out this hard forever.

Then will I stay thin?

Not necessarily.

One of our most surprising
findings of our study

was that "The Biggest
Loser" contestants

had slowed their metabolism

by several hundred
calories per day,

and that's
even after they regained the weight.

So you're telling me
that losing weight faster

could make it harder
for me to stay thin?

I'm afraid so.

But Mandy said that
willpower was the key.

Sam, if anyone
had willpower,

it was the people
that I studied,

and they showed that willpower
alone isn't enough.

In fact, research has shown
that genetics explains

most of the weight differences
between people.

So, as much as we
all want to be thin,

we have to accept that
that might not be

an achievable or realistic
goal for many of us.

Now, who wants some fruit?

(excited chatter)

Bye, Dr. Hall!

Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Hey, hey, hey!

What's goin' on here?
Lunch is over!

No, back to work.

So losing weight
is impossible.

It's not impossible,

it's just a lot less
likely than we think.

Once study found
that only 1% of people who tried to lose weight

were able
to keep it off.

The rest either couldn't
lose it or gained it back.

And that's okay.

It's just how
our bodies work.

But what's not okay
is when we're cruel

to each other or ourselves

because we demand
these massive changes

that might not even
be possible.

Look, I know
that's hard to hear,

but there are still
steps you can take--

Aah! No!

Uhh! I just don't
wanna be fat anymore!

**

It's useless.
I might as well just give up

and go to the high school
reunion pool party now.

Oh, that's a great idea!

(whoosh)

(dramatic music)

Oh, no!

(singers)
Marcy

Shh, not now,
doo-wop group!

Wait! Don't you wanna
hear my positive takeaway?

Hey, guys, I'm here on
the "Adam Ruins Everything" set with Dr. Kevin Hall

'cause I got a couple more
questions about his work.

So, the study was done
in collaboration with "The Biggest Loser"?

The first study was,
while they were still losing the weight.

We did the follow-up study

because they
weren't interested

in participating
in the follow-up study.

Maybe for obvious reasons,
now, retrospectively.

Uh, this issue
of their metabolism slowing down in some way,

uh, can you expand
on that at all?

One of the main things
that we were interested in

when we were studying
these folks originally

was whether or not
the slowing of metabolism

helps prevent weight loss.
Mm-hmm.

In particular, a lot
of the fitness magazines

that you read about
will say,

if you do enough exercise,

you'll prevent the slowing
of metabolism,

'cause you'll burn--

you'll keep
your muscles larger

and you'll burn
more calories.

Yeah, I've heard that.
Um, that's wrong.

Really?
(chuckling) Yeah.

So what we found is,
clearly, these folks

were doing tons
of physical activity.

Lots of resistance training.

They actually did increase
their muscle mass.

But they had this plunge
in metabolic rate

of about 600 calories
per day, on average.

Wow.
But the interesting thing was is that

that didn't
prevent the weight loss.

In fact, the people
who lost the most weight

were the ones who had the most
slowing of metabolism.

So you had some people
gain some weight back,

some people gain
a lot of weight back,

and then one person
actually...

Kept going.
Kept going.

And so do you have any idea
what the difference was

with that one person,
what their--

what the secret is or...

She among the most active
people on that program that--

uh, continuing to this day.

In fact,
the people who continue to exercise the most

are the ones who keep
the weight off the best.

So what do you say
to people that say,

"Oh, the only reason they
gained all that weight back

"was, oh, they were
on the wrong diet.

"They should, uh,
do my special diet.

"They should do the low-carb
or the low-protein

"or the low, you know,
whatever it is.

Uh, low-Vitamin C diet."
Right, right.

And that would have
solved all their problems.

Yeah, I know,
it's a great question,

because there's a lot of people
who've made those exact claims.

Yeah.
Not the Vitamin C diet, but...

Someone's gonna come--
someone's gonna come around

and say,
"Cut out Vitamin C."

No, they will,
you're right, um...

First of all, these
"Biggest Loser" folks,

if you think that
they haven't tried

every diet under the sun,
you're delusional, right?

They've tried everything.
Yeah.

And nothing is working
to kind of just keep

that very low body weight.

Our research has shown that
when you bring people in

and you monitor
everything that they eat

and control every morsel

and match for calories
in the diet

that lower carb diets
actually don't offer any sort of advantages...

Really?
...than lower fat diets.

Now, they might be easier
to stick to for some people,

and some people
might find them

a lot easier to maintain
over the long term,

um, but others don't.

And, on average, there's
really no great benefit.

But I know people
in my life who say,

"Oh, I'm paleo, I'm low-carb,
and it worked for me."

You know, there's
always that person,

"I'm trying the diet
and nothing's happening,

but my friend is doing it
and it's working great for him."

Uh, uh, how do we
explain that?

Um, one of the questions
for those folks is,

"Well, how long have you
been doing it?"

And typically,
the answer is,

"Well, I've, you know,
been doing it a few weeks."

Or maybe, at most,
a few months.

The real test
is what happens after, you know, a couple years.

And we know that if you
randomize people

to two different diets,
for example,

Diet "A," Diet "B."

There are some people
who are hugely successful

on Diet "A,"
and there are some people

who are hugely successful
on Diet "B."

And there's complete failures
on both of those diets.

Huh.
You should try to make changes

in your diet
and your physical activity

or exercise patterns
that are persistent,

and they don't change
that much over time.

Because it's the persistence
that's key.

That's what's gonna
drive long-term health.

Well, thank you again so much
for coming on the show

to talk to us
about this, Kevin.

Ah, my pleasure.

I can't believe
you brought me

to my high school reunion
pool party.

Look at me!

I'm still fat.

That's not what matters.
Listen...

(gasps)
There's Marcy Leonardo.

(singers)
Talk to her

I can't, doo-wop group.

I gotta get home and work out
for like ten more years

and possibly get lipo.

Oh, my gosh, Sam?

(gasping)

I'm so glad you're here!

How's everything?

Good. Bad.
Sorry I'm fat.

It just--
What?

Sam, you look great.

Look, this stupid pool party
has everybody freaking out.

I've been trying
to lose weight forever.

But every ad you see
is always like,

"Oh, be thin.
Why aren't you thin yet?"

It's ridiculous.

Thank you, Marcy!

That's exactly the point
that I was trying to make.

Sam, who's your friend?

Hi, I'm Adam Conover.

And this is "Adam--"

His first time
in public,

and he really should
get going.

Sam, Marcy is right.

The amount of stress we put
on this one little number

is totally
out of proportion.

Did you know weight isn't even
directly connected to health?

Oh, yeah! I read that
one UCLA study

found that
50 million Americans

who are classified as
obese or overweight

are actually
perfectly healthy.

So, what, I should
just stop eating healthy and working out?

No, keep it up.

But don't
do those things

because they'll make you
lose weight.

Do them because they'll
make you look and feel better.

Look, I don't have
a perfect body, either,

but I used to hate myself
for it.

I would stay inside, watching
old Carl Sagan documentaries,

and eating Snack Whales
all day.

Until one day I decided,
"Enough is enough.

"I'm gonna start eating
a little better

and exercising
a little more every day."

And, no, I didn't
lose a ton of weight,

but my skin got better,
my confidence improved.

Heck, it was an overall
life upgrade!

The point is, if you
can make small changes

towards a more active
and healthy lifestyle,

that's great and something
to be proud of.

But it's such a shame
that we let our obsession

with this one number

make all of us feel like crap
about ourselves.

Is that why no one's
getting in the pool?

Yeah, everyone here
feels bad about their body.

You're right.

What we've been
doing to ourselves,

it's so cruel.

They should
be having fun.

We should be having fun.

Are you thinking
what I'm thinking, Sam?

(Sam chuckles)

(splash splash)

You know, I think an episode
of "Doug" ended this way.

(upbeat music)

Oh, hey, you guys wanna know
how sausages are made?

It's real gross.
Let me tell you about it.

(guests cheering)

Just like actual high school.

Aww, I'll never be swoll enough
to win back my wife.

I miss you, Diana.

I hope Todd breaches for you,
like I used to.

I hope Todd
gives her life "porpoise."

(sobbing)

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