Dr. Oz on New Year's Weight Loss: "The Biggest Inheritance You'll Ever Get Is the Body Your Parents Gave You"

Dr. Oz said it plainly: "The biggest inheritance you'll ever get is what your parents gave you in your body. When you realize all that — why woul…" — and Premier Guide Miami was in the room when it happened.

On January 3, 2013, Sony Pictures hosted a press conference call with Dr. Mehmet Oz ahead of The Dr. Oz Show 's month-long January weight loss programming block. Premier Guide Miami's Daedrian McNaughton was among the journalists on the call and asked a follow-up question about coffee and weight. Below are the key highlights from the conversation.

Why exercise alone won't make you lose weight:

The first big misperception is you can exercise away weight. It actually is very difficult to do that. While exercise is a wonderful tool to maintain weight, it's not the best way to lose weight. To lose weight, you really do have to cut down on calories consumed — and that's not as hard as it sounds because often the reason we over-consume calories is because our brains are searching for nutrients, not calories. If you give your body junk food, you get hungry faster.

On hormones, DHEA, and belly fat:

A big misperception is that people are at fault when they gain weight. It's usually a combination of hormonal shifts plus inherited behaviors — not inherited genes. The hormonal changes tend to center around thyroid function, which everybody ought to have checked. The other side are problems with the sex hormones — the androgen hormones — and the mother of all those hormones is DHEA. If your DHEA levels are low, many of the other hormones in the body, including testosterone, will also be low because you don't have the building blocks to make them. Belly fat will convert testosterone to estrogen. So you're basically losing testosterone. Taking DHEA as a supplement — it's very inexpensive — is a huge help to a lot of folks who want to lose weight.

On the one tip above all others:

Have protein within an hour of awakening in the morning. It's simple to do. Anyone can afford to buy an egg for breakfast. The protein will satiate you during the day. It gives you nutrients that your brain craves. You won't be hungry. And it replaces the usual junky, sugary breakfast so many Americans have. You can hard-boil eggs the night before. It takes literally three minutes.

On food confusion — the secret to shredding weight:

Elite athletes don't do the same workout every day. The same reality exists with food. If you eat the exact same food every day — which is typically what a diet is — you don't shred weight. You'll periodically introduce simple carbohydrates with nutrient value, like fruits, into your diet because when you do that, the metabolism will speed up. Your thyroid function literally increases the day that you eat those sugars. But if you eat sugars every day, you'll just get fat. So you eat sugar one day, then a day or two you eat the high-protein, healthy fat diet, and then two days later you have some more sugar. That's food confusion.

On why New Year's resolutions actually work — and what sustains them:

About 40% of people who make New Year's resolutions are still following them by summer. I did a show with Richard Simmons where the entire audience had lost 100 pounds. I asked what got them there and I expected 100 different answers. I heard one answer over and over: self-esteem. When they realized they were worth it, they were able to do it for a sustained period of time. The biggest inheritance you'll ever get is what your parents gave you in your body. When you realize all that, why would you want to do the things we do to it?

On waist size as a better measure than weight:

Every single NFL football player is overweight by Body Mass Index criteria. The best way to assess obesity is by waist size. The formula: one half of your height is the maximum your waist should ever be. If you're six feet tall — 72 inches — your waist should never be more than 36 inches. If it is, that fat is starting to poison the organs on the inside.

Premier Guide Miami's Question — Coffee and Weight Loss:

There's a lot of conflict with coffee. Sometimes you read that it causes weight gain and other times that it helps with weight loss. What is your opinion about coffee and its benefits or non-benefits?

There's no question in my mind that coffee is beneficial for weight loss. It is a routinely used tool in some weight loss practices to get people to increase their metabolism. It's also the number one source of antioxidants in America. But many Americans drink coffee with cream and sugar, and that's a problem — the cream and sugar does cause weight gain. Black coffee, taking it straight up, or green tea if you don't like black coffee, are wise additions to your regular program.

On the January programming lineup — Charlie Sheen, Meredith Vieira, Paul McKenna:

I've got the Biggest Loser trainers on. Paul McKenna — I believe the best hypnotherapist for weight loss in the world — is coming on to give seven different hypnotic approaches to losing weight. Tom Bergeron is coming on with the funniest health videos from America's Funniest Videos because humor is a big part of health. Meredith Vieira is coming to talk about managing life when someone you love has MS — her husband Richard Cohen has MS. And Charlie Sheen is coming by to tape a segment. I wanted the show to be a place to come for healing. I don't need to beat up on people. I just want to bring some clarity to what's going on in people's lives.

On the grassroots food revolution:

I think it's going to be a grassroots change that's already started. We vote with our pocketbooks three times a day when we buy food. If we vote wisely, vendors will make healthier food. A major vendor told me they had taken out two-thirds of the salt in one of their most popular products. I asked why they didn't tell anyone. He said: 'Because if we told people it was healthier, they wouldn't eat it.' Our goal in the media is to move people an inch when they put their hand up on the shelf — from the food that's not good to the one that's a little bit better. That's all you have to do.

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