The New Science of Metabolism: How to Burn Fat Without Deprivation
The Energy Blueprint Podcast
Ari Whitten
4.6 • 781 Ratings
🗓️ 11 April 2026
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Most people think body fat is the problem. If you gain weight, the goal is simple: eat less, burn more, and try to get rid of it.
But what if that way of thinking is fundamentally flawed?
Today, I'm joined by Dr. William Li, a world-renowned physician and scientist who has led the development of more than 30 new medical treatments that impact care for over 70 diseases, including cancer, diabetes, blindness, heart disease, and obesity. Dr. Li has spent decades studying the biology of metabolism, fat, and disease.
In his view, body fat itself is not the enemy. In fact, it plays a critical role in your health. The real problem begins when fat becomes excessive, dysfunctional, and inflammatory, disrupting the systems that regulate metabolism and energy balance.
This shift in perspective changes everything.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Fat normally has absolutely critical functions in the body. |
| 0:04.0 | Besides being a cushion, it's actually a space heater and it can actually burn down fuel when we want it to. |
| 0:12.0 | So fat can actually burn down fat when it's called into action. We'll talk about that. |
| 0:17.0 | But the other thing that fat does is it's an organ. |
| 0:20.0 | It's an organ like your heart, your lungs, your spleen. |
| 0:22.6 | And that's an amazing thing because it's not just any organ. |
| 0:25.6 | It's an endocrine organ, which means that it secretes hormones. |
| 0:29.6 | More than 15 different hormones that fat has been discovered to secrete. |
| 0:35.6 | And these hormones that normal healthy fat secretes are critical |
| 0:39.8 | to run your metabolism so you have enough energy at all times. In this podcast, I'm speaking with |
| 0:44.8 | Dr. William Lee, who is an internationally renowned physician, scientist, and author of the New York |
| 0:50.6 | Times bestseller, Eat to Beat Disease, the new science of how your body can |
| 0:55.0 | heal itself. His groundbreaking work has led to the development of more than 30 new medical |
| 1:00.5 | treatments and impacts care for more than 70 diseases, including cancer, diabetes, blindness, |
| 1:06.9 | heart disease, and obesity. His TED talk, which I watched more than a decade ago and shared with my family because I was so impressed with it, was called, |
| 1:16.6 | Can We Eat to Starve Cancer? And it's garnered more than 11 million views since it came out. He's appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, CNBC, Rachel Ray, live with Kelly and Ryan, and a long list |
| 1:30.4 | of other TV and radio appearances. |
| 1:34.5 | He's been featured in USA Today, Time Magazine, The Atlantic, and O Magazine. |
| 1:39.1 | He is president and medical director of the Angiogenesis Foundation and has also been conducting research on COVID-19 |
| 1:45.9 | in recent years. |
| 1:47.1 | His newest book, which is the subject of our podcast |
| 1:50.5 | and our conversation today, |
... |
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