Back to Real Food: Metabolism, Seed Oils & the Truth About Why Diets Fail — with Dr. Liz Graves

Dr. Liz Graves didn't set out to become a doctor. She discovered chiropractic as a patient, fell in love with its foundational philosophy that the body heals from the inside out, and built a career around that principle. Today, as the founder of Back 2 Real Food, she helps people restore their metabolic health through food, cyclic nutrition strategies, and targeted amino acid therapy — without relying on willpower, calorie restriction alone, or one-size-fits-all dieting.

In this episode, Dr. Tara Perry sits down with Dr. Graves for a wide-ranging conversation on why so many people are doing "everything right" and still can't lose weight, what the modern food system is doing to our metabolism, and the counterintuitive strategies that actually work.

Key Takeaways:

The real reason diets stop working (00:07:00) — Every time you diet without recovery, your body adapts to living on less, slowing your metabolism over time. Dr. Graves explains her cyclic approach: a structured window of fat loss followed by a deliberate high-calorie phase that trains the body to metabolize more, not less.

Seed oils are the #1 offender in your diet (00:16:44) — Vegetable, canola, sunflower, and safflower oils disrupt cell walls, cause inflammation at the cellular level, and impair mitochondrial function. Removing them is the first and fastest win Dr. Graves makes with every new client.

Three foods worth adding right now (00:19:41) — Healthy natural fats (animal fats, olive oil, coconut oil), quality mineral-rich sea salt, and more whole foods without a label. Small additions that compound into meaningful change.

Know your farmer (00:21:49) — Pesticide load, not the food itself, is driving the explosion in leaky gut, celiac, and autoimmune conditions. Dr. Graves recommends the Weston A. Price Foundation as a starting point for finding local farmers and co-ops, and makes the case that buying direct is often cheaper than buying organic at a grocery store.

Targeted amino acid therapy changed everything (00:26:56) — Most people have never worked with a practitioner who assesses neurotransmitter imbalances and uses amino acids to correct them. Dr. Graves explains how depleted GABA, serotonin, and dopamine pathways fuel emotional eating, overwhelm, and burnout — and how replenishing them through targeted therapy gives people the neurological resilience to stay on course.

Cortisol, stress, and weight retention (00:32:41) — Chronic low-grade stress (email, notifications, relentless demands) keeps the body in protective mode, holding weight and suppressing metabolic function. Dr. Graves connects the modern stress environment to the ancestral body we're still living in, and explains why supporting the brain matters as much as fixing the food.

Body composition over the scale (00:58:06) — Dr. Graves uses body composition testing (muscle, fat, water, bone) rather than BMI or scale weight to track real progress. She shares the story of a five-foot-one woman with 105 pounds of muscle who technically "should" weigh 100 pounds — and why that framing is misleading and discouraging.

What results actually look like (00:47:24) — On Dr. Graves' six-week protocol, most people lose about 10 pounds and drop one clothing size. On the nine-week plan, 15 to 30 pounds and two clothing sizes. She describes it as achieving six to nine months of focused progress in six to nine weeks — structured and demanding while you're in it, but consistently described as the easiest thing clients ever did when they look back.

Ready to take your own next step?
Visit calendly.com/consulttara/consult to book your free customized consultation with Dr. Tara Perry and get your GPS map — the coordinates for where you are now and where you want to go.