What If the Real Reason You Can’t Lose Weight Is Hiding in Your Sauce?

The Habit Healers · Mar 12, 2026 · 47m

In this week’s live session, Chef Martin Oswald pulled back the curtain on something most people never think about: calorie stacking. It’s the way traditional cooking piles fat on top of fat, layer by layer, from the oil you sauté in to the cream in the sauce to the cheese on the finish. By the time a plate of pasta or a restaurant entrée reaches your table, those invisible layers can easily add up to over 1,000 calories, and the food doesn’t look any different than if it had half that number.

Martin spent years cooking in high-end kitchens where butter sauces and cream reductions were the…