How Fat Loss Happens
The overweight and obesity problem in this country is running rampant, one problem you may have in trying to deal with it is information overload. The internet is full of the latest and greatest fad diets and quickie weight loss products. What you need is a basic understanding of how fat loss happens in your body. Learn the basics and you can in a safe and healthy way reach your fat loss goals.
Fat loss first and foremost is a hormonal event, the right hormones telling the body to release the stored “energy” in the fat cells to burn off. It is also important to know that there are also fat “storing” hormones that act in the opposite way, triggering the body to store “future energy” into the fat cells. The body triggers these hormones through many different stimulus like food, drink, exercise, stress and sleep.
Fat cells are just the body’s emergency storage tanks afterall. If we didn’t have fat cells, we wouldn’t have survived the famines of the past. It’s a built-in survival mechanism that is getting all the wrong signals today. The body wasn’t designed around constant intake of food, especially the processed and high in sugar kind. (as that is not something that naturally grows on trees!)
So we know that fat loss is hormonal. Also fat loss occurs when oxygen is present, what is known as aerobic. (which means with oxygen) The other stage is called anaerobic (without oxygen). Anaerobic training is also known more commonly as strength training.
This is the confusing part with exercise. Most people think that by doing aerobics you burn all the fat you want. Well if that was true we would all have single digit body fat levels from the 1980's aerobics craze. There is no guarantee for fat burning. What about stored glycogen? Plus if you can burn fat in an aerobic state, well aren’t you in an aerobic state all day long (minus brief times of anaerobic activity) including sleeping? So you have the ability to burn fat all day long! The only thing left is the hormones and whether they are emptying or storing.
Learning to empty the fat stores are the key!
The Fat loss hormones are insulin, glucagon, and growth hormone (GH). Insulin is a fat storing hormone, while glucagon and GH are fat burning hormones. If insulin is high, the other hormones go down (this is an important relationship to realize). Another hormone called cortisol (stress hormone) is a muscle breakdown hormone… not something we want in our fat loss quest.
Below are quick and easy points on how to maximize the fat burning hormones and minimize the muscle breakdown/fat storing hormones (not all muscle breakdown is bad, you need to break down and rebuild the cells it’s when you have excessive breakdown and minimal rebuilding that is the issue as that will lead to a loss of muscle).
Your #1 enemy, Sugar
Everything you put into your mouth counts! Why is sugar bad? Because sugar will be quickly absorbed into the blood which causes a spike in your blood sugar and with that spike the body releases insulin to take care of it (shuttle excessive blood sugar into the fat cells for storage!). Every time you put sugar into your mouth your telling your body let's store some fat and that is exactly the hormonal signal you are giving it. Remember also when insulin is high, glucagon and GH go down.
So for fat loss:
•Minimize insulin levels thoughout the day (no high levels/spikes except during the post workout window when the insulin sensitivity is maximum, it goes into muscle not fat)
•Maximize Glucagon (which is directly inversely proportional to insulin levels)
•Maximum GH (which is controlled by insulin, exercise response and sleep)
•Keep Cortisol in check (you will have some, but excessive will lead to muscle loss)
For Insulin control (and max Glucagon response):
•Keep levels low by not eating sugar or foods that quickly break down into the bloodstream (any processed foods)
•Have protein with every meal (as that will slow down the digestion of any sugars). Also protein intake stimulates the release of glucagon.
•Improve insulin sensitivity with glycogen draining exercise (weight training) which will in turn reduce your insulin resistance (which is one of the biggest reasons for obesity and a serious increase of risks for many other diseases including heart disease, cancers, diabetes, accelerated aging and more!)
For max GH response:
•Most of your daily GH is released in the first couple hours of sleep at night (75%) . Keep your insulin levels low (which means no big meals or sugar 2-3 hours before bed). So get your sleep, shorting yourself of sleep will hurt your fat loss efforts and may lead to weight gain from improper hormonal responses.
•Exercise with Intensity, whether it is weight training with short rest periods or doing interval training. Short burst of anaerobic intense exercise (lactic acid burn) will signal the body to release GH. Long aerobic activities (jogging, etc) will NOT. (The old argument of look at the body composition of a sprinter vs the marathon runner…the sprinter has more muscle and very low bf%, the marathon runner has little muscle and a higher bf% even if they look smaller).
•Exercise in a fasted state has also shown to increase GH levels (make sure you have enough energy to get through your workout, have a small meal 1-2 hours before).
Minimize excessive Cortisol:
•Keep all intense strength or cardio exercise under 45min (remember we want to increase the intensity in a short period, not the duration, less is more). Anything longer will just start wasting muscle as fuel.
•Relax, don’t stress the small stuff. Get perspective on things in your life, and detach from things that really don’t matter.
So if you can master these small steps, you will see tremendous changes. Remember that fat loss is an all day event! So eat and live your life that way! Don’t worry about how many calories you burn doing something, because that is not the point. Worry about what you eat all day and how your hormones are going to react to it. Eat the foods your body was meant to eat and live the active lifestyle your body was designed for….and you will have increased health, look great, feel great and hopefully live long and stay active. So….to sum up:
85% of fat loss is nutrition (not how many calories you can burn doing something) and you have the ability to burn fat all day long if your hormones tell your body to do so.
Eat whole natural foods (not processed), avoid all sugars (foods and drinks), have protein with every meal
Train your fast twitch muscles with weight training 2-3x a week and do interval training 2-3 times a week. Do something active everyday.
Stop stressing out, take some deep breaths, get outside to relax and get your sleep.
