The Fat Fight: Part 4

Part 1 and 2 looked at the purpose of fat, adverse effects of high body fat, why it can be hard to lose and how to go about losing it. In Part 3, we discussed Mobilization and Transport of Fat (Steps 1 and 2).

In Part 4, we discuss Oxidation and "Hard to Lose" fat.

Oxidation

Step 3. To oxidize (burn off) fat, you must give it a reason to burn. In other words, you must be in a caloric deficit for the day and/or consume lower carbohydrates than normal.

What is a caloric deficit?

For any given time period (and we usually look at days), you will consume a certain number of calories. During that same time period, you will burn a certain number of calories. If during a day, you consume 2000 calories, but you work at a desk job and then come home and watch TV, hypothetically, you may only burn 1500 calories. This would put you in a caloric surplus for the day by 500 calories.

Continuing with this example, let’s imagine you came home, exercised, and burned 500 more calories. Then you would break even for the day; consuming 2000 calories and burning 2000 calories. If however, you really pushed hard and burned 750 calories from exercise, now you’ve burned 2250 calories for the day but you only ate 2000 calories. This means that your body is short 250 calories. Your body needs to make up this energy from somewhere.

As I’ve alluded to several times, your body simply wants to be efficient. It does not care where you want your body to take the extra calories from. It is going to take them from the easiest source. Lucky for you, the easiest source will change depending on your circumstances. Therefore, how you create this deficit, i.e. your diet and exercise, matters if you want to lose fat and not lose muscle mass.

What about eating less carbs than normal?

Let’s say you typically consume 2000 calories. Of that 2000 calories, you consume 60 grams of fat (540 calories), 165 grams of protein (660 calories) and 200 grams of carbohydrates (800 calories). Let’s also assume these 2000 calories also put you in a caloric deficit for the day.

What would happen if you consumed the same amount of calories, but changed the ratio of carbs and protein? Let’s say you consume 215 grams of protein and 150 grams of carbs. You were still active and burned 2250 calories and were in a deficit for the day. Remember, glycogen is the easiest energy source for your body to tap into, but now you gave your body less of it. Now, it is possible for your body to get energy from the extra protein you consumed, but it is far less efficient pathway than using the carbohydrates, thus increasing the odds that you will tap into body fat.

Creating a caloric deficit and eating less carbs are often used in conjunction to create the most optimal fat burning environment. Oxidation is aided by depleting glycogen stores in the muscle, thus giving the body little choice but to use fat or protein for fuel. Glycogen stores are best depleted by the same workout methods that were listed in the section about Transport in Part 2. To recap; this is best done with exercise of a higher volume and intensity. Higher repetition (8-12 reps) resistance training while coming close to failure and using short rest periods works very well to create the adaptations required for fat burning.

If adequate protein is consumed in the diet then muscle protein should be spared and fat used preferentially.

Further, fatty acid oxidation takes place in mitochondria. Conveniently, mitochondria are best built with the training methods listed above. Yes, like your capillaries, you can actually increase the size and number of your mitochondria. Furthermore, one must consume adequate vitamin C to aid the synthesis of L-carnitine, an amino acid that the mitochondria need to burn fatty acids.

What about that “hard to lose” fat?

You may have noticed that even if you have lost weight and fat in the past, that some areas of your body may be tougher to get lean than others. You likely have also taken note that men and women have different areas where they tend to deposit fat. For men it is mostly in the abdominal region and for women it is in the hips and thighs.

There is much speculation as to the gender differences in fat distribution, but the science is unsettled. Hormones, hormone receptors, enzymes, your ancestry and more all play a role. This can be very frustrating because it is possible to be very lean (even gaunt) in some places while still holding fat in others. You cannot pick and choose where you lose fat from!

To make things more difficult, fat cells have two types of receptors; alpha receptors and beta receptors. Alpha fat receptors are responsible for decreasing fat burning and restricting the amount of blood flow that passes through the cell. While beta fat receptors increase ability to burn fat and increases the blood flow that passes through the fat cells. In other words, beta-receptors speed up fat burning or mobilising, whereas alpha-receptors hinder it.

This “hard to lose”, or stubborn, fat is more insulin sensitive. In terms of muscle cells, insulin sensitivity is a good thing. You may recall from earlier, that insulin instructs the body to store nutrients. A cell that is sensitive to insulin will respond to it in greater magnitude than a cell who is resistant to insulin. Thus, a muscle cell that is insulin sensitive will respond to the hormone insulin by shuttling nutrients into itself, as will a fat cell. We do not want a fat cell shuttling more energy into itself and expanding. Another action of insulin on fat cells is to decrease the activity of HSL, the major fat releasing enzyme. Finally, insulin also increases the activity of the alphas compared to the betas, meaning your will fat cells will have less blood flow and opportunity to burn fat.

What do I do with this information?

Make a choice. Apply what was discussed. Understand this, two individuals can eat the same meal, but have completely different reactions to it based on their insulin sensitivity. The lean person with insulin sensitive muscle tissue and insulin resistance fat cells will efficiently dispose/store glucose mostly in muscle cells. The heavier person with insulin resistant muscle cells and insulin sensitive fat cells will deposit much of the consumed energy into fat cells.

Does that previous paragraph sound cruel? It shouldn’t, because you have control over which individual you will be. You can improve the way your muscle and fat cells respond to insulin. You can choose to have periods of the day where you keep your insulin low. You can have days where you eat less and you burn more. You can engage in high intensity weight training and cardio to support all of your effort in the kitchen.

If you do, you WILL be rewarded for your hard work with a body the metabolizes your food better. Instead of your food working against you, it will be working for you.

Your fat fought to make you mobile and tough. Now BE tough and get moving! Accept that you may have to tell to your sweet tooth to quiet down. Accept that there will be days when you feel hungry and want to give up. Accept that there will be times when all you want to do is sit down, but realize that you need to get up. AND FIGHT YOUR FAT.

Want help setting up a program to lose fat?

Please reach out to me, I love to help people on their fitness journey.