Want to lose weight? Read this.
Weight loss appears to be a very complicated topic. There are so many diets plans which promise results, but which one is right for you? We buy exercise plans from “experts” who have a nice website, look really lean and muscular and have a good set of before and after photos. YOU ARE WASTING YOUR MONEY. These people are often under qualified and are part of a “fad”. If you continue reading this you will probably know more about weight loss than the majority of diet “gurus” out there.
Before we continue we need to get a few things straight. Everything written from this point forward is based on First Principles- this basically means there are no assumptions and everything is based on fundamental evidence. So unlike reading The Sun where things are written based on lies and hate there is scientific evidence to back up this entire story[1]. There may be a few words and processes that you do not understand, Google and Youtube are your best friends. By reading and understanding this story you will free yourself from reliance on “diet gurus” and will take matters into your own hands.
This is what the UK Government recommends the people of its country eats. So you are following the eat well guide to the letter, you are a great citizen, but unfortunately you are still gaining weight or not losing weight. Here's why…
In general we eat three meals per day. Each of these meals are typically based on Carbohydrate. We chew and swallow. This carbohydrate is turned into glucose and carried through the bloodstream. A hormone called insulin is then secreted by the pancreas to help distribute the glucose evenly throughout the body. Glucose is great because we can use it straight away as energy. Extra glucose is stored as glycogen in the liver and in our muscles. The liver stores around 70g and the muscles 200g (obviously this varies from person to person). When these reserves become full, which it often does due to our sedentary lives and the amount of carbohydrate we consume we initiate glycation where we turn this extra glucose (and fructose) into fat (triglyceride), where it is stored in adipose tissue. As you can imagine the more often we have this spillover the more fat is stored. This spillover happens if we are not exercising and never using the energy within our muscles and liver and when we binge eat.
Having carbohydrates in every meal means that our blood sugar levels (glucose levels) are constantly moving up and down (see graph above). We eat when our blood glucose levels are low because we feel hungry, and get quite hangry as a result (that feeling of being hungry and angry que “sorry for what i said when i was hangry”) but we are not actually starving because we have plenty of energy stored within the liver and muscles and also remember that spillover of energy as body fat? That body fat is perfectly good to use as energy. However, there is a problem and this is where things get complicated.
The energy we want to tap into in adipose tissue (body fat) are triglycerides. We cannot use triglycerides as they are, so a chemical reaction must first take place. A chemical known as Hormone Sensitive Lipase (HSL) breaks the triglyceride down into a glycerol molecule and 3 fatty acid molecules. These can be used by the body, and this is how you lose body fat.
The problem is that as the name suggests hormone sensitive lipase is a little sensitive, and cannot carry out the reaction when there is insulin present[2]. If we are eating three meals a day full of carbohydrate and never emptying the glycogen stores in our muscles and liver then there will always be glucose present in our blood stream. (look at the above graph for visual confirmation of this). Whenever there is glucose present there is also insulin which means the triglycerides stored within adipose tissue cannot be utilized. This means your body fat will not be used as energy which is how you lose weight.
The solution.
To start using the body fat as energy, glucose levels in the body need to be depleted so that there is no insulin and the body fat can be turned into useable energy by the HSL. So how do we deplete glucose levels?
Breakfast is the meal that you break fast with because our bodies have been in a fasted state through the night whilst we were asleep. Being in a fasted state means that no extra nutrients are coming in and our bodies are using the energy stored within it. By increasing the length of time you spend in a fasted state you are running yourself into an energy deficit which means that you are forcing yourself to use the energy stored within you. Fasting also increases the levels of Human Growth Hormone within the body[3] and an increase in the levels of human growth hormone is associated with an increase in lipolysis[4] (the breakdown of fats).
So to lose weight we need to consume that extra energy by not putting more extra energy into our bodies. Simple.
Where does exercise come into this?
Good question. Exercise will increase the amount of energy you use. High intensity interval training is the form of exercise shown to burn the most fat[5], this fat burning does not happen during exercise but during recovery. The reason for this is that this form of exercise increases the levels of Human Growth Hormone and Epinephrine which increase lipolysis. So exercise will help deplete energy levels within the body and reduce the spillover of energy into body fat and will increase levels of hormones associated with an increase in lipolysis. WIN WIN.
How do I begin?
You have just been provided with a S**t tonne of information. Allow me to summarise and suggest some next steps.
Fasting and High intensity interval training will allow you to eat that weight. There are many different fasting protocols out there. You can go all out jesus and fast for 40 days and see where that gets you or fast for 16 hours per day and give yourself an eight hour feeding window (this isn't a big ask Stop eating at 8pm and starts at 12pm. DO NOT let the feeding window be an excuse to binge, instead…
-eat whole foods and plenty of fruits and vegetables
-stop eating when you get to 80% full
-research more to find which protocol suits you best
For High Intensity Interval Training look on Youtube for some exercises. You don't need equipment or a lot of time. (Note that Growth Hormone Levels are depleted by insulin. Avoid Carbohydrate or excess protein after a workout as these can cause an insulin spike).
Thank you for reading. Any questions send them our way!!!
[1] Good for you and your inquisitive mind!! Evidence will be linked in these footnotes.
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2953052/
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC329619/
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2453052/
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2991639/