How to burn fat (The truth)

Dr. Lustig, author of the book „Hacking of the American Mind“ has made a great point in one of his interviews.

He makes the distinction between Marketing and Propaganda and how the terms relate to the food industry.

Marketing is using information to espouse your point of view.

Propaganda is using “disinformation” to espouse your point of view.

The propaganda in the food industry is the demonization of saturated fat and cholesterol so that they could sell us slop that is “low-fat” (but now laden with sugar because otherwise the food tastes like **** with the fat taken out).

I have found this interview very interesting and have made a direct correlation to the Fitness industry.

Propaganda is that “fat-burning” pill that will shed of the pounds and give you that body that you always wanted.

It is that “circuit” workout, that “perfect” training routine with that “perfect” number of repetitions to “define” the muscle.

It is the Keto diet, the carnivore diet, the “twinkie” diet (Yes, I didn’t make that up).

It is also that “six pack abs in six minutes” app that sells for $1,99.

Marketing is less “appealing” and does not resonate with the general public.

The truth is that propaganda feeds on your short-term gratification.

So, I will give you the marketing about “Fat burning” and “Muscle building” instead of the propaganda.

The human body reacts to different foods differently.

If you eat a bowl of brown rice, your blood sugar will rise to a certain level because of the glucose present in the brown rice.

Your pancreas reacts by releasing insulin to store that glucose as glycogen (an energy reserve stored in your muscles) or within your fat cells (if your glycogen stores are full).

Now, the rate at which your blood sugar rises after eating a certain food is given by a foods’ “glycemic index”.

Brown rice has a GI of 50, whereas white rice has a GI of 70. Take the same number of calories as the bowl of brown rice and replace it with the same number of calories for a bowl of white rice and you will get a different hormonal effect.

There are times when you can eat higher glycemic carbohydrates (morning hours and post-workout) but constantly elevating insulin will halt fat-burning.

Take that same bowl of white rice from above and put two table spoons of olive oil on top of it.

You would have now “slowed down” the release of insulin from that meal and will release less insulin (because of the fat) as you would have by eating the white rice alone.

What else regulates fat-burning ?

Your hormones. Testosterone is a hormone that is anabolic to muscles and catabolic to fat cells.

It builds muscle and burns fat. Are you a man with lower Testosterone levels ?
You will burn less fat than another man with High-T even if you follow the same diet as him.

Cortisol is the exact opposite. It is anabolic to fat and catabolic to muscle.

Simply having elevated Cortisol while following a training and diet routine will produce a different result as it would have if you had normal Cortisol levels.

In conclusion, if fat-burning is your goal, start researching about insulin, cortisol, testosterone and even estrogen.

 

To lose weight, yes.

To lose FAT: hormonal manipulation through the foods that you ingest.

Weight-loss is easy: Calories in vs. calories out


Fat-loss: Your Testosterone/Estrogen ratios, your insulin levels throughout the day, your Nitrogen retention throughout the day, etc.


How do you manipulate that your body loses fat instead of muscle ? Through the secretion of your hormones in a given period of time.

 

I am a self-taught expert in Fitness, Nutrition and Endocrinology.

I sometimes wish I got a degree in this field but unfortunately many things that you are taught do not apply to the real world.


I wanted to go against the paradigm that all calories are created equal for fat-loss and explain in my own words the application that I have seen with myself and clients alike.

Thank you for reading

 

The reason so much of it is bullshit is exactly because it is too simple and reductionist.

Just as "eating at a caloric deficit + eating enough protein + workout out" is.

Where are the fats to sustain your hormonal levels through dieting ? Fats will indirectly help retain more muscle mass when being in a deficit, or even gain muscle in a deficit.

You might need carbs as well to sustain performance. This is individual. Some can function without, some can't.


Getting the job done might mean something different for a variety of people.

Again, your "eating a caloric deficit + eating enough protein+ working out" does indeed work, for weigh-loss mostly.

How much of that weight-loss is pure fat is debatable. Too much muscle loss happens if other macros are not accounted for.

 

You are welcome ! It's a great book ! It's amazing how much of his thoughts can be used for other areas of your life

 

Hello friend ! I tried several times to reply to your PM but everytime I try to reply I get a message saying I had "spam" characters in my writing .

I will therefore copy/paste my reply here (Hope you don't mind):

"Hello mate!

It didn't come across as a lecture I truly appreciate you taking the time to write this!

It was really informative, I learn something new everyday

Yes, the Cortisol explanation was simplified for the readers but I also didn't know as much about it in that much detail because from my experience looking at your hormonal fluctuations as a whole will be of greater usefulness when working with clients (and on my own progress as well) than knowing about how a certain hormone works on the micro level. I try to see how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together.

You might enjoy this other thread I posted about caffeine and fat burners. You can find it under my content.

Simply put: Too much Cortisol in relations to other hormones will lower your chances of gaining muscle and burning body fat.

Also, the same concept applies to Somatostin. I know from experience that adding a fat source to a meal will slow the release of Insulin and lead to longer lasting energy and "stabler" blood sugar levels (experienced it myself and with clients). This of course depends on the diet as a whole and what sources of carbs you are combining with the fat to begin with.

Still, thank you very much for the great insight! Are you in the medical field?"

 

True about lipolysis ! Which is why the most important is that lipolysis is always greater than re-esterification. The free fatty acids can indeed reenter the adipose tissue. You are absolutely right that you need to make it available in the blood stream first before it gets burned.

Now it is our jobs to actually burn it and use it

Caffeine does indeed use up glycogen, but it also does help shuttle glycogen faster into the muscles and liver post-workout.

It does work in mysterious ways


Will need to read up on Theobromine, I am out-dated right there.


Kinda figured you were a Med student You already know a lot and I am sure you will be great at what you do !

Best of luck with the studying