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The Foundations of Fat-Burning, Part 2

Welcome to Day 2 of your 7-Day Personal Fat Loss Certification Course! Yesterday we covered the first two nutrition basics — macronutrients and calories. We also discussed the importance of combining specific forms of exercise in order to accelerate fat loss.

Today we will cover the other two resources we have for calorie management: Increasing thermogenesis and optimizing our hormones.

We will then cover the remaining three components of fat-burning nutrition:

1. Fiber
2. Water
3. Supplementation

Let’s begin…

Thermogenesis
Thermogenesis is a fancy word for an increase in the core temperature of the body. Since calories are units of heat, an increase in heat utilizes more energy at rest. This is a good thing on any dietary program: Burn more calories at rest!

But how do we achieve it?

On Day 4 (The Truth About Supplements) we will cover increasing thermogenesis via ergogenic (supplement) aid. Until then, we will cover some nutrition and exercise tricks to get the job done.

Delaying your post-cardio meal can increase thermogenesis. This works for resistance training as well, however there is a trade-off in the fact that resistance training demands nutrients immediately afterwards to reap optimal results. Therefore I suggest using this technique only after cardiovascular workouts. Simply wait 30-45 minutes before eating unless you feel light-headed, then eat as soon as possible.

Exercising of any kind in a fasting state increases thermogenesis when you consume ice cold water both before and during exercise. The cold water forces the body to heat up and the result is a mild but efficient state of thermogenesis.

Spices like black pepper and turmeric can increase thermogenesis. Combined with caffeine in the form of coffee or tea, a “spice cocktail” of capsaicin, black pepper and turmeric on your eggs or chicken breast makes for a terrific high-thermo meal.

Hormonal Optimization
The most important factor in fat loss is not calories. It is not exercise. It is your hormones. Think of hormones as oil and your body as a car. You can put as much gas as you want in the car (in our case, gas is great diet-food) and you can service the car weekly (in our case, this is exercise) but without oil the car goes nowhere for very long. “Grinding gears” is the appropriate analogy for exercising and dieting when your hormones are in a depleted or less than optimal state.

Thyroid hormone is absolutely critical for fat loss and metabolism. Testosterone and estrogen must be balanced in order to gain muscle and keep fat off unwanted places. Your adrenal glands, if stressed, will shut a diet down in its tracks.

Are you beginning to see the importance of hormones?

Past the age of 35 our hormones go on a steady decline due mostly to environmental and dietary stress. Our environment is highly “estrogenic” in that there are a variety of compounds used in our daily food, body care, and various other household products that can create an estrogen imbalance. This leads to a decline in testosterone levels, resulting in poor muscle development, weakened bone structure, and easy weight gain.

I recommend that you pick up Dr. Holly Lucille’s excellent audio series NaturaPause if you feel you need hormonal help. Dr. Lucille takes an all-natural approach to hormone therapy that I highly endorse.

Make sure you take the proper steps to ensure your hormone health and check out Dr. Lucille’s audios today –

A few key tests at your doctor’s office can determine if you need some assistance with restoring your hormone balance. These tests include free and total testosterone, TSH, reverse and free T3/T4, cortisol, and estradiol. Your doctor may include more tests based on your specific history and present condition.

Once you have your hormones properly balanced and operating a peak efficiency, you can be sure that your diet and exercise program has the best chance possible to render the results you desire.

Fiber

Fiber is probably the least understood component of fat-burning nutrition this side of supplementation. Fiber comes in two varieties: soluble and insoluble. “Soluble” fiber is fiber that can dissolve in water, where insoluble fiber cannot. Neither forms of fiber can be digested and therefore can increase thermogenesis during its conversion or elimination from the body. Fiber requires about two calories per gram to either break down into fatty acids or process via elimination.

Perhaps you’ve heard the term “negative-calorie food.” While most of these claims are somewhat exaggerated, it is true that foods like celery — a food included in substantial quantity over 21 days in Radical Fat Loss Blueprint, does in fact require more calories to process than the food itself contains. Celery is actually jam-packed with energy, but due to the high cellulose content (a form of sugar that is very difficult for the body to utilize) it requires more energy in the form of heat to metabolize than the food provides in the form of calories. The difference is not much, but you should consider it the ideal diet snack nonetheless.

Celery provides ample amounts of insoluble fiber to help with elimination. It helps to fill you up as well. Insoluble fiber can blunt the appetite as it is requires considerable energy to process. If you recall, “calories” are units of heat, or energy. You can trick the body into a state of elevated thermogenesis by over-feeding it insoluble fiber from celery and other green vegetables without the additional calories that most insoluble fiber foods contain.

For example, whole grains and nuts are also loaded with insoluble fiber but often pose problems on a fat-burning diet. I recommend a small quantity of nuts on my fat-burning plans (even Radical Fat Loss!) but very little whole grains. The controversial but factual bottom line is that whole grains have not been in the human diet but for a blip on the radar screen of time.

Consider paleolithic man: Do you think his diet was high in brown rice and yams? Hardly. In fact most paleo researchers believe early man consumed mostly animal fats, proteins, nuts, seeds, and anything grown above ground during times when warmer weather was present. Whole grains were not consumed in bulk until after mankind moved from a hunter/gatherer mode to an agrarian, or “farming” mode. In my opinion, this is why lower-carbohydrate diets still outperform higher-carbohydrate diets in head-to-head weight loss studies. Our bodies are genetically more adept at processing fats and proteins than carbohydrates.

This does not mean carbs are “bad for you”. This simply means that you should build your fat-burning diet around foods the body is more accustomed to ingesting: Healthy fats, animal or non-animal sources of protein, plants, and so-on.

Think of it this way: There is no such thing as an “essential carbohydrate.” There are essential proteins (amino acids) and essential fatty acids. The body can produce glucose (sugar) without consuming carbohydrate at ALL through the process of gluconeogenesis. This is where the body converts protein into glucose. Obviously this means you want to have sufficient protein intake, otherwise your muscle mass and a myriad of bodily functions will suffer. Nonetheless, gluconeogenesis is ample evidence of how our bodies function. We can create sugar for instant energy, but we cannot create certain amino acids (proteins) or essential fats.

So what does this have to do with fiber? Plenty.

Soluble fiber breaks down into short-chain fatty acids which can be used for energy. If you’ll take a look at soluble fiber sources, you’ll find they are predominantly starchy carbohydrates like oats, beans (both a protein and a starch), oat flour, and root vegetables like potatoes and yams. Some green vegetables are also soluble, such as broccoli, although most also contain insoluble fiber.

Our goal is to force the body to use as much of it’s stored body fat for fuel as possible. One way we do this is to remove short-term fuel sources from much of the menu. These include most carbohydrate-rich foods, sugar, and shorter-chain fatty acids. Medium and long-chain fatty acids are “slow-burning” fuel sources. The inclusion of these foods into the diet forces the body to find other sources of more immediate fuel. Once blood sugar is tapped, the body will turn to stored sugar (glycogen) and stored fat, converting each to immediate fuel sources. Avoiding excessive shorter-chain fatty acids is important during fat loss phases for this reason, just as removing other forms of fast-burning fuel such as rapidly-digested carbohydrates.

Both forms of fiber are healthy and should be included in your long-term dietary plan. In The Every Other Day Diet, both forms of fiber are included every day. But fat loss is accelerated by the ingestion of insoluble fiber more-so than soluble fiber.

Learn more by picking it up today –

Fiber is also crucial for elimination, although less so on a higher-fat diet than a higher-carbohydrate diet. While many health care professionals suggest that one should have a bowel movement “2 to 3 times per day”, those on higher protein/fat, lower carbohydrate diets often report much less frequent bowel movements. If your insoluble fiber content is high enough (15-25 grams per day) then rarely will a low-carb diet pose a health problem, even with more infrequent elimination.

One reason for for this is the fact that fats lubricate the system and help with elimination. Another is the fact that, for many people, the foods consumed on a lower-carb diet are utilized more efficiently, producing less waste byproducts. More frequent bowel movements are important for anyone consuming a higher-carbohydrate diet, but less important for a higher fat diet.

What is important is the distinction between constipation and infrequent bowel movements. Constipation is defined as both infrequent AND painful or stressful elimination, while infrequent bowel movements simply implies that you go less frequently but without stress, pain or difficulty. If constipation is an issue, increasing fiber from both soluble and insoluble sources may help, as well as increasing dietary fat.

Water

Water is probably the most potent fat-burner there is.

People are often surprised when they hear me say that, but it’s true. The cycle of fat-burning begins with hydration. Without proper hydration, the kidneys cannot function at an optimal level. Your kidneys are responsible for the elimination and filtering of toxins and waste in the form of urine. Over 200 quarts of blood per day is filtered through a pair of healthy kidneys.

The kidneys depend upon hydration in the form of ingested water to properly perform their functions. When water intake is too low, kidney performance suffers and the liver is taxed to help the waste removal process. The liver’s job is also classified in part as waste removal, but its primary job is to metabolize fat. If the liver is not allowed to do its job due to dehydration, fat-burning slows down considerably. In some cases it can virtually stop completely, halting any weight loss and damaging both sets of organs in the process.

This entire fat metabolism cycle hinges on one simple thing: Hydration. When you consider the fact that you are holding on to excess water right now, it can become a bit confusing. How can you be dehydrated and hold water weight? The biochemical processes behind this are considerably complex, and this is just one example. Another is how drinking water releases stored water yet hydrates the body at the same time. For our purposes it’s sufficient to know that water is a vital component of fat-burning.

Things become even more complicate when you consider that many fat-burning agents like caffeine are dehydrating agents as well. Coffee dehydrates the body, yet it can also accelerate fat loss, especially when consumed prior to exercise. What’s required is an increase in water intake for any dehydrating agents consumed. For example, simply drinking a glass of pure water along with your coffee can offset the dehydration effects while still allowing caffeine to work its magic in the fat-burning process. The more dehydrating agents you consume, greater amounts of water are required.

Water is also key to the mental processes behind fat-burning. Everything that happens in the body is controlled by the brain and nervous system. Often when the sensation of hunger is felt, a signal given off by the brain, the actual condition is dehydration. The brain only knows that it needs more energy for digestion and waste metabolism. Energy can come from calories, obviously, but it can also come from water indirectly.

Water restores metabolic functions which require energy. Simply drinking water the next time you feel those afternoon or night-time hunger signals can often eliminate the desire to eat as it may just be a signal from the brain that your liver requires energy. Digestion and metabolism is by far the most energy-draining process in the human body. Ensuring the organs work at peak efficiency can lead to less “false hunger” signals and greater fat loss via less needless calories consumed.

Water is also the principle component in the human body, comprising about 60% of its overall mass. Muscle is over 75% water, yet you never hear about “water supplements to build muscle mass.” Why is that? Well, other than bottled water, it’s hard to sell. Like protein, also a key component in muscle, ingesting more water will not directly lead to more muscle mass. However, without adequate water you cannot build lean muscle mass.

This is not an issue of supplying more than is needed, but rather an issue of making sure enough water is supplied. The same is true of protein. More protein will not lead to more muscle per-se, but consuming adequate levels of protein — even more than is needed at times — ensures there is ‘enough’ protein to do the job. So think of water in the same fashion. It is better to err on the “too much” side than the “too little” side when it comes to water and protein.

On the other hand, body fat is only 15% water. Fat is the most inactive tissue in the body until processed for fuel. One of the reasons for this is the lack of water within a fat cell. Your body is basically a bioelectric machine. Water is a conduit for neuroelectrical processes. Less water means less cellular activity. While fat mass is not totally dormant, burning about 2 calories per day per pound, it is nowhere near as active as muscle, burning anywhere from 6 on the low-end to 15 on the high end of calories per day per pound — even more when used during exercise.

In order to ensure proper hydration, it is best to consume at least one quart of pure water for every 50 pounds of body weight. This is over the “eight glasses per day” amount you may have heard, but this is due to the fact that (a) you will be engaging in exercise, which is dehydrating; (b) you will be consuming some caffeine (if okayed by your physician) which is dehydrating; and (c) we want to err on the side of more rather than less.

In rare cases you can drink too much water, although that would be difficult to do without drinking too much at one sitting. That is why you should spread your water intake out throughout the day. Putting freshly-squeezed lemon or lemon juice in with pure water is a well-known natural diuretic and helps to rid the body of unwanted water weight while supplying it with the water it needs at the same time.

Supplementation

For longer than any of us have been alive mankind has searched for the “magic weight loss pill”. In this pursuit, hundreds of people have died (if not thousands) by taking a variety of drugs, herbs and other so-called “fat-burners” such as ephedrine, Fen-phen, and a variety of CNS (central nervous system) stimulants.

While an “obesity drug” may be on the horizon, it will never be the answer to the problem of overeating. So, let’s get this point clear from the start: There is no such thing as a magic pill for weight loss.

However, that does not mean that there are not supplements that help the process along. Some help it along to a remarkable degree, while others are just hype and myth.

We will cover supplements in detail in Day 4: The Truth About Supplements. But for now, you have one simple take-away lesson:

Diet, exercise, and supplementation must work together as one unit in order to achieve more rapid fat loss.

Fat loss does not come in a pill, but there are supplements that accelerate the process. This Course will tell you the truth about them — that they must be used in specific doses, at specific times, and with specific dietary protocols to be effective. The manufacturers will rarely if ever tell you this! It does not bode well for sales. However, when used properly, supplements can be a tremendous help when it comes to weight loss.

The Radical Fat Loss Blueprint System requires specific supplements in order to even work. Most of these supplements are designed to sustain metabolic processes during a very specific diet and exercise protocol which lasts for 21 days. There are also “fat-burning” supplements included, although none with stimulants.

All of this is designed for one thing: The most rapid fat loss possible.

But hold on:

What else is needed for rapid fat loss… and how “rapid” is “rapid”?

What about long-term fat loss?

These questions and more are covered in tomorrow’s lesson.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 8:43 pm and is filed under 7 Minute Muscle, Every Other Day Diet, Fitness, Nutrition, Radical Fat Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.