Blog 01 - Everything You Need To Know About Fat

20th Nov, 2020

By

Rhys Mildren

Most people want to burn more fat! According to recent surveys, 2 in 3 people are overweight or obese in western society.
So it’s a significant issue yet I believe most people don’t know how fat works in our body and how to keep it off successfully!
So I want to clear up some myths and share how fat works and some steps to keep it off successfully!

Firstly fat Isn’t a storage site that sits there on our body doing nothing, because at one time we ate too many calories. Fat is very metabolically active, just like a muscle.
Understand that fat is in a constant state of activity 24 hours per day; fat cells are making all sorts of chemicals that is secreted from fat cells. Inflammatory chemicals, hormones (nasty ones) these chemicals can contribute to the things that cause weight gain!
So what this says is that fat acts as an organ rather than just sitting around! The average healthy person sits between 10 - 25% body fat, and that is contributing to these chemicals secreted from fat cells into the body. You can imagine how powerful an organ would be that is 10 - 25% your body weight. Now you can imagine if that organ crept up to 30, 40, 50% your bodyweight! It is more potent than any hormone-producing glands in your body. So it’s out there screwing with the system, which is extremely frustrating for someone overweight feeling as though they are doing everything right but not shifting any weight. It’s a vicious cycle of where they may be working hard, but the body is just stuck and not freeing up and releasing this fat. Because the bodies natural process for fat metabolism is being overpowered from the toxic chemicals from fat cells.
It is potentially leading to conditions such as PCOS, thyroid conditions, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

Now you know how fat works, but it’s not all doom and gloom! What can we do to control these issues and get the body functioning correctly and burning body fat!

1) Create the right environment -
Proximity is power! If it’s close by, we are going to eat it. As I said before, every 2 in 3 adults in Western countries are either overweight or obese.
Our lives are busy! Working long hours, running kids around, social commitments etc. So it seems that when people eat if they eat, it has to be fast and easy. Fast and easy usually comes in shiny packaging or through a drive-through window. What also goes hand in hand with an overly busy life is stress! We stress eat and drink alcohol to deal with it. It’s a vicious cycle and is a significant cause of weight gain.
A simple method to adopt is the 5 P’s (Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance). So for this instance, Clean the crap out of your cupboards at home and work. Then replace with healthier choices—Unprocessed foods with a short shelf life and only one ingredient. The best way to get these in is by preparing meals ahead of time. Yep meal prepping! My experience to date, I have never met anyone who has gotten in great shape without cooking their meals ahead of time.

2) Avoid sugar and artificially sweetened foods -
We all know too much sugar makes us fat! So it’s common sense to stay away from when trying to lose weight. But there is a new zero-sugar craze. No calorie drinks and foods but still taste sweet! The claims are that zero calories = healthy because of its macronutrient profile! It’s not exactly right, see if something tastes sweet like sugar, it’s going to have the same effect as consuming sugar. You are going to release insulin from your pancreas. Insulin’s job is to grab sugar and put it to use (energy). If not used straight away, it will be stored as body fat. There are receptors on our tongue that tastes sweet, and the same receptors are also found in the pancreas and fat cells. So what happens is your tongue tastes sweet (sugar or artificial sweetener), and that fires a joint action to these other receptors saying hey get ready for sugar. So insulin is released in anticipation for the sugar spike, insulin is telling your body there is sugar to burn, and at the same time, your fat cells are getting a message that sugar is coming in. The hierarchy says we have got to burn sugar before fat! The fat cells lock up and don’t release that fat to be used for fuel because there’s sugar to be burned.
So if you are sipping on sweet sugar-free drinks all day you are gaining fats and not using it as fuel. The ironic thing about this is that a lot of fat burning pre-workouts are artificially sweetened! It’s too they taste good, so it sells. Yet it’s having this same fat metabolism blocking effect. But that’s a whole other article in itself. My point is, if it tastes naughty, it is naughty!

3) Lift weights to build muscle and create the after-burn effect -
The general misconception is that most people think that burning as many calories as they can in a workout means they burn more fat! Yeah burning a stack of calories and posting it to your insta story is sweet. But how you do it is the most important for fat burning. See you burn stuff all fat in a workout. The exercise is just a stimulus to get the fat burning process happening. You burn the most body fat in the hours after you’ve worked out. The amount you burn depends on the type of exercise you did. Example: You could jog/walk for 45 minutes while still holding a convo with your running buddy and burn well over 500 calories. Or you could do an intense weights session doing heavy compound lifts such as Barbell Deadlifts and Squats for sets and reps. The same time spent but feeling far more fatigued. For sometimes only half the calories burnt as the slow joggers. But by performing weight training, you are using far more muscle mass and more specifically slow-twitch muscle fibres (type 2) By tearing down these muscle fibres and depleting the glycogen stores you are creating an environment that boosts your metabolic rate after the workout to help the recovery process.
Most importantly, muscle uses fat as fuel for recovery. Muscle is the most metabolically active tissue in the body, and 65% of daily calories are metabolised through your muscle. It’s simple! The more muscle you have, the more fat you will burn. This is extremely important to fighting weight gain and other weight-related diseases. As mentioned, fat cells want energy from the body to maintain and grow. It would help if you built muscle to tip the scales and prioritise the energy to be shuttled to muscle, not fat cells. For most people, structured resistance training with progressive overload is the only way you can build muscle to burn more fat. So it’s pretty simple to do more weights and less cardio, and girls if you’re wondering you won’t get bulky! You will burn that stubborn subcutaneous fat that sits on the places it doesn’t budge, tone up and feel stronger!

4) High protein and carbohydrate timing -
Protein is an essential macronutrient for losing weight and burning fat after tearing muscle down and depleting glycogen stores from an intense resistance workout. Protein helps muscle restore and grow. It’s a primary catalyst in determining your recovery and results from the workout, not the workout itself! Remember to burn fat; we need to build muscle and protein helps do that. Eating a source of protein every 2.5 - 3 hours ensures a consistent flow of nutrients and energy for muscle recovery. Avoiding hi GI carbs when trying to lose weight and getting on top of weight-related diseases is very important. Things like processed grains, sugar, bread, pasta, lollies chocolate etc. When we eat these foods, they are converted to glucose in the blood stream, and this causes an insulin spike from our pancreas. Insulin is our body’s blood sugar regulator. Too high is dangerous, and too low is also dangerous. So it’s job is to distribute glucose evenly for energy or storage. If someone is eating too many hi GI carbs, there is an excess consistently, and that energy will be stored as fat. Unfortunately the more fat you have, the more you will accumulate. At this time you think I’m a carb hater, I’m not!
The key is knowing when to eat them! Straight after an intense resistance workout is perfect! Because you have depleted glycogen stores from your muscle in the workout, so your body will prioritise glucose to replenish the muscle stores over fat cells. That doesn’t mean cake or lollies either haha good quality sources with only one ingredient like rice, potatoes, banana etc.

5) Get support -
Getting the right people in your corner is crucial if you want to lose weight or suffer from any weight-related conditions as mentioned. A good naturopath who can diagnose your biochemistry and help get it back on track is vital.
They set the compass, and a good Transformation Coach will guide you to your destination. Working with a coach, keeping you accountable with your nutrition and exercise day in and day out is a must! If you have struggled with weight gain chances are it didn’t happen over a few weeks, but most likely a few years plus. So working closely with a good coach will help you break old habits and create good ones, turning your good intentions into a lifestyle!