EAT FAT TO LOSE FAT. YOU READ THAT RIGHT.
So whether your internal dialogue (aka your thoughts – that ever so elusive voice inside your head that for some reason you cannot figure out whether you are friends or enemies with? *) is as polished as what you vocalize around the boss you are trying to impress and says “this affirmation must be inaccurate,” or it simply says “wtf, you cant eat fat to lose fat” chances are you are confused after reading the title of this post.
First, I would like to say that if you are in the first group that’s inner voice uses the diction “affirmation,” or “inaccurate” well that inner voice is a total dweeb, and you may be one too. Second, I can support the claim made in the title with science and metrics – your boss will like that, bosses like cute graphs and pointless meetings in corporate America. But let’s not digress...
Let us start by assuming (Yes, when I tell you to assume please just assume. For me? At least till the end of the post? Please?) that for us to achieve our fitness goals (or any goals for that matter) or at least effectively pursue them, we need to start applying the inside out approach*. We must intrinsically change ourselves and the way our body responds to the plethora of stimuli that impact it each and every day. To be effective, our focus must be on making positive changes in the way we respond to food, cardiorespiratory and load training, sleep, and all the other variables that effect our overall level of fitness. To clarify, we should NOT be focused on directly impacting or dictating the output, but instead, we should be focusing on improving our responses to inputs and this progressive improvement in responsiveness will not only provide us with results more efficiently, but will provide more longevity in our results and better overall health.
Okay cool, but now tell me how I can eat Twinkies and lose fat like the title claims, you might be thinking. Stuffing your face with saturated fats may not be the best thing, but I stand by the fact that you should eat healthier fats in order to lose fat based on the application of the principle of metabolic responsiveness. Our
body is an adaptive organism that will change and adjust its secretion of hormones and enzymes based on what you put into it. Eat carbs, the body will decide to utilize them and effectively store them away. Eat proteins, the body will make the decision to break the long chains of proteins into smaller blocks to rebuild muscle tissue.
Wait a second…. So if you eat more fats… you guessed it; your body will become more efficient in burning fat! If you eat less fat, the body will hoard whatever it has and become incredibly ineffective in burning it which is NOT what we want.
But be careful. You are not going to lose fat if you start eating Avocados and peanut butter all day; you also have to be conscious of your other macronutrients* (Carbohydrates, and protein). We will not get too much into the science, but lets scratch the surface a bit. You got these two guys that are impacted by carbs and protein: LPL –
Lipoprotein Lipase and HSL – Hormone Sensitive Lipase that decided to make this whole diet thing complex.
Let’s start with a diet high in carbohydrates and fat. What happens if you eat a lot of both? Well the
carbohydrates will cause insulin to release which causes body tissue to grow due to the mechanism of action of LPL and HSL. When insulin rises, LPL increases in fat cells and decreases in muscle cells; so fat gets sucked into the fat cells, and the muscle cells cannot utilize fat as an energy source. What happens to it?
Well, you save some for a little later. HSL, which functions to remove fats from fat cells by breaking triglycerides down into
fatty aids also gets shut down by this evil insulin guy. Ok, so then high proteins and high fats has got to do the magic. Not quite; carbs spike insulin, but guess what else does in high quantities; PROTEIN!
Let’s throw another curve ball in there; if your carbohydrates remain low for too long, your metabolism will slow, so you do not want to deplete yourself of them for too long. So carbs were totally evil two minutes ago, but now they are only a little evil? Seriously Neal, what macronutrient ratio should I use alongside high fats?
There is a lot of debate on this topic, and everyone is impacted by a wide array of factors so the answer to that question is NOT cut and dry. Between the variance from person to person in terms of goals, genetics, differences in supplementation, consumption of alcohol, use of recreational and performance enhancing drugs, sleep, workout intensity and volume, cardiorespiratory training, hormonal levels, etc...
I cannot give one definitive answer. What I will say is this: A diet high in fats, with moderate levels of protein, and low levels of
carbohydrates* for most of the week, and one or two days of moderate to above moderate levels of carbohydrates with fats and proteins remaining the same or being slightly reduced on the higher carb day seems to be effective and aligns with all the scientific principles explained. Thoughts?
*Content written by Ambassador Neal Thakkar*