Hello Everyone!
I recently appeared on Bharatvaarta podcast hosted by my buddy Roshan (@carygottheblues on twitter). We talked about various health-related topics ranging from top-10 things to do to boost immunity to weight loss. We briefly talked about weight training, steady stead cardio and much more. Do listen to this podcast and let me know your feedback.
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Now to the main post…
Everyone wants to lose that belly fat, that love handle which won't just go. To lose fat, the first thing one resorts to is calorie restriction.
The "calorie-restricted frequent eating" doesn't work in the long run because, by restricting calories and having small meals throughout the day, your body's basal metabolic rate (BMR) drops. You can't increase your BMR as and when you wish. When BMR drops you feel lethargic and fatigued. Lower BMR also makes you put on weight faster. I have discussed all this in detail in one of the previous newsletters.
What we will discuss in this post is Hormones and how they affect the body fat.
If you want to understand why your body stores fat, you need to understand how some of the hormones work. The human metabolism, body weight, mood and behaviour are regulated by hormones.
Ghrelin - signals hunger
Leptin - signals satiety
Adrenaline - increases energy expenditure
Thyroid - reduces energy expenditure
Without understanding how hormones affect your body fat, you won't go far by just modulating calories and exercise. It becomes utterly easy to lose weight once you understand how hormones regulate all this.
Insulin
Insulin is secreted when we eat. It helps metabolise glucose, use it for energy and the surplus energy is stored as fat for future use. This process of storing fat is called lipogenesis.
As long as you are eating, your body will keep insulin levels high in the system. Your body doesn’t see any necessity to use fat as fuel when glucose is available for use. Think of it this way, as long as there’s insulin in your system, your body won’t tap into fat storage for fuel. Calorie restricted frequent eating fails exactly for this as it keeps insulin level in the system elevated for a long time. The only way your body can cope with restricted calories is by reducing your basal metabolic rate. Lower metabolism isn’t good for your health.
There is a direct relation between high secretion of insulin and body fat per cent: Fat people secrete more insulin than lean people[1]. In lean people, insulin levels quickly return to baseline after a meal, but in the fat people, these levels remain elevated for a long time[2].
In simple words, when your body’s insulin goes up, your fat per cent will go up. So what does raise the insulin level? The amount of Insulin secretion depends on the type of food, and frequency.
Look at the figures below-showing Insulin release with an eating pattern of multiple meals and snacks.
This is why snacking is a bad idea. If you keep eating, your insulin level will remain high and that’s not going to help you with your weightless journey. Will lose more weight simply by eating full meals and avoiding snacking.
A study by LC Kong concluded, “The resistance to weight loss and proneness to weight regain could be predicted by the combination of high plasma insulin”. People follow a certain diet and claim they lost 3 kg in a week. That’s not right. Don’t be tricked by sudden weight loss following a certain diet. It’s the water weight that your body loses. As long as your plasma insulin is high, no matter what you do, it will not help you lose weight.
The worst enemies of your weight loss effort are sugar. Sagar or sugary food spike insulin significantly.
Leptin
There’s another hormone, called Leptin. Leptin signals satiety, and it also helps reduce body fat. Leptin levels keep increasing with fat, thus with constant exposure brain becomes leptin resistant [3]. When this happens, you will not stop eating. This is why those who are fat, find it very difficult to stop eating – they are leptin resistant. Their brain doesn’t send a signal to stop eating.
When insulin drops, you will lose fat and you will become leptin sensitive again.
Cortisol (The Stress Hormone)
Cortisol itself is not bad, however, too much of cortisol is detrimental for health. This hormone is a key driver of carbohydrate metabolism. High cortisol level raises blood glucose and blood glucose will keep insulin levels high.
So try to manage your stress as much as possible. You should know that sleep deprivation is a potent psychological stressor and thus increases cortisol. The 24 hours of sleep deprivation heightened the levels of stress hormones by 100%.[4]
Human Growth Hormone
The Human growth hormone (HGH) increases and preserves lean muscle mass and reduces body fat. A study has shown diminished secretion of growth hormone is responsible for the decrease of lean body mass, and an increase in fat mass.[5]
It’s logical that if you could do something to increase HGH levels in your body, it would give the double benefit of weight loss and muscle gain. Working out and fasting naturally boost HGH. The more intense the workout the higher will be the HGH secretion.
To sum it up…
What You Can Do
Fasting: it improves insulin sensitivity, cranks up HGH and triggers ketosis (when the body burns fat for fuel).
Stop consuming sugar.
Lower carbohydrates in your diet.
Do not snack.
Eat full meals.
Sleep more: at least for 8 hrs a day.
Take a chill-pill and relax.
Mediation helps in managing stress.
My go-to anti-stress supplement is Aswagandha. Give it a try!
Work out more.
I hope you liked this post :) If you did, please share…
If you have any query or feedback, tweet to me at @Senpai_Jagatjit
Thank you,
Jagatjit
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