Brando's Blog

Eating More and Exercising Less Does NOT Cause Fat Gain - Part 4

OK, so far I've discussed how important it is to balance your steroid hormones if you wish to lose weight.

Well, there is another potentially even more important hormone to consider with weight loss. This hormone is insulin.

Insulin is secreted by the pancreas in response to eating carbohydrates to keep blood sugar under control. The more carbohydrates eaten, the more insulin is secreted.

Insulin also ensures that muscle cells receive amino acids to aid repair and provide energy. Insulin is also the principle regulator of fat metabolism by allowing fatty acids to enter fat cells.

Insulin also has a direct affect on the enzyme Lipoprotein Lipase (LPL) which I have previously discussed. LPL helps to store fat in muscle tissue for energy storage and to store fat in fat cells.

Insulin stimulates LPL on the fat cells, especially around the abdomen. Insulin inhibits LPL on the muscle cells reducing the availability of energy, which is likely to make you feel tired and/or hungry.

Insulin also suppresses another enzyme Hormone Sensitive Lipase (HSL) which helps us to burn fat, therefore meaning helps us to store more fat. The more insulin is secreted, the more HSL is inhibited, the less fat you can use for energy and the more that will be stored in your fat cells.

Insulin also helps to pump glucose into your fat cells where they make triglycerides. Triglycerides are two fatty acids joined with one glycerol cell. Triglycerides are large and cannot leave a fat cell unless it is broken down into fatty acids.

Insulin also promotes the growth of new fat cells, just in case your current fat cells become full.

Gary Taubes in his book, "Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It", states that there are a number of stages that the insulin cycle goes through:

1. You get hungry and think about a meal containing carbohydrates
2. You begin secreting insulin
3. The insulin inhibits HSL and stimulates LPL
4. You get hungrier
5. You begin eating
6. More insulin is secreted
7. As you ingest the carbohydrates, blood sugar increases
8. More insulin is secreted
9. Fat is stored as triglycerides in the fat cells
10. Fat cells get fatter (and so do you)
11. Fat stays in the fat cells until the insulin levels reduce

So you see, just eating less and exercising more might not get the job done.

Stay tuned for more information. There's still another important hormone I haven't mentioned yet...  
 

Eating More and Exercising Less Does NOT Cause Fat Gain - Part 3

So you might be wondering (if you read the first two parts of this post), why I suggested balancing steroid hormones, yet I have only mentioned estrogen (the female hormone) so far.

If you were wondering, then it might interest you to know that testosterone (the male hormone) also inhibits LPL on fat cells, especially around the waist. 

So when a man's testosterone levels drop, the ability to store fat, especially around the middle also increases. This is one reason why men over forty often begin to develop the beer belly (even if they don't drink beer).

So whether you're male or female, it is important to balance your steroid hormones if you want to lose weight or to stop yourself becoming fat.

Your steroid hormones aren't all you need to keep in check. Stay tuned to find out more...

Eating More and Exercising Less Does NOT Cause Fat Gain - Part 2

So what is the answer?

Answer: You need to make sure that you balance your steroid hormones.

How do you do this?

Answer: In my clinical practice, I do this by analyzing my clients’ steroid hormone balance and investigate what might have caused the imbalance and give recommendations on what each individual needs to do to correct it.

An imbalance in steroid hormones is nearly always caused by stress. In today’s society, stress is everywhere. There are obvious stresses like work deadlines, money worries, relationships etc. There are also hidden stressors like food sensitivities, parasite infections and bacterial and fungal overgrowths, which occur in 99.99% of people coming to see me. Chronic stress will almost always cause an imbalance of the steroid hormones.

I advise my clients on nutritional, digestive, immune, hormonal, activity, lifestyle, sleep and mental/emotional factors. Each person is different and requires a different approach.

Once the stressors are identified and eliminated, the body is able to normalise appetite and energy levels and importantly body fat levels.

If you or anyone you know is struggling to lose body fat, please feel free to contact me or more information or to arrange an initial consultation.

Eating More and Exercising Less Does NOT Cause Fat Gain

We have been repeatedly told that eating too much and not exercising enough is the cause of being overweight to the point where it has become the accepted truth.

In this post, I will explain why it is not the truth. I will explain why people’s attempts to lose weight by eating less and/or exercising more are more often than not futile. I will show you how research has proven the calories in versus calories out theory to be a long way from reality.

If you or someone you know has struggled to lose excess body fat, then this article may be the most important one you ever read.

To think that eating too much or not exercising enough causes obesity is like believing pain causes bruising. Pain and bruising are just symptoms of trauma to the body.

Eating more and exercising less are symptoms of hormonal imbalances. In a study by George Wade of The University of Massachusetts in the 1970's, he removed the ovaries from female rats. These rats immediately began eating much more food and soon became obese.

More interestingly, Wade also removed the ovaries of another group of rats and restricted their calorie intake. This group of rats became more sedentary and became just as fat as the group who could eat as much as they liked.

So what caused the over-eating and the inactivity? With the removal of the ovaries, the estrogen levels of the rats were severely reduced.  Estrogen has a direct affect on an enzyme called Lipoprotein Lipase (LPL). LPL pulls fat from the blood stream into any cell (fat or muscle) that happens to express LPL.

It just so happens that Estrogen inhibits LPL’s affect on fat cells. Therefore, the higher the Estrogen levels, the lower the fat uptake by the fat cells. Conversely, the lower the Estrogen levels, the more fat can be taken up by the fat cells.

So when Estrogen is low and the fat cells are storing more fat than normal, energy is being prevented from being stored in the muscle tissue and therefore less energy is available to the body. This has two possible consequences. The person will need to eat more food to raise energy levels or the person will conserve energy by being less active.

This may explain why post-menopausal women tend to put on weight.

What Wade’s research also suggests is that when fat tissue absorbs more calories from the circulation the fat cells expand. If the person is able to eat more food they will (to make up the deficit in available energy and to maintain their new size). If they are unable to eat more food, they will become more sedentary.

Also, Wade gave estrogen to the rats after the study and there eating habits, activity levels and weight normalised.

To emphasize the point further, think about a teenager going through a growth spurt. They eat more during the growth spurt to fuel the growth, which has been initiated by growth hormones. Teenagers don’t go through growth spurts because they spontaneously start eating more.

In addition, a teenage male will often eat more, reduce body fat percentage and gain muscle over that period.  Does this not prove that eating more does not cause fat gain?

It is size and growth that determines appetite and activity levels, not appetite and activity determining size and growth. Elephants and whales eat huge amounts of food to sustain their huge bodies. Their bodies aren’t huge because they over eat.

So whenever our bodies GROW fat tissue, we need to increase calorie intake to sustain it. If we choose to or are unable to increase calorie intake, we’ll feel fatigued and won’t be able to exercise. It’s simply not true that people are fat because they are lazy.

Also, I see a lot of clients with chronic fatigue and they are nearly always overweight too. So these people have large bodies that need high levels of calories, but because they are not eating enough (because they think that is how to lose weight) they are in a vicious cycle that won’t be broken until they know the answer.

So what the answer?

Tune in next time to find out....

Your Beauty Products Could Be Causing Your Health Problems

Researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Heath have discovered that beauty products can cause serious health problems.

Moisturisers, cleansers, sunscreens and hair colorants cause allergic reactions, such as headache, sore skin and itching, a new survey has discovered.

Facial and body moisturisers are the most likely beauty products to cause a reaction, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health has reported.  Women have reported suffering from eczema, rash, blistering and itching after using them.

This isn't new information. Indeed I wrote about this back in 2006 and you can see my article by clicking here.

This is why I suggest my clients use organic products that contain no harmful chemicals. You can have a look at the products I recommend to my clients and use myself by clicking here. Not only are they safe, but they're great products too.