Want to burn more fat?

The goal seems simple yet our bodies respond in curious ways. Lets look at body composition.

Runners, explosiveness/strength vs endurance/distance

Differences in body comp, maybe its okay to be heavier than runway model standard or ultra endurance runner (r)

Think about body composition for a moment. You may notice an individual who is exceptionally lean no matter what they are wearing. Their body composition would indicate low levels of body fat.

How do we burn more body fat?

Focus on the gut

I think fat gets way too much attention, probably because you can see it. We can’t kill the fat cells, but we can make them smaller. The fat cells must receive hormonal signals in order to begin the burn of energy from fat cells. In other words, it’s the fat cells themselves that burn the fat, yet it’s the internal system that must first produce the signal.

Once you have a certain amount of fat cells, they can only shrink in size -- never disappear.

Once you have a certain amount of fat cells, they can only shrink in size — never disappear.

To signal fat cells to burn fat, the most common way is to workout. High intensity exercise can be short and still burn a ton of fat. The HIIT workout (example: Orangetheory) will burn fat mostly due to the hormonal release post-workout. These are the signalers that tell the fat cells to use energy and therefore get smaller.

The gut is complicated

Take a moment to think about all of the organs in your torso. There is much life within my human digestive system, it’s like totally ecological. There are so many billions of non-human life inside my body, it’s a biotic fiesta in my stomach. I like to celebrate with my gut and with my friends.

TBT may'n, back at LP Athletics trying to have healthy gut micro-flora

TBT may’n, back at LP Athletics focusing on strength and having healthy gut micro-flora

Aside from the fact that the digestive system is the biggest key to human immunity, the gut is ground zero for so many metabolic processes. The nutrients we consume from food contain catalysts for physiological, biological, and hormonal elements that life would be impossible without it. Therefore pure fat loss is impossible without nutrients.

Nutrients are the most valuable

Don’t leave it to scientists to discover everything, but it’s pretty amazing the advances in nutrient science with the last few decades. It’s unlikely we’ll understand everything about nutrition, but we can go on these ideas:

  • Nutrients come in many forms, for example: 
    • vitamins, minerals, water
    • dietary fats, carbohydrates, proteins
    • antioxidants, phytonutrients, fiber
  • Doing it right

    Doing it right

    • enzymes, pre-biotics, pro-biotics
    • curcumin, gingerols, dietary nitrates
    • etc
  • The goal is to improve symbiosis within the gut and surrounding organ systems between human cells and colonies of bacteria
    • Lactobacillus acidophilus is a commonly mentioned pro-biotic in our guts
  • A calorie is probably still a calorie, but most of us don’t really appreciate the depth at which food impacts our metabolic lives  24/7 including how fast the cells age!
    • Anti-aging strategies always involve exercise and nutrition
  • You can’t beat real food and herbal sources
    • Fresh, green food provides many catalysts for fat loss, and also for systemic health
    • High quality herbal extracts have benefited human health for thousands of years
  • It’s less about what you don’t eat, than what you do eat
    • Even if you restrict calories, you may be restricting nutrients as well
    • A low calorie poor diet is still a poor diet — dieters may become nutrient deficient if their food is not nutrient-dense.
    • The nutrients contain catalysts — cellular processes – sending signals to fat cells
    • Give your body a reason to burn fat, for example: antioxidants

You always knew it was about the gut anyway

If you’ve ever had a gut feeling, you may have experienced a range of feelings, emotions, and experiences from within the gut; Some pleasant, some anxious, others perhaps made you feel compelled to action.

Listen to the gut. Focus on nutrients. Simplify your life by consuming fresh vegetables.

And if you have a sweet tooth like me, you could be eating berries almost every day of the year. Blueberries are loaded in antioxidants. Give your body a reason to burn fat. Nutrients. Antioxidants. A reason.

You'll be excited about this when your eating window is only 8 hours long

YEEEE!!

Good luck my readership. May you eat mindfully and enjoy your existence inside and out.

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