The battle between muscle and fat: Part II

Government health officials and nutritionists once told us that a simple solution for people to control their weight was to reduce fat intake. By 1990, they had put a number on this claim; They recommended that fat should make up no more than 30 percent of a person’s total daily calories. If we did the math, it made sense. Both carbohydrates and protein contain about 4 calories per gram; fat contains about 9 calories per gram. So the theory was that reducing fat intake would lead to a greater reduction in calories than reducing the same amount of carbohydrates. Over time, however, the message simply became “Fat makes you fat!”

Science has recently shown that fat itself is not fattening. It has been shown in the laboratory that people who eat 60 to 70 percent of their calories from fat lose weight faster than those who eat only 20 percent of their calories from fat.

Remember though, eating an overabundance of calories, fat, or anything else will make you fat. Although the original idea of ​​limiting fat intake might have made sense on paper, it wrongly assumed that people would not replace calories from fat with even more calories from glycogen-filling carbohydrates. A 2002 review from the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center at Tufts University found that consuming highly processed carbohydrates such as white bread, pasta, and rice, as well as sugar, promotes an increase in total calorie intake. Let’s not forget that the calories that have been added to the daily American diet since the 1970s were made up almost entirely of carbohydrates.

We now know that this experiment failed. Why? Because fat is a powerful satiating agent that keeps you satisfied longer after eating than carbohydrates. This understanding showed that as fat intake was reduced and replaced with carbohydrates, hunger would increase.

Here is another interesting result that was discovered. Carbohydrates raise blood insulin levels, a powerful hormone that stimulates your body to stop burning and start storing fat. So the bottom line is that when you eat a lot of carbs, your ability to burn fat is inhibited, which impairs fat loss. On the other hand, low-carb diets, which are high in fat, keep insulin levels low, allowing the body to break down stored fat for energy.

Myth #1: “Eat carbohydrates for energy”

As early as the 1960s, researchers affirmed the importance of glycogen as fuel for the high-level athlete during prolonged exercise, such as long-distance running. They determined that high glycogen levels were associated with better endurance performance than low glycogen levels. This resulted in elite athletes being advised to eat plenty of carbohydrates after exercising, in order to replenish glycogen for the next day’s training session or competition. The idea behind this recommendation was to ensure optimal performance. Unfortunately, the common person who did not need this diet followed this advice.

We have found it to be true that glycogen can be an important fuel source for peak athletic performance. New research challenges the theory that it is simply a form of carbohydrate storage. This is because the level of your glycogen tank has a huge impact on your ability to burn fat and your metabolic health. What’s important to note is this: What helps a world-class marathoner run faster has nothing to do with helping the average person lose fat. Unless he burns thousands of calories a day like an athlete, eating like one just doesn’t apply.

We’re not saying that consuming the right amount of carbs after your workout can’t have benefits. However, stocking up on carbohydrates can be grossly misguided advice for the average person eating the typical American diet.

Myth #2: “Fat-free foods are good for you”

For the last 3 decades, we have heard from major health organizations such as the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association that consuming fat, and in particular saturated fat, increases the risk of heart disease. From this we have created a fat phobia that has spread across the country, and even those who were not on a diet began to avoid fats for fear of “clogged arteries”. What a great opportunity for the food industry to introduce new product categories such as fat-free, low-fat and reduced-fat foods.

The surprising thing is that the connection between fats, even saturated fats, and heart disease has never been proven. There is evidence that replacing carbohydrates with fat, any type of fat, including saturated, actually reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. Even the highly conservative American Heart Association no longer suggests an upper limit for total fat intake, only saturated fat. However, fat-free and low-fat foods remain staples of the American diet. We believe in the idea that fat is bad and it has become ingrained in the psyche of the average person.

Myth #3: “Running is the best way to lose weight”

We’ve all heard of Jim Fixx; The running guru of the 70’s. In 1977 he published “The Complete Book of Running”. This best-selling book popularized the notion of running for health and weight loss, and is widely credited with starting the jogging boom of the 1980s. Additionally, most exercise scientists during this time were recreational or competitive runners. . As a result, running and other types of endurance activities were the most frequently studied type of exercise, particularly in terms of health and benefits. Don’t get me wrong; There are many benefits to these forms of exercise.

Because these researchers reported that running burns far more calories than weight training, most experts began to promote it widely as the best mode of exercise for fat loss. However, they had no data to support that claim.

Weight Loss Factor: “Where’s the Fat?”

We would like to point out that engaging in a regular running program or any type of exercise without adopting a sensible diet is a very inefficient way to lose weight. We know that a fast-food double-decker cheeseburger and large fries contain more than 1,100 calories; a meal that most of us can devour in less than 5 minutes. To burn that many calories, the average person would have to run for 53 minutes at a pace of 81/2 minutes per mile. This is why your diet has more of an impact on overall weight loss than exercise.

From previous examples, we’ve established that it’s not just weight loss that’s important; it is the quality of your weight loss that matters most. The amount of your weight loss that is pure fat is really what is important. It may surprise you to learn that running, biking, or walking do little to further increase fat loss when combined with a good diet. Weight training, however, has a dramatic impact. There was a study in which several overweight people were put on a diet of 1,500 calories per day. The group was then divided into a group that performed resistance exercises and a group that performed resistance exercises and weight training. After 3 months, each of the groups has lost almost the same amount of weight, about 21 pounds. However, the quality of their weight loss was different. People in the weight training group lost 5 more pounds of fat than the other group. The answer lies in the type of weight loss. The first group lost about 15 pounds of fat and 6 pounds of muscle. Those who lifted weight lost almost pure fat.

As you can see, weight training is a powerful tool when it comes to losing fat. This is because it stimulates your muscle growth, and your body is less likely to shed your hard-earned muscles. This is crucial because the more muscle you have, the bigger your body’s fat-burning furnace. You’ll remember we said that if you lose muscle, not only does it reduce your ability to burn fat, but your glycogen tank gets smaller. And we all know that most of our glycogen is found in our muscles. This means it has less room to store carbohydrates, making them more likely to be converted to fat in the liver. Resistance exercise provides neither of these benefits.

Is it true that running burns more calories than lifting weights? When scientists at the University of Southern Maine used an advanced method to estimate energy expenditure during exercise, they found that weight training burns up to 71 percent more calories than originally thought. In fact, the researchers calculated that performing just one circuit of eight exercises, which would take about 8 minutes, could expend 159 to 231 calories. That’s about the same as running at a pace of 6 minutes per mile for the same amount of time. As a bonus, weight training can raise your metabolism for up to 39 hours after your workout.

So now that we know what our diet should consist of and what types of exercise are most beneficial for burning fat, it’s time to focus on the areas of our body where fat is unwanted; Namely, the intestine. We want to use the proper diet and exercise program to deplete glycogen. This causes your body to start using fat as its main source of energy, accelerating the rate at which you lose abdominal flab. It is scientifically proven that this strategy reduces abdominal fat in men and women. Even better, it helps stimulate nutrient partitioning, an effect that allows you to simultaneously burn fat and build muscle.