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; recommended that fat should not make up more than 30 percent of a person’s total daily calories. If we did the math, it made sense. Both carbohydrates and protein contain around 4 calories per gram; fat contains about 9 calories per gram. So the theory was that lowering your fat intake would lead to a greater reduction in calories than cutting the same amount of carbs. 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-replenishing 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 satiator that keeps you full longer after eating than carbs. 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 your blood levels of insulin, a powerful hormone that stimulates your body to stop burning and start storing fat. So the bottom line is, 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 carbs 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 advising elite athletes 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, storing carbs can be wildly wrong advice for the average person who eats the typical American diet.

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

Over the past 3 decades, we’ve heard from major health organizations, such as the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association, that consuming fat, and particularly saturated fat, increases the risk of heart disease. From this, we have created a phobia of fats 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 amazing thing is that the connection between fat, even saturated fat, 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, but only for 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 taken root 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 70s. In 1977 he published “The Complete Book of Running.” This best-selling book popularized the notion of running for better health and weight loss, and is widely credited with starting the jogging boom in 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 many more calories than weight training, most experts began to widely promote it as the best form of exercise for fat loss. However, they had no data to back up 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 prudent 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 total weight loss than exercise.

From previous examples, we have established that it is not simply weight loss that is 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 boost 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 1,500 calorie per day diet. The group was then divided into a resistance exercise group and a resistance exercise and weight training group. After 3 months, each of the groups has lost about 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 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 will be. You’ll recall that we said that if you lose muscle, not only does your ability to burn fat decrease, but your glycogen tank becomes smaller. And we all know that most of our glycogen is found in our muscles. This means you have less space to store carbohydrates, which increases the likelihood that they will be converted to fat in your liver. Resistance exercise does not provide any 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 6 minute mile pace 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 lower 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 breakdown, an effect that allows you to burn fat and build muscle simultaneously.