The science of body fat loss and conditioning

Body conditioning, cloth size and fat loss remains a key goal in health/wellness for many people. A slimmer well conditioned body aids in exercise, move more freely, have more energy and looking your best. However the key reason and more importantly, being conditioned and slim may reduce the incidence of developing heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, many types of cancers, and a pre mature death. The statictics on overweight and obeseity especuially in western culture is startling, now over 42% of our adult population classified as obese in the United States, and Europe rising sharley year on year. We aim at Glonua to help you understand the challenges and guide you toward better overall health and wellness through education about our bodies and how you can take control of your health. 

Where Fat Is Most Commonly Found In The Body

Probably the most prevalent region where excess fat is seen is the abdomen – men maybe at higher risk of storing fat in this area. Experts consider abdominal fat, also called visceral fat, to be dangerous, because it’s a type of fat that surrounds the vital organs inside the body. This fact alone can predispose someone to metabolic syndrome, a group of factors that can lead to serious conditions like high blood pressure, stroke, type 2 diabetes, high blood triglycerides, and sleep apnea. 

Women are more likely to store extra fat in their hips, thighs, and butt. This type of fat is subcutaneous, which means it lies directly under the skin, so it’s not considered as harmful as deep abdominal fat. 

Fat can also show up in our leg muscles down to the ankles. In addition, underarm tricep muscles that aren’t toned can also result in a buildup of fat, which can often be seen in the arm pit area. Fat can also accumulate in both the upper and lower regions of the back, and is common in men and women equally. Likewise, both men and women can experience weight gain in their chests.

the Difference Between Weight Loss And Fat Loss?

More often than not, “losing weight” and “losing fat” are used interchangeably among those trying to slim down, but in actuality, these are not the same thing. Put simply, losing weight means a decrease in overall body weight that consists of muscle, water, and fat. If you’ve ever tried a new weight loss program, you may have noticed a quick and easy drop on the scale. More than likely, the weight you so rapidly lost contained mostly water and muscle loss. Maintaining a healthy fat-to-muscle ratio is critical for our health in a variety of ways. Muscle mass helps to regulate blood sugar levels, control inflammation, sustain healthy triglyceride and cholesterol levels, burn more calories, and prevent frailty as we age.

Fat loss, however, refers to weight loss specifically from fat and is a more beneficial health goal than simply losing weight. It’s the fat we lose that’s so helpful in lessening our chances to develop chronic diseases and other age-related ailments. So, we should be focusing our efforts on fat loss, not weight loss, for optimal metabolic health.

How To Tell When You’re Losing Fat

Even when fat loss is our goal, it isn’t always easy to know whether we’ve succeeded in ridding our bodies of fat. This is because the scale doesn’t reflect how much fat we’ve lost, only how many total pounds we’ve shed. So, how can we tell when we’re burning fat? Luckily, three available tools are dedicated to measuring fat and can help track how your body composition changes over time. 

A tape measure is an easy way to check your waist circumference, quickly giving you an idea of how much abdominal fat you’re losing. A skinfold caliper is a metal tool that pinches and measures the amount of fat found in some regions of your body. Body fat scales are special scales that use electrical impulses to estimate body fat percentage.  

No matter which tool you go for, it is imperative to track your fat loss progress throughout your health journey. Your body is a complex system, and monitoring dietary choices alone is always just an approximation when it comes to how well your body metabolizes fat.

Burning Fat: What Happens To The Fat We Lose? 

When we eat, our body converts any excess calories from carbohydrates and protein we don’t use into triglycerides, a type of fat that gets stored in our fat cells. When the body detects that there’s fewer calories consumed than the energy it’s using, also called an energy deficit, hormones and enzymes trigger the fat cells to release the stored fat into the bloodstream in the form of glycerol and free fatty acids. These components are then shuttled to the liver and other tissues that need them for energy. After the glycerol and free fatty acids get absorbed, the triglycerides are further processed and, as a result of a complex set of chemical reactions known as the Krebs cycle, become a usable form of energy. 

As these reactions take place, they generate ATP. This organic molecule provides energy to power the many activities in living cells, as well as carbon dioxide, water, and heat. We expel the carbon dioxide from our lungs when we breathe, excrete the water as urine and sweat, and utilize the heat to help maintain a comfortable body temperature. The number of fat cells you carry around will remain the same no matter your size, although more can be produced if weight gain occurs and more fat cells are needed. Even though we won’t lose any fat cells, the amount of fat within them decrease, which allows us to slim down when an energy deficit is present.

How We’re Burning Fat:

When the liver metabolizes the free fatty acids for energy production, the acids are transformed into acetyl-CoA, a molecule that then produces a ketone bodys. Two more ketone bodies are produced from acetoacetate, called b-hydroxybutyrate (BOHB) and acetone. Acetone then circulates in the blood, and because it is small in size and weight, it can quickly disperse from the blood into the lung’s air spaces and is found in the breath we exhale. A breath analysis device that can measure the number of acetone ketones in the breath, which indicates how effectively the body is metabolizing fat. The more acetone detected, the more fat oxidation takes place.

The way we eat, timing, profile( Protein, fat content) and exercise significantly impacts how we burn fat daily. A 2018 study from Nutrition & Diabetes demonstrates that our food’s macronutrient composition, the number of calories we consume, and how much physical activity we partake in all directly influence the amount of acetone found in the breath. In the study, eight healthy volunteers monitored their breath acetone after three scenarios, all of which followed an overnight fast: 1) fasting for four hours, then exercising at low intensity for two hours, 2) fed hourly high-carb meals (70% carb) for four hours, then exercising at low intensity for two hours, 3) fed hourly low-carb meals (10% carb) for four hours, then exercising at low intensity for two hours. 

The results were clear. When the group ate high-carb meals, their rate of fat oxidation was significantly lower than when they were fasting, both before and during exercise. Conversely, when they ate low-carb meals, their fat oxidation was comparable to the fasting state before exercise but was lower during exercise. These results show that our breath acetone and ability to burn fat can notably change over 6 hours depending on the amount and content of our food and how much energy we’re using up.

When we fast, restrict calories, or deplete the body of glucose by adopting a low-carb way of eating, the acetone in our blood and breath increases as a byproduct of metabolizing stored fat to meet the body’s energy needs.

GloNua BioHacking Tips:

What we eat and how we move, directly affects mood, function, body and all of the complex bio-chemical processes that go into make us who we are. Being aware of this is imperative in gaining the insight you require to take the initial steps towards a better you. As the founder of GloNua I feel it’s important to share some of these pillars and key aspects in a simple format to help you understand.

Diet
My regime is based on what I like to call M.E.A.L. (Meat, Eggs, Added oils, Leaves). I advise eating grass fed meats and non-farmed fish. Steaks are great, but there’s so many options when it comes to good quality meat. After a workout or pre bed sometimes I’ll have a protein shake. I don’t eat that many carbohydrates, but they are cycled in and out as they do contain fibre, and at times on Keto, science has found that we can get the benefits utilising such cyclical patterns. Everybody is slightly different, from gender, to age and daily routines, so see what works for you. I do occasionally enjoy a sweet treat after my main meal (I am human). Replace the highly processed industrial mono-cropped agriculture: refined grains, sugar and seed oils with our ancestral diet rich in animal meat, fish, fat and organs (Collagen/gelatine rich) foods.

Try to avoid a much as possible:
Sugar, Seed oils, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Trans fats, Refined carbs. These are all present in so many processed foods or packaged foods, just check the labels.

Intermittent Fasting
Practice Intermittent Fasting. I have implemented it in my life in various forms for years and it has delivered many benefits including better energy, better mood and better cognitive function (also covered in our blog page in depth).

GloNua Biohack Pillars:

• *Mind and body awareness

• Fast

• Eat real food = satiety

• Exercise - Build muscle (it burns fat), do weights and Hiit.

• Sleep well - 7-9 hours

• Sunlight - AM & PM, it has numerous body benefits.

• Meditate - practice correct breathing, even 5-10mins.

• Engage with people - Social Contact.

• Get out in nature - Positive to Negative balance

GloNua believe the keto approch to eating is by far a very successful and a maintainable weight management strategy. Historically, the ketogenic diet was used as a treatment for specific conditions such as pediatric epilepsy, more recently attention has been given to its application in the treatment of cancer, type-2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s Disease, and more. Today, weight loss, often seen as a side effect of ketogenic therapies, is being explored as a single entity, and it is no secret that many people have experienced amazing success with the diet. That is also why we consider it a valid approach for body condition, brain health and weight loss. GloNua aim to aid you on your journey toward better health. Many scientific research studies now explore this in depth pointing toward the rationale for how the ketogenic diet can be used to create a more favourable metabolic state, less ree radicals, reduced inflammation and required calorie deficit needed for meaningful weight loss.

For individuals needing to lose weight for the sake of their health and wellbeing, finding a strategy that works for you can be extremely liberating. Not only is weight loss accompanied with a decreased risk of several major chronic diseases, but it can increase your quality of life. There is no doubt that there is an emotional component to one’s weight loss journey, and we strongly believe the information in our Blog can set you on the path to better health.