50/50 Adventure
01-13-2008, 12:44 AM
The Science of Losing Fat
Your body needs energy. This is one of the defining characteristics of life itself. A living object requires energy. This energy is necessary for FAR more than allowing you to function through out your day as you would normally think (walking around, talking even the act of digestion)..... Every endogonic reaction in your body requires energy. Believe it or not, one third of your energy is actually spent just keeping sodium outside of you cells! Click here to see why you actually do NEED salt.
How does your body get energy? From your 'food' right? True,.... but only indirectly. To say food is a big oversimplification. Your body fuels itself via. 'Metabolic Pathways'
Here are a couple
* Glycolysis
Glycolysis is the breaking down of Glycogen. Glycogen is a way your body perfers to store carbohydrates (CHO's). Your body can store around 400grams of Glycogen. It is literally stored in your muscle tissue. Glycogen is stored for short term energy. You can burn your full reserve in less than 2 hours of intense activity.
* DeAmination This is the process of making energy by breaking apart your actual proteins for energy. These proteins include dietary proteins (the ones you consume) and even actual muscle tissue! This is something that we don't really want...... Good news is your body doesn't really want to do this either. It only does this when it NEEDS to (survival). In this process, the Amino group is torn off of Amino acids (the molecules that build proteins.) The remainder of the molecule is basically converted into Glucose (C6H12O6).
* Triglyceride Breaking Triglycerides are stored fats. (like a beer belly or Anna Nicole's thighs) This is the pathway we all would prefer. You're body really doesn't mind doing this actually. It takes MUCH less energy for your body to assemble a Fat molecule than a Muscle! Therefore, it is easier and more desired for your body to Break Fat bonds, than to go through DeAmination. The only problem.... it's much easier to build Glycogen than Fat :? Triglycerides are there for long term energy. When you are burning these.... you can feel the difference as opposed to glycogen. Fat burns slower than sugar. You will feel somewhat 'weaker' although still capable.
So, what's the key to burning fat; and why should I try to do it in the morning on an empty stomach?
In order to initiate the pathway of burning fats, you need to first burn all of your glycogen! This would require 1.5 - 2 hours of HEAVY exercise if your glycogen reserves are full. So you have a couple options to make this easier.
* 1. Make your last meal of the day one that has few carbohydrates (<10 Grams) While your sleeping, your body is feeding off stored glycogen. As you wake, your body will have it's reserves of these glycogens at the lowest point that they will be through-out the day. (you start replenishing it when you eat breakfast) This is an ideal point at which to do cardio because it will the easiest time to make your body initiate Triglyceride breaking.
* 2. Do your cardio immediately following an intense 45-60 minutes weight session. You feed off glycogen while you are lifting.... same story here.
* it takes 48 hours to completely fill glycogen reserves from "E". It would be ideal to adjust your diet and routine in such a way that you can keep these reserves in check! This will allow you to use your metabolic pathways to your own advantage.
*DeAmination of Skeletal muscle tissue occurs when you are so active that your Triglyceride breaking is not producing enough energy support your needs at that point in time. (or you have zero fats left laugh.gif ) This is why there is a 'target' heart rate for cardio. (an upper bound as well as the lower.) For this reason... I perfer HIIT Cardio. Once your heart rate is elevated enough, you have short INTENSE bursts followed by short lower intense intervals.
These are rules for "breaking down" molecules (fat/carbs/proteins). The way we "Build" molecules is some-what similar! There are rules that also apply there.
For example.... if you eat too many carbohydrates in a meal and your body has enough energy (ATP: Adenesin TriPhosphate) you will make FATS for long term storage as opposed to making more glycogen for short term storage. Similarly, if you eat more protein than your liver can process, you will break the remainder down by DeAminating it. (DeAmination of dietary protein)
Your body needs energy. This is one of the defining characteristics of life itself. A living object requires energy. This energy is necessary for FAR more than allowing you to function through out your day as you would normally think (walking around, talking even the act of digestion)..... Every endogonic reaction in your body requires energy. Believe it or not, one third of your energy is actually spent just keeping sodium outside of you cells! Click here to see why you actually do NEED salt.
How does your body get energy? From your 'food' right? True,.... but only indirectly. To say food is a big oversimplification. Your body fuels itself via. 'Metabolic Pathways'
Here are a couple
* Glycolysis
Glycolysis is the breaking down of Glycogen. Glycogen is a way your body perfers to store carbohydrates (CHO's). Your body can store around 400grams of Glycogen. It is literally stored in your muscle tissue. Glycogen is stored for short term energy. You can burn your full reserve in less than 2 hours of intense activity.
* DeAmination This is the process of making energy by breaking apart your actual proteins for energy. These proteins include dietary proteins (the ones you consume) and even actual muscle tissue! This is something that we don't really want...... Good news is your body doesn't really want to do this either. It only does this when it NEEDS to (survival). In this process, the Amino group is torn off of Amino acids (the molecules that build proteins.) The remainder of the molecule is basically converted into Glucose (C6H12O6).
* Triglyceride Breaking Triglycerides are stored fats. (like a beer belly or Anna Nicole's thighs) This is the pathway we all would prefer. You're body really doesn't mind doing this actually. It takes MUCH less energy for your body to assemble a Fat molecule than a Muscle! Therefore, it is easier and more desired for your body to Break Fat bonds, than to go through DeAmination. The only problem.... it's much easier to build Glycogen than Fat :? Triglycerides are there for long term energy. When you are burning these.... you can feel the difference as opposed to glycogen. Fat burns slower than sugar. You will feel somewhat 'weaker' although still capable.
So, what's the key to burning fat; and why should I try to do it in the morning on an empty stomach?
In order to initiate the pathway of burning fats, you need to first burn all of your glycogen! This would require 1.5 - 2 hours of HEAVY exercise if your glycogen reserves are full. So you have a couple options to make this easier.
* 1. Make your last meal of the day one that has few carbohydrates (<10 Grams) While your sleeping, your body is feeding off stored glycogen. As you wake, your body will have it's reserves of these glycogens at the lowest point that they will be through-out the day. (you start replenishing it when you eat breakfast) This is an ideal point at which to do cardio because it will the easiest time to make your body initiate Triglyceride breaking.
* 2. Do your cardio immediately following an intense 45-60 minutes weight session. You feed off glycogen while you are lifting.... same story here.
* it takes 48 hours to completely fill glycogen reserves from "E". It would be ideal to adjust your diet and routine in such a way that you can keep these reserves in check! This will allow you to use your metabolic pathways to your own advantage.
*DeAmination of Skeletal muscle tissue occurs when you are so active that your Triglyceride breaking is not producing enough energy support your needs at that point in time. (or you have zero fats left laugh.gif ) This is why there is a 'target' heart rate for cardio. (an upper bound as well as the lower.) For this reason... I perfer HIIT Cardio. Once your heart rate is elevated enough, you have short INTENSE bursts followed by short lower intense intervals.
These are rules for "breaking down" molecules (fat/carbs/proteins). The way we "Build" molecules is some-what similar! There are rules that also apply there.
For example.... if you eat too many carbohydrates in a meal and your body has enough energy (ATP: Adenesin TriPhosphate) you will make FATS for long term storage as opposed to making more glycogen for short term storage. Similarly, if you eat more protein than your liver can process, you will break the remainder down by DeAminating it. (DeAmination of dietary protein)