Is My Fat Making Me Fat?
Part III - So what do I do now?
What are some guidelines to weight loss?
Losing more than 4 lbs in a week is discouraged because this
weight loss is made up of a ratio of about 60% Fat Free mass to less than 40%
fat deposits.
A more realistic weekly weight loss goal is about 1 pound
per week. This can be achieved by eating a balanced diet of proteins,
carbohydrates and fats.
The amount of calories consumed from these food groups
should be 200 to 500 kcal less than the calories needed for your daily energy
expenditure. An approach like this would result in fat mass being the almost exclusive
loser in your weight loss to the tune of 0.5 to 1.0 lbs of fat a week.[i]
In a year you could drop as mush as 25 lbs of fat alone.
And some interesting new research is showing what is
happening on the molecular level when people exercise or improve their diets to
affect change. A recent NY Times Well article highlighted research about the
methylation of genes and the epigenomic affects this has on muscle and fat
cells.[ii]
The methylation process makes it harder for genes to send or receive messages.
In one study, moderate exercise for 6 months showed effects in fat cells,
specifically on genes associated with fat storage.[iii]
Another study showed that participants
who biked until they had expended 400 calories showed methylation in their
muscles cells with genes associated with metabolism. The even more interesting
part of this study was that it provided further evidence to debunk the myth
that fat-burning workouts should be done at a lower intensity. Your body’s
energy systems work more off of storage. Meaning it will only not burn fat for
as long as it has stores of glucose / carbohydrates to use. Once these energy
sources are depleted, it has no choice but to switch over to fat burning
(aerobic energy) in the muscles, and to start breaking down fat in the body to
replace glucose stores. So if you can perform an activity for 30 minutes say,
doing it at as high of an intensity level as is possible and comfortable will
burn more calories and thus more fat. Doing it a lower intensity will not
result in more fat burned.[iv]
As Ms. Spears would say, you wanna the body? You better work!
Concluding Thought:
With a long-term approach
it’s not only possible to lose fat weight, but also make tangible changes to
your body on a molecular level.
[i] Physiology
of Sport and Exercise: Second Edition, Jack Wilmore, PhD, David L. Costill,
PhD, 1999, Human Kinetics
“How Exercise Changes Fat and Muscle Cells”, Gretchen
Reynolds, The New York Times, Jul. 31, 2013
“A six months exercise intervention influences the
genome-wide DNA methylation pattern in human adipose tissue.”, Rönn T, Volkov
P, Davegårdh C, PLoS Genet., Jun. 9, 2013
[iv] Physiology
of Sport and Exercise: Second Edition, Jack Wilmore, PhD, David L. Costill,
PhD, 1999, Human Kinetics
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