We all know that within our bodies, the constant flux of cellular decisions on fat and muscle help determine if we are overweight, normal weight, or maybe even too lean. Active challenged muscles are rich in mitochondria that are energy centers for the body. If our muscles are inactive, the cellular burning of fuel (calories) slows. If we constantly consume more food than our bodies are burning daily through metabolism, thermogenesis, and activity, we will increase the size of fat cells or create new fat cells.
In order to lose weight and develop a more healthy body, we must first learn what are the biological functions of fat. As most of you know, I have been obsessed with gaining or at least maintaining my current level of lean muscle mass in my body. While on the week away from home at the beach this past week, I learned more about fat than muscle. Although I walked on the beach daily for a couple of hours, I always returned to the condo with my kids, my wife, and a full very well stocked kitchen. I always eat more at the beach.
Join me below for a quick look at what I think are the 4 major functions of fat and why we need to correctly understand these functions in order to begin a body change to more muscle and less fat.
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Fat Loss is a Biological Process
In order to better understand how to lose body fat, we need to learn more about why we have it. Yes, fat is necessary and important for us. We know the difference between visceral and subcutaneous fat. We also now know that a very small fraction of subcutaneous fat is brown fat that is very active user of calories to maintain a set point of body temperature. Babies have more brown fat in their early life than adults on a percentage basis. Women have more than men as adults.
Visceral fat is needed for protection of our internal organs. However, most of us have way too much visceral fat. In weight loss, we must lose more initial fat from this visceral level before we can begin to see vast changes in our subcutaneous fat. You will never lose all visceral fat but you must drop it with a very balanced diet that is low in sugars, moderate in carbs (30-40% of total), and organic in nature.
Eliminate the Reasons for Fat Gain
Inside our bodies, we must establish an environment that eliminates the need for storage of fat. We need to make it as easy as possible for our bodies to function as evolution has dictated in changing food into energy and allowing it to be burned in our mitochondria. Excess processed foods creates havoc in our systems. We are now learning that other factors undermine this simpler evolutionary process.
Toxins in our Body
One mechanism that our body has adapted to is more and more toxins in our foods, water, and environment. To protect our vital organs, evolution has charged fat cells with the function of garnering most of these toxins and holding them in their cellular jails until it is safe to release it back into the blood and have the liver to filter and purge it from our systems in a variety of ways. People who are vastly overweight and begin a crash diet often cause this natural pathway to be altered and it can create trouble for the body if too many toxins are released at one time. Slow and steady weight loss with active exercise that includes endurance, strength, and speed drills provides the best method for activating the most muscle cells and beginning the conversion of fat to energy.
Lipids and Cholesterol
Our fat cells are also storage points for lipids and cholesterol. Our body is amazing in that it can shuttle cholesterol into our fat cells when there is too much in our blood system. However, once our fat cells also become overloaded, our biological system has no chose but to increase the size of the fat cell or to divide the cell and create yet another one. Each time this happens, it shows up in our clothes and when we step on the scales. We know that excess lipids and cholesterol leads to insulin resistance and possibly diabetes.
Hormonal Imbalance for both Men and Women
Hormonal imbalance of estrogen in women and testosterone in men can reduce bone mass, create cognitive problems, impair sexual functioning, and accelerate the aging process. It is in the fat cells that most of these two hormones are created. Yes, there are other organs involved and they most often initiate the process but as our hormones drop too low or become imbalanced, it drastically effects our bodies ability to lose weight/fat.
Conclusions
So before we can reduce our fat percentage in our bodies and lose weight, we must address these three major factors. Our diets and exercise programs must begin to isolate each reason for fat gain and retention and then address these three areas in very specific ways. In future diaries I will address each of these issues in more detail. There are probably many readers here on DKos who know way more than me on these subjects but I will attempt to learn more as I research them for all of us.
Thanks for reading.