When it is time to eat I am usually the first one there. I love food, but since I dealt with cancer I found some determination to be healthy and change my eating habits. I have learned first hand how sugar can ease nerves, cause elation, and even relieve pain. Sugar is directly involved in the serontonin neurotransmitters in the brain, thus it is a hard addiction to crack. Sugar also stops the white blood cells in their tracks which are needed to gobble up abnormal cells in your body like cancer cells. It is important to keep in focus what we are trying to loose and why. I wanted to loose fat so I would have less weight to carry around on my bad hip and hopefully avoid surgery. I also want to keep my muscle and energy up, so I can keep up with my two little boys. There is a lot of misinformation out there on weight loss, so I took the time to study and learn what healthy and safe options are available.  The options I chose had to have research to back them up. I found a lot of research on fat burning from just decreasing your intake of carbohydrates and fats, fasting once a week (calories 600 on fast day and only if cleared by medical provider), supplements, types of foods, warm bath, certain spices, and particular type of exercises that drives fat burning. 

     There is two different types of fat in your body. Brown fat the good and white fat the bad. Brown fat is composed of several small lipid (fat) droplets and a large number of iron-containing mitochondria (the cell’s heat-burning engine). The iron, along with tiny blood vessels, gives this fat its brownish appearance. Brown fat is usually found in the front and back of the neck and upper back. The purpose of brown fat is to burn calories in order to generate heat this is called non-shivering thermogenesis. That’s why brown fat is often referred to as the “good” fat, since it helps us burn, not store, calories.  Adults who have comparatively more brown fat tend to be younger and slender. You generate brown fat by: exercising, which can convert white-yellow fat to a more metabolically active brown fat; getting enough high-quality sleep, as proper melatonin production influences the production of brown fat; and   studies, of both capsaicin and capsinoids (peppers) increase brown fat thermogenesis in humans through the activation of a specific receptor found in the oral cavity and gastrointestinal tract. Stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, which releases noradrenaline- driving thermogenesis and fat loss. In addition, other studies showed that a single ingestion of capsinoid can activate brown fat thermogenesis., while longer term ingestion of roughly six weeks increased brown fat-dependent thermogenesis and reduced body fat. Interestingly, this second study showed brown fat-driven fat loss in individuals that had a low amount of brown fat before the study began demonstrating that the long-term intake of capsinoids can also increase the amount of brown fat in the body.  

       White fat is composed of a single lipid droplet and has far less mitochondria and blood vessels, thus resulting in its lighter white or yellow appearance. White fat is the predominant form of fat in the body, originating from connective tissue. White fat has many purposes. It provides the largest energy reserve in the body. It’s a thermal insulator and cushion for our internal organs, and cushions when we fall on our behind. It is a major endocrine organ, producing one form of estrogen as well as leptin, a hormone that helps regulate appetite and hunger. It’s also got receptors for insulin, growth hormone, adrenaline, and cortisol (stress hormone). White fat is found, open your eyes, you know where it’s found.  In women, excess fat accumulates around the hips, thighs, buttocks, and breasts until perimenopause (the 40s), when fat is redistributed to the abdomen as well. Men tend to gather excess fat primarily in the belly region most of their lives. An excess of white fat inside the belly (visceral fat) is associated with metabolic syndrome—a group of symptoms that signal an increased risk for heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Excess white fat throughout the body is associated with an increased risk of breast, colon, esophageal, gall bladder, and pancreatic cancer. It’s also associated with sleep apnea, and physical disabilities such as knee arthritis. Here’s how much white fat a “normal-weight” person would carry throughout a lifetime: Men’s body fat range is 15 to 25 percent; women’s is 15 to 30 percent.  You generate white fat by: consuming too many calories and expending too few calories. White fat is very important to our survival. It’s a matter of how much and where it’s located. You want to control your visceral fat level (keeping your waist circumference to less than 35 inches if you’re a woman, and to less than 40 inches if you’re a man) and keep your total body fat within the normal ranges for each gender.

White fat does interacts with brown fat. New research shows that when people overeat, they not only increase their total amount of white fat, but the overconsumption results in their brown fat becoming dysfunctional and thus unable to burn calories.

    The simplest way to loose weight and fat is to reduce what goes in your mouth. One pound of fat equals about 3,500 calories, so for a weekly loss of 2.2 pounds, or one kilogram, decrease your diet by 1100-calorie over seven days or daily caloric intake by 158 calories. I do recommend a slow weight loss because your brain does not go into starvation mode and you are less likely to regain it.  The trick is finding healthy foods you will still enjoy and make it a lifestyle. It is important to take a multivitamin with mineral and vitamin B supplement may also be necessary depending on the amount of calories you are eating. 

     Drink Water! Drinking a lot of water is routinely put forward as a potential weight-loss method. A few recent studies have shown that water consumption provided a sympathetic nervous system stimulus, which increased the metabolic rate by activating thermogenesis, which in turn boosted total-body energy expenditure. Another study looked at whether water-induced thermogenesis translated into actual weight loss, they specifically looked at the influence of drinking roughly six additional cups of water per day on thermogenesis and fat loss. Interestingly, each subject demonstrated a significant improvement in bodyweight, body mass index and body composition at the end of the study, establishing the positive role of water-induced thermogenesis on weight loss.  

     Caffeine and Peppers are foods that have been studied and shown to increase metabolism with fat burning effects.  If you can't take the heat try something sweet, as in sweet peppers, which contain capsinoids, compounds that also stimulate the TRPV1 receptors on brown fat and therefore crank up calorie burning as well as the breakdown of white fat. Studies in small rodents and humans show these compounds also decrease body fat. And, there are a few other compounds found in common spices that have chemical structures similar to capsaicin and are therefore expected to act in a similar manner and increase calorie burning while reducing body fat over time. These include piperine in black and white pepper, gingerols, shogaol, zingerone and 6-paradol found in ginger.

      Additionally, by increasing protein intake at meals and decreasing fat and carbohydrates intake you will consume more calories inorder to digest the food. Digesting, absorbing and utilizing the nutrients from the food you eat takes energy, in the form of calories. The calories burned from these processes are the thermic effect of feeding (TEF).  While eating, each macronutrient has a different caloric cost. Digesting fat requires little, just 0 to 3 percent of the calories you consume from fat are burned during digestion. And obese people burn considerably fewer calories while digesting fat than lean people. Carbohydrates require a little more energy- approximately five to 10 percent of the calories you consume are burned during digestion. Protein requires the most calories- approximately 20 to 30 percent of the calories you consume are burned while your body digests and uses the protein you eat. Therefore, replacing some of the fat and carbohydrate in your diet with protein, while keeping your total calorie intake the same, should increase the total number of calories you burn every day due to an increase in TEF.  Not all fats are bad, there are sources of dietary fat that contain additional compounds that also drive thermogenesis. One of the more potent ones being oleuropein, a polyphenolic found in extra-virgin olive oil. Oleuropein stimulates the sympathetic nervous system to secrete noradrenaline, which increases production of UCP-1, the protein that stimulates energy expenditure via thermogenesis.

     Perhaps a nice warm bath? Immersing yourself in a warm bath causes blood to drive into the core due to the increased pressure on the skin blood vessels from the weight of the water compared to the weight of air. This increases the delivery of blood to the heart, resulting in the release of a hormone called “atrial natriuretic peptide” (ANP) In addition to increasing diuresis (urine production) ANP also stimulates fat loss. You don’t have to stay in the bath long, either— as little as 15 minutes will do. 

       Exercise smarter not longer

         The most well-established exercise thought for fat loss asserts that exercise consumes energy that is replenished when the body oxidizes (burns) stored carbohydrates or fat. The oxidation of the carbohydrates and fats burns them into the energy required to pay for the energy deficit created by exercise. As a result, the more calories burned during exercise results in more body fat burned to restore energy. So you might assume, based on this knowledge, that burning as many calories as possible with more cardiovascular exercise would improve your physique more rapidly-making you leaner in no time at all. I wish this was true however theory and reality don’t exactly agree. The major deficiency with this approach being that extensive cardiovascular training drives your biochemical system into a catabolic state. Catabolic states is breaking down fats into fatty acids, proteins into amino acids, even glycogen or other sugars down into glucose. This is in your blood stream and then converted back to fat once the exercise is over. 

       There are other ways to burn plenty of calories and body fat without promoting muscle breakdown, such as high-intensity interval training (HIIT). HIIT involves extreme interval training for approximately 15-30 minutes that entails working at 80-90 percent of your maximum heart rate for roughly one minute, accompanied by less-intense recovery periods such as walking at 40-50 percent of your maximum heart rate, also for approximately one minute. This approach is in sharp contrast to the typical cardiovascular exercise that is mostly done at a moderate intensity, for instance walking at 60-70 percent of your maximum heart rate. Interestingly, studies have found that subjects performing HIIT burned significantly more body fat than those who did standard cardio programs1 while also promoting an anabolic environment that supports muscle growth. This exercise increases Brown fat to increase thermogenesis and the glucose that is released into the blood stream in this exercise is burned up instead of stored.

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    I have worked with numerous patients trying to loose weight and found some exciting fast ways to loose weight like hcg and atkins. There are supplements out now that do not use stimulants to loose weight. The bottom line is the person that wants to loose weight has to be READY to do the work needed to loose weight. It can be done I have helped many people find the right path for their weight lose goals and it is one of the best age defying treatments there is.

    Calorie calculators are helpful to determine the number of calories you should be eating which assesses your height, gender, and activity level. It is critical to be honest with yourself and keep an accurate food diary. Put everything on it and tally up the calories at the end of the day. Myfitnesspal is a great phone app for tracking how many carbs and calories are in each thing you eat. The fit bit is also a great method for a more accurate tracking of activity and calory consumption.

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