Day 283- Keep it Simple- How to Loose Weight

The biggest question that I get asked from people is, "how can I loose weight." Many are surprised that my answer has nothing to do with starving yourself, working out until you drop, or avoiding fat. It's actually quite simple (for the most part). If you want to loose weight you have to stop stimulating the body to release insulin in such large amounts. The more insulin your pancreas secretes the more likely your body will store fat in your fat cells and muscle cells and inhibit fat breakdown.

Simple carbohydrates and processed foods are the biggest cause of excess insulin release. Foods like white rice, pasta, or bread are some of the biggest culprits. These foods break down extremely fast in the body causing an insulin spike. According to Mercola, "increased insulin levels can cause insulin resistance, which is the number one underlying factor of nearly every chronic disease and condition known to man, including weight gain."

So let's back-up a bit and explain a little of the physiology of how the body handles food intake. When you eat your body has to break down the food into smaller molecules- whether it is carbohydrates, proteins, or fats. If it is a substance that the body can't break down like with fiber, alcohol, or toxins then it either passes straight through your body or it gets transported to the liver to be processed.

Carbohydrates broken down to it's simplified form is glucose, this process can be done directly in the gut or while in the liver. Carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, cereal, candy, soda, fruit, rice, etc will all be broken down into glucose. In the standard American diet we are consuming way to many carbohydrates, meaning we have an excess amount of glucose that our bodies are being forced to deal with. We need fuel for our bodies to function, glucose included, but when we have more fuel than our bodies need, then it can become a problem. Glucose in excess can cause many physiological issues, and is quite toxic to our bodies when found in large amounts in our blood stream.

Excess glucose in our blood stream triggers the beta cells in the pancreas to secret the hormone, insulin. The function of insulin is to move glucose to the cells, whether it be to the liver or the muscle cells where it is stored as glycogen, until the body is in need of more glucose.

But what happens when these cells become full? As is the case in a great deal of people. If you eat a diet high in carbohydrates and are not active, YOUR CELLS WILL BECOME FULL. So with no where else for the glucose to go it gets converted to fat! Now this a scenario when fat is actually unhealthy for the body. Eating a diet like the ones that I have talked about in the past that includes saturated fats from coconut oil, omega-3 fatty acids, and other healthy fats is not an issue, sugar is! What? Fat doesn't make you fat? Sugar does?

Author of the book "Good Calories/Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet Weight Control and Disease," Gary Taubes says, "It's not fat that is making Americans fat, it is the base of the food pyramid, the complex carbohydrates, foods such as bread, pasta, potatoes. It's the starches we were told we needed that make us pudgy."

When the body is exposed to a constant amount of excess glucose a condition called insulin resistance develops. Insulin resistance is when the body is producing large quantities of insulin to try to help remove the large amount of glucose that is in the blood stream. But since the cells are already full with all the glucose that they can handle the insulin receptor sites on the cells begin to become resistant to insulin. Since the glucose is unable to get into the cells, the pancreas releases even more insulin to try to help, but the receptor sites become even more resistant. The only option left is to move the glucose into the fat cells where it gets stored as fat.

Once the cells become resistant to insulin the muscle cells are no longer able to receive the amount of glucose that they need to function properly. Not only is this an issue but insulin also inhibits the action of lipase, which is the fat-burning enzyme; making it much more difficult to burn stored fat. So bottom line is that you are getting more fat while at the same time loosing muscle.

If no changes are made, such as dietary changes or exercise, then eventually the pancreas becomes run down and stops producing insulin all together- which then becomes what we call type-2 diabetes.

Not only can this situation make you fat, but there are a host of other health concerns that can be affected as well. The longer glucose stays in your blood stream the more havoc it can cause; leading to inflammation throughout the body, clogged arteries, a rise in triglycerides, nerve damage, and thyroid issues.

This all sounds great, right?

Well it doesn't have to be this way, there are two simple changes that you can make that will make huge differences in your body.

1. Exercise- get off the couch and get moving. Your liver and muscle cells can't fill up with glycogen if you are burning the glucose off. When you exercise, your muscles need glucose, so if need be they will actually up-regulate insulin receptors in order to get glucose into the cells.
2. Diet- Cut back on your carbohydrate intake! Remove all sugar, refined or processed foods from your diet and eat more protein, vegetables, and healthy fat.
   

Pura Vida!
Alica Ryan, NTP