Water : the most potent fat burner – Part II

Surprisingly, water also happens to be one of the keys to the mental processes behind fat-burning. Often when the sensation of hunger is felt - a neurological signal generated by the brain - the actual underlying condition can at times be dehydration. The brain only senses it needs more energy for digestion and waste metabolism. Energy can come from calories, obviously, but it can also come from water indirectly.

Water restores metabolic functions which generate energy. Simply drinking water the next time you feel those afternoon or evening hunger signals may eliminate the desire to eat - the signal may be from the brain that your liver requires energy.

Digestion and metabolism are actually the most energy-draining process in the human body. If you can ensure that the organs work at optimum efficiency, it can lead to reduced instances of “false hunger” signals as well as better fat loss via less needless calories consumed.

Water comprises about 60% of the human body’s overall mass. Muscle is over 75% water. Like protein, also a key component in muscle, ingesting more water will not directly lead to more muscle mass. However, without adequate water you cannot build lean muscle mass.

On the other hand, body fat is only 15% water. Fat is the most inactive tissue in the body until processed for fuel. One of the reasons for this is the lack of water within a fat cell. Your body is basically a bio electric machine and water is a conduit for neuroelectrical processes. Less water means less cellular activity.

It is suggested that one liter of water should be consumed in a day for every 20 Kgs of bodyweight. This may well be over the ‘eight glass per day’ rule, but takes into account the additional dehydration due to exercise, consumption of coffee and other dehydrating substances. So it is better to err on the higher side than lesser. And do remember to spread out the consumption of water throughout the day, rather than guzzling a lot at one go.

Water : the most potent fat burner – Part I

The fat-burning cycle begins with hydration. Without proper hydration, the kidneys cannot function at their optimal level. Over 189 liters of blood per day is filtered through a pair of healthy kidneys.

The kidneys depend upon hydration in the form of ingested water to properly execute their functions. When water intake is too low, kidney performance suffers and the liver is taxed to help the waste removal process. Here, it is to be remembered that the liver’s job is only in part waste removal, but its primary job is to metabolize fat.

If the liver is not allowed to do its job of fat metabolization due to dehydration, fat-burning slows down considerably. In some cases it can virtually stop completely, halting any weight loss and damaging both sets of organs in the process.

This entire fat metabolism cycle hinges on hydration. When you consider the fact that you are holding on to excess water right now, it can become a bit confusing. How can you be dehydrated and hold water weight? The biochemical processes behind this are considerably complex, and this is just one example. Another is how drinking water releases stored water and yet manages to hydrate the body at the same time. At a layman’s level, it’s sufficient to know that water is a vital component of fat-burning.

Things become even more complicated when you consider that many fat-burning agents like caffeine are dehydrating agents as well. Coffee dehydrates the body, yet it can also accelerate fat loss, especially when consumed prior to exercise. Therefore, what is required is an increase in water intake for any dehydrating agents consumed.

For example, simply drinking a glass of pure water along with your coffee can offset the dehydration effects while still allowing caffeine to work its magic in the fat-burning process. The more dehydrating agents you consume, greater amounts of water are required.

…to be continued in Part II

Walking for fat loss: the right posture and form

Walking is one of the most convenient and safe exercises to lose fat and stay fit. The quantum of fat loss may be lower when compared to other rigorous forms of exercise, but walking is definitely more comfortable and easy. The posture and form are the two critical considerations while walking and this post would help you get both of them absolutely right.

American College of Sports Medicine, one of the most respected authorities in the field of exercise, has issued the following guidelines to enhance the fitness walking experience. Read on, take a printout and memorize each point, so that next time you walk the fitness walk…

• Head Position: Head should always be kept up and centered, keeping the chin slightly elevated and the eyes looking forward. Just as with running, the jaw and face muscles should remain relaxed at all times.

• Shoulders and Chest: Shoulders should be kept back and relaxed. Just as with running, the body should be kept “tall.” The chest should be lifted upward slightly. This, with the shoulders held back, helps maintain a straight upright posture.

• Arm Action: Arms should be bent approximately 90-degrees at the elbow. They should be kept close to the body during the swing and should not cross the body. Crossing the body allows for torso rotation and loss of energy and forward momentum. The swing of the arm should come entirely from the shoulders. At the top of the forward swing, the hand should be about level with the breastbone. At the bottom of the backward swing, the hand should come back just behind the hip.

• Hand Position: The hands should never be clenched or held in a fist, which adds tension to the body. Hands should be relaxed and cupped, with slight contact made between the thumb and forefinger.

• Abdominals and Hips: The navel should be pulled in gently toward the spine. The hips should be “tucked” slightly forward, directly beneath the spine. This helps protect the lower back and aids in achieving a straight, upright position. The power of the walk should come from focusing on the straight forward-and-back motion of the hips, not the thighs.

• Knee action: The knee should follow a natural in-line arcing swing from the hip and should never be forced above its natural lift. The lower leg should swing in a natural forward arc from the knee. Forcing the knees beyond their natural swing could lead to over striding.

• Stride length: Stride length should be as close to natural as possible. Don’t over- or understride. Both can lead to increased risk of injury.

• Footplant: Since the forward momentum of walking is considerably less than when running, the focus on the footstrike should be to land firmly on the heel first. The ball of the foot follows, and the push-off should occur from the upper portion of the ball of the foot and the toes. However, just as in running, a minimal of inward or outward turn should be maintained throughout the duration of the walk.

• RELAX: Whether you are a runner or a walker, a novice or a veteran; following these guidelines can help reduce your risk of injury and lessen the loss of energy caused by tension and poor mechanics. This will allow more energy to be focused where it counts: relaxing and enjoying the exercise.

As with any exercise, a proper warm-up and cool-down, which should include both a cardiovascular and flexibility component is recommended.

In my next posts, I will be writing about the different intensity levels in walking, and how they have different effects on the body.

Doubtful Weight Loss Products – Beware!

Mentioned below is a list of doubtful or illegal weight loss products, which, as per FDA’s advice, the consumers should not buy or use.

These products contain any of the following undeclared active pharmaceutical ingredients:

* fenproporex -- a controlled substance not approved for marketing in the U.S.
* fluoxetine -- an antidepressant available by prescription only
* bumetanide -- a potent diuretic available by prescription only
* furosemide -- a potent diuretic available by prescription only
* rimonabant -- a drug not approved for marketing in the U.S.
* cetilistat -- an experimental obesity drug not approved for marketing
in the U.S.
* phenytoin -- an antiseizure medication available by prescription only
* phenolphthalein -- a solution used in chemical experiments and a
suspected cancer-causing agent that is not approved for marketing in the U.S.

The health risks posed by these products include high blood pressure, seizures, tachycardia (rapid heartbeat), palpitations, heart attack, and stroke.

Here is the FDA's full list of all 72 tainted weight loss products:

1. 2 Day Diet
2. 2 Day Diet Slim Advance
3. 2x Powerful Slimming
4. 3 Day Diet
5. 3 Days Fit
6. 3x Slimming Power
7. 5x Imelda Perfect Slimming
8. 7 Day Herbal Slim
9. 7 Days Diet
10. 7 Diet
11. 7 Diet Day/Night Formula
12. 8 Factor Diet
13. Eight Factor Diet
14. 21 Double Slim
15. 24 Hours Diet
16. 999 Fitness Essence
17. BioEmagrecim
18. Body Creator
19. Body Shaping
20. Body Slimming
21. Cosmo Slim
22. Extrim Plus
23. Extrim Plus 24 Hour Reburn
24. Fasting Diet
25. Fatloss Slimming
26. GMP
27. Herbal Xenicol
28. Imelda Fat Reducer
29. Imelda Perfect Slim
30. JM Fat Reducer
31. Lida DaiDaihua
32. Meili
33. Meizitang
34. Miaozi MeiMiaoQianZiJiaoNang
35. Miaozi Slim Capsules
36. Natural Model
37. Perfect Slim
38. Perfect Slim 5x
39. Perfect Slim Up
40. Phyto Shape
41. Powerful Slim
42. ProSlim Plus
43. Reduce Weight
44. Royal Slimming Formula
45. Sana Plus
46. Slim 3 in 1
47. Slim 3 in 1 Extra Slim Formula
48. Slim 3 in 1 Extra Slim Waist Formula
49. Slim 3 in 1 M18 Royal Diet
50. Slim 3 in 1 Slim Formula
51. Slim Burn
52. Slim Express 4 in 1
53. Slim Express 360
54. Slim Fast (This product is not related to the Slim-Fast line of
meal replacement and related products.)
55. Slim Tech
56. Slim Up
57. Slim Waist Formula
58. Slim Waistline
59. Slimbionic
60. Sliminate
61. Slimming Formula
62. Somotrim
63. Starcaps
64. Super Fat Burner
65. Superslim
66. Super Slimming
67. Trim 2 Plus
68. Triple Slim
69. Venom Hyperdrive 3.0
70. Waist Strength Formula
71. Xsvelten
72. Zhen de Shou


Source: FDA, US Dept of Health & Human Services, News Release

Weight loss drugs & weight loss supplements: Chromium Picolinate

Chromium Picolinate is now widely used as a nutritional supplement in weight loss to improve the efficiency of insulin. It is a combination of the element Chromium and Picolinic acid. Trace amounts of naturally occurring Chromium are found in everyday foods like meat, poultry, fish, and whole-grain breads. The processing of foods strips them of natural Chromium.

Chromium Picolinate first gained popularity in US and several effects like weight loss, mood enhancement, energy promotion, increase in life span, and even the prevention of acne were attributed to it. The advertising claims included weight loss, fat melting, drastically reducing the appetite, and even increasing the metabolism. It has also been touted as a safe alternative to steroids, for increasing muscle and strength.

Medical studies conducted on animals demonstrated that inadequate levels of Chromium lead to a decrease in the effectiveness of insulin and subsequent damage to insulin-dependant systems. This reaffirmed the conclusion that trace amounts of chromium are needed to help in the transport of blood glucose across cell membranes. The combination of Chromium with Picolinic acid helped in efficient Chromium absorption and a daily intake of 130 mcg of Chromium was recommended by the health authorities.

Three theories are now widely held:

· Chromium Picolinate improves insulin efficiency, which causes an increase in the production of Seratonin that subsequently reduces appetite
· Chromium regulates the fat formation processes in the body, preventing excess fat from being generated
· Chromium Picolinate enhances protein synthesis, thus stimulating muscle growth

A study by Trent and Thieding-Cancel (1995) concluded that there exists absolutely no link between body fat, insulin insensitivity, and Chromium Picolinate, and did not recommend the supplement as a useful aspect of weight-loss programs (Trent & Thieding-Cancel, 1995).

Chromium Picolinate is not only an ineffective tool for weight loss, but may in fact be counterproductive in dieting endeavors (Grant et al, 1997).

At the end of an eight week period, two groups were tested for strength, fat-free mass, and muscle mass. The experimental group received CP, and control group did not; while all measures increased as a result of resistance training, there were no significant differences between the experimental and control groups. Additionally, there was no effect on fat loss in either group (Lukaski et al, 1996).

Another study specifically refutes claims that Chromium Picolinate produces results analogous to anabolic steroids, and discourages the use of the supplement among athlete populations (Walker et al, 1998).

However, one study did reveal Chromium Picolinate as an effective aid for weight loss. Harris et al (1998) examined dietary supplementation with Chromium Picolinate and lipotropics such as L-carnitine. The combination of supplementation and exercise significantly increased fat loss as compared to the control group. The results of this study were available only in abstract form and offered only these preliminary results (Harris et al, 1998).

Several studies using animal subjects also assert fat loss and muscle growth (Mooney et al, 1995; Lindemann et al, 1995).

However, scientific evidence that Chromium Picolinate can accomplish the same feat in humans is still rare…

(Reference sources for the researches quoted above will be emailed on request)

Weight loss drugs & Weight loss supplements - Orlistat

Orlistat is an intestinal lipase inhibitor that causes peripheral action in gastrointestinal tract. In simple words, this means Orlistat reduces fat absorption in the intestine – 30% of fat eaten is malabsorbed. The fats in the diet have to be broken down into smaller pieces before the body is able to process and subsequently store them. Orlistat works by blocking the enzyme that breaks down fats in the diet. This undigested fat then passes out of the body in the bowel movement. However, Orlistat is not able to block the absorption of calories from sugar and other non-fat foods, so total intake of calories would still need to be restricted. It should also be noted here that Orlistat can cause gastrointestinal problems and the user must strictly be on a low-fat, reduced calorie diet to prevent them.

Studies have shown that Orlistat is capable of producing 70% more fat loss than an intensive lifestyle program alone. Orlistat is associated with reductions in cholesterol over that to be expected with weight loss, falls in blood pressure and serum triglycerides, as well as improvements in insulin sensitivity. Taking Orlistat can also help prevent the user from regaining the weight he or she had lost.

Absorption of fat soluble vitamins like A, D, E & K may be compromised with long term usage, but levels of these vitamins remain in the normal range after four years of treatment with Orlistat. However, to be on the safer side, it would be advisable to take a multivitamin supplement at night after a year of treatment, to compensate for any issues.

Use of this drug is indicated is indicated for obese patients with an initial body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m2 or ≥ 27 kg/m2 in the presence of other risk factors (e.g., hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia).

The common gastrointestinal adverse effects include Oily Spotting, Flatus with Discharge, Fecal Urgency, Fatty/Oily Stool, Oily Evacuation, Increased Defecation and Fecal Incontinence.

Please note that this posting does not include all possible adverse effects. Therefore, before using Orlistat, check with your doctor and inform him/her about all the medications you are taking.

Weight loss drugs & Weight loss supplements - Sibutramine

Sibutramine is a derivative of fluoxetine. Apart from having a mild thermogenic action, it is also a proven central appetite suppressant. Sibutramine is capable of acting as a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) and Selective Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor (SNRI). In simple words, this means that Sibutramine works by acting on the area in your brain that is responsible for controlling hunger and providing you with a sense of fullness and satisfaction.

Sibutramine has been shown to produce 50-100% additional weight loss above that identified with significant lifestyle changes. Obesity related medical conditions such as Type 2 Diabetes, hypertension and sleep apnea are also believed to reduce in proportion to the weight lost. Also studies have shown that Sibutramine has a specific effect of raising HDL levels quite markedly.

Sibutramine should not be used if you have certain medical conditions. Before using this medicine, consult your doctor if you have: eating disorders (e.g., anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa), uncontrolled or poorly controlled high blood pressure, severe heart disease (coronary artery disease, history of heart attack, congestive heart failure, abnormal heart rhythms), and stroke. Also, Sibutramine should not be used with certain other weight loss medicines like diethylpropion and phentermine, since very serious interactions may occur.

When on Sibutramine, do not consume large amounts of beverages that contain caffeine (coffee, tea, colas, energy drinks like red bull, battery etc), since side effects like increased heart rate can get aggravated.

Please note that this posting does not include all possible interactions. Therefore, before using Sibutramine, inform your doctor about all the medications you are taking.

Weight loss drugs & Weight loss supplements - Hoodia

Hoodia is a natural supplement that is claimed to suppress the appetite and is widely promoted on the Internet, and recently made available in select shops in India too.

Hoodia is a spiny, succulent plant (a plant that retains water in its leaves and stems, like Aloe Vera) that grows in the Kalahari Desert, South Africa. For several years the natives have been chewing the plant to help ward off hunger during their long hunting trips. The Hoodia species with purported appetite-suppressing properties is Hoodia gordonii. In 1997, researchers isolated an extract of the plant called P57 the shortened version of oxypregnane steroidal glycoside P57AS3), which is believed to stimulate feelings of satiety in the brain.

Phytopharm, an English biopharmaceutical company, was licensed in 1997 to develop P57. Hoodia manufacturers and vendors often mention a trial showing that after two weeks, subjects taking Hoodia ate 1,000 fewer calories per day than those taking a placebo. However, the study involved only 18 people, was never peer-reviewed or published; the study was sponsored by Phytopharm.

The only published study has been in rats, which consumed less food after P57 was injected into their brains (Brain Research, Sept. 10, 2004). Although that study shed some light on the extract’s activity (it affected neurons in the hypothalamus), the results clearly don’t apply to humans swallowing a pill or capsule.

Experts claim there aren’t enough Hoodia plants in the world to account for all the alleged Hoodia products on the global market. Therefore, some may contain little or no Hoodia gordonii, include the wrong plant parts, or use questionable plant sources.

We do not yet know the precise dose needed to achieve weight loss or the drug’s safe upper limit. There’s simply too little evidence to say whether any of the Hoodia now on the market works or is safe to use. We may know more down the road, but until then, you should probably avoid it.

Source: Dr. Celeste Robb-Nicholson, M.D, in the August 2008 Harvard Women’s Health Watch, a Health Publication issued by Harvard Medical School.

Is there a quick fix? May be yes, but not for most…

Fat loss at a very fast rate is technically possible but not many can tolerate the hunger, unfailingly stick to low calories and still manage to perform the high levels of exercises required. If at some point of time, you cave in and start binging, you would put on all the weight you lost and then some more – this would be true even when a very aggressive phase of dieting gets over.

Therefore it makes sense to go the moderate way and make slow but steady lifestyle changes. Aim at losing around 0.5 Kg of pure fat every week, and retaining your muscle mass all the while.

0.5 kg per week works out to 26 kgs in a year and that is indeed a huge fat loss. Now do you think that is slow or astonishing? And since you do not gain 26 kgs of fat overnight, you should not be expecting to lose it that fast either. So, the pursuing a quick fix for fat loss is worse than fat itself…

Belly fat can make you feel hungrier: the vicious circle

Dr. Yaiping Yang and his colleagues at the Lawson Health Research Institute (affiliated with The University of Western Ontario) have found that abdominal fat tissue can reproduce a hormone that stimulates fat cell production. In simple words, this might as well mean that the extra fat around the belly is capable of making the person hungrier, so that he eats more, which in turn causes even more fat around the middle.

The hormone responsible for this vicious cycle is called Neuropeptide Y (NPY). Earlier it was believed that only brain produces this hormone; Yang’s research now reveals that NPY is reproduced by abdominal fat tissue as well.

The traditional belief that has existed so far says that one of the main reasons why overweight people eat more food is because their brains produce the hormone NPY in excessive amounts.

The researchers hope this discovery will change in the way we think about and treat abdominal obesity. NPY, Neuropeptide Y, is the most powerful appetite-stimulating hormone known, which sends signals to the humans that they are constantly hungry.

However, Yang, a Professor in the Departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Physiology & Pharmacology at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry (University of Western Ontario), has evidence that abdominal fat is also capable of producing NPY.

Fat cells cannot replicate themselves, but NPY can increase the fat cell number by stimulating the replication of fat cell precursor cells, which can then change into fat cells. Quoting Yang, "this may lead to a vicious cycle where NPY produced in the brain causes you to eat more and therefore gain more fat around your middle, and then that fat produces more NYP hormone which leads to even more fat cells."

Being overweight, irrespective of where the fat is stored, is unhealthy. The disturbing point here is, because of its anatomical position and its byproducts, abdominal fat is considered to be the most dangerous. People predisposed to the ‘apple shape’ are at an elevated risk for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and some cancers.

The researchers will be soon investigating whether NPY produced by fat is released into the body's circulatory system and if NPY could potentially be transported in the blood to the brain, where it can act on the brain to stimulate feelings of hunger.

These findings were reported in a recent issue of The FASEB Journal.

All the more reason for you to realize that it is much better to prevent obesity than to go about treating the diseases caused by obesity.

TDEE : Total Daily Energy Expenditure

TDEE is the total amount of calories that you body needs, taking into account all your daily activities. I suggest that you first read my post on BMR, since BMR forms the basis for calculating TDEE.

Once you know your TDEE, all you need to make sure is you consume the exact number of calories to stay as you are, or consume less calories to lose fat or consume excess to put on weight.

Remember that the TDEE calorie total needs to be properly apportioned between the macronutrients to get the desired effect. The right ratio of carbohydrates, proteins and fats should constitute the TDEE calories. You can get the basics of macronutrient ratios in my earlier postings.

Meanwhile, here is a simple formula for calculating the TDEE.

TDEE = BMR x Activity Factor

Activity Factor List:

Sedentary life = BMR x 1.2 (little or no exercise,desk job)
Lightly active = BMR x 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active = BMR x 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = BMR x 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extra Active = BMR x 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or
2 X day training, marathon, football camp, etc.)

Abdominal fat : Part 2 – the science behind

Research indicates that abdominal fat cells are biologically active. In simple words, this means fat functions as an endocrine organ or gland, producing hormones and other substances that can affect the health. Although scientists are still to fully understand the roles of individual hormones, excess abdominal fat is confirmed to interfere with the normal balance and functioning of hormones.

Visceral fat also generates immune system chemicals called cytokines — two examples would be tumor necrosis factor and interleukin-6 — that can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Such biochemicals produced in the body can have harmful effects on cells’ sensitivity to insulin, blood pressure, and blood clotting.

Excess visceral fat is considered really harmful probably because of its location near the portal vein, which carries blood from the intestinal area to the liver. Substances released by visceral fat, including free fatty acids, enter the portal vein and travel to the liver, where they can influence the production of blood lipids. Visceral fat is directly linked with higher total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol, lower HDL (good) cholesterol, and insulin resistance.

You can read more on the harmful effects of abdominal fat here.

Now that we know how important it is to fight the fat, the starting point for bringing weight under control, in general, and combating abdominal fat, in particular, is daily moderate-intensity physical activity — at least 30 minutes per day (ideally up to 60 minutes per day) to control weight. Strength training (exercising with weights) may also help fight abdominal fat. Spot exercising, such as doing sit-ups, can tighten the abdominal muscles and pull the belly in, but it won’t burn the visceral fat.

As regards the diet, pay attention to your BMR & TDEE, and emphasize complex carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, and whole grains) and lean protein over simple carbohydrates such as white bread, polished white rice, and aerated soft drinks. Replacing saturated fats and trans fats with polyunsaturated fats can also help.

Abdominal fat: more sinister than the beer belly, paunch, spare tire, love handles, etc.

The extra Kgs of weight that you carry in your body, often park themselves in and around the abdomen. This is all the more true for people going through their middle years, since the proportion of Body fat storage to body weight increases. Of late, due to the modern lifestyles,this condition is also seen with alarming regularity in the younger generation.

As the waistline grows, so do the health risks. Abdominal fat, also technically referred to as the visceral, needs serious notice since it is a critical factor in the onset of several health problems. Visceral fat is worse than the subcutaneous fat – the one that you can grab with your hand. Visceral fat hides deep within the abdominal cavity, filling up the spaces between the various organs in the abdominal region.

Visceral fat has been shown to be associated with metabolic disturbances and increased risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. In women, it is also liked with breast cancer and the need for gallbladder surgery.

Generally speaking, the fat that is evident in the lower half of the body (as in those with the pear shape) is subcutaneous, while fat present in the abdominal area (as in those with the apple shape) is largely visceral. How and where the fat ends up in the body is influenced by several factors, primarily heredity and hormones.

The fortunate thing is that visceral fat reduces fairly easy with regular exercise and proper diet, with lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol levels as ensuing benefits. However, the subcutaneous fat around at the waist — the type that you can pinch with your fingers — can be really difficult to be rid of. Unless you are looking for six-pack abs, it’s generally not considered as much of a health threat as visceral fat – provided you are among the normal-weight people.

..to be continued in Part 2 (click the link)

The macro nutrient ratio: key to losing fat and adding muscle

Proteins, Carbohydrates and Fats are the macro nutrients and their optimal combination helps a lot in improving the muscle to fat ratio in your body.

Your every meal should be planned in such a way that it contains a lean protein, a starchy carbohydrate and a fibrous carbohydrate. Such a combination of protein and fiber lowers the pace of carbohydrate digestion, resulting in consistent energy levels and a sustained supply of nutrients to your body for energy, growth and maintenance. You also tend to eat lesser, in terms of quantity.

The idea that certain types of foods should not be consumed together in combination is just a myth. However, the contrary is true – certain foods, when taken together, can enhance each other’s utilization by the body’s digestive and absorptive processes.

Calorie balance is the most critical consideration when it comes to losing fat but it is not as simple as ‘calorie from anything is just a calorie’. There are other important variables in effective fat loss like the thermic effect of food, the effect of food on hormones and blood sugar levels and finally the macro nutrient ratio of each meal.

Therefore it is important that you calculate your calorie requirement first, and then apportion them into the proper ratios of protein, carbohydrate and fat. And always keep in mind the golden rule that proteins and carbohydrates should be eaten together.

A word of advice – there is NO single magic ratio is ‘the best’ and no single ratio will work for everyone all of the time. Many diet programs claim to offer the ‘perfect’ or ‘magical’ ratio which is the end-all answer to all body fat issues. This is the biggest con ever perpetrated in the annals of fitness history.

Common sense says that nutritional individuality will differ from person to person. Therefore, the macro nutrient ratios must be customized for each person - but there is a sensible point or marker where everyone can start. Going forward, each one should measure the progress and tweak the ratio accordingly.

The starting marker recommended is 55% carbohydrates, 30% proteins and 15% fat of the total calories required by your body. Total calorie requirement = BMR + Activity Induced Requirement (walking, exercising, working etc. Each activity burns a specific amount of calories per hour)

To know more about the body’s daily calories requirement, you can read my posting titled “Understanding the Basal Metabolic Rate : BMR”

Fat Cells in the body: the harsh truth

People are born with a genetically-predetermined number of fat cells. Some are born with more fat cells than the others. The person who was born with more fat cells is certainly at a disadvantage when compared to someone with less number of fat cells. It does sound unfair, but it is true.

The number of fat cells in the body can increase throughout life but it cannot ever decrease – the number will never go below the beginning mark! (Except through liposuction, which is unnatural). However, we are lucky to the extent that we can change the size of the fat cells. A person born with a large number of fat cells can shrink all of them, with the right nutrition and exercise and thereby become dramatically thinner and leaner.

Some of us are given more fat cells by heredity, and some fewer. But the final fat level is the result of environment, behavior as well as heredity. You can vary your final fat level a lot by what and how you eat, as well as what kind and how much exercise you do. No matter where you start from, you can transform your body totally. The most critical body part is your own mind. If you have the know-how and the will, you can perform miracles with your body.

Understanding the Basal Metabolic Rate : BMR

The basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy, in terms of the number of calories that the body burns at rest just to maintain normal body functions such as breathing, circulation, digestion, etc.

This is the minimum number of calories that you require to go through your day. If you consume the BMR amount of calories, be idle throughout the day, you will not be dipping into your fat reserves for energy. If you eat less than the BMR and be idle, some fat from your body will be used to meet the shortfall. Now, if you throw in some light exercise for more than 45 minutes, like walking for an hour (around 175-200 calories expense), and eat less than your BMR, a higher amount of fat will be burnt.

Total calorie requirement = BMR + Activity Induced Requirement (walking, physically working etc. Each activity burns a specific amount of calories per hour)

Therefore if total calorie intake from food is less that total calorie requirement, you lose fat. If the intake exceeds the requirement, you put on.

Calculating your BMR:

There are two formulas you can use to calculate your BMR. The Harris-Benedict formula is the one you will use if you don’t know your Lean Body Mass. If you know your LBM, through an accurate test like DEXA whole body scan, you can use the Katch McArdle formula for getting the most accurate calorie estimate.

Harris-Benedict formula

Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wt in kg) + (5 X ht in cm) - (6.8 X age in years)
Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X wt in kg) + (1.8 X ht in cm) - (4.7 X age in years)
Note: 1 inch = 2.54 centimeters
1 kilogram = 2.2 lbs.

Katch-McArdle formula

BMR (men and women) = 370 + (21.6 X lean mass in kg)

Some people are genetically gifted, like cars that burn lot of fuel even while idling. When they become active, they zoom fast and burn off fuel at an enormous rate. For the normal people, knowing the BMR, and keeping control of the calories eaten and spent, is the only way to avoid or losing body fat.

The type, pace, duration and the timing of exercise plays a crucial role in proper fat loss, and I shall be writing about them in my subsequent posts…

How much fat to lose per week: The safe limit

“Lose 40 kgs in 40 days” – I am sure you would have seen ads with such claims, and perhaps with even higher numbers. It may be possible but then you would be confusing weight loss with fat loss.

The human body contains 70% water and any diet that dehydrates can very quickly cause weight loss. Or the weight loss could come from muscles degradation. Both are technically undesirable and instead of dehydrating yourself or losing valuable muscle, you should aim to lose body fat and not body weight.

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) is generally considered to be the largest and most respected health, medical and exercise organization in the world. ACSM has a position statement on "Proper and improper weight loss programs" which recommends a weight loss goal of one to two pounds per week. In terms of body fat, that works out to about a half a percent per week.

It may appear to be infuriatingly slow, but it is the safest and most intelligent guidance on the amount of ideal fat loss.

Any weight loss caused by losing water will be gained back immediately when the body gets re-hydrated. As for the muscle loss, it leads to a slowing down of basal metabolism rate and makes the body go into a “survival mode” or a “starvation mode”. This can be real bad, since when you come out of a very low calorie diet, chances are you will certainly put back the weight you lost and at times even more.

There are physiological limitations to how quickly AND safely the body can lose fat - Do not strive for more than two pounds of fat loss per week.

The ideal time to burn the fat

The amount of glucose that is stored in the body is limited and can get depleted quickly. It is not possible for the body to meet the energy demands of the brain, the nervous system and other body parts for a sustained period of time, using only the stored glucose. After eating, when all the glucose the food has been stored away, and no more glucose is being absorbed from the intestine, the body begins rationing the use of now precious glucose.

The brain and nervous systems are vital and therefore they get small, requisite amounts to keep functioning. The use of glucose by other body organs is decreased. Nevertheless, the other organs of the body still need to work and therefore the body starts looking for an alternate source of energy.

At the end of a three-hour period after a meal, both glucose and insulin levels are low in the body. The amount of insulin present is not sufficient to prevent fats from being released into the bloodstream. This is the time when fat becomes the dominant source of energy for the body. This energy generating system is also known as ‘glucose sparring’ and it works with the assistance of a hormone called Glucagon. Glucagon sends out two signals – one to the liver to release glucose and the other to the adipose tissues to release fats into the blood. Therefore three hours after a meal is the ideal time to exercise for fat burning.

Fat burning: The crucial stage

Before you read this post, I recommend you read two of my earlier posts – “Fat loss: The stages involved” and “The first step: Separating fat from the fat cells”. This will put you in the right perspective and help you understand the big picture.

Fat oxidation is the technical term for burning of fat. Once fats are released into the blood as FFAs by the process of lipolysis, they are transported to the site where they can be burnt as a source of energy. These sites are called mitochondria and they are found in the muscle cells.

To get the fat into the muscle cells is a difficult and slow process. Fat moves slowly into the cell, as it must cross the cell membrane and then transported into the furnace of mitochondria. Fat is burnt in the mitochondria, just like a piece of wood, to provide energy for the muscle. The substance that helps in carrying the fat into the furnace is called Carnitine.

The rate of fat oxidation depends on the rate of lipolysis. When there is an abundance of fat being released into the bloodstream, a correspondingly higher amount of fat can be taken up for burning. However, when lipolysis is hindered due to factors such as the presence of high levels of insulin in the body etc., fat available for oxidation also becomes less.

In simple terms, larger amount of fat can be burnt about three hours after a meal, and through low-intensity exercises such as walking, for a period of at least 60 minutes. The 60 minutes mark is on the higher side, but remember that lipolysis is not only difficult but also slow. The rate of lipolysis and oxidation would vary from individual to individual and for some even 45 minutes would suffice. Besides, any form of burning requires oxygen and aerobic exercises enhance oxygen availability, apart from improving cardiovascular fitness.

The first step: Separating fat from the fat cells

To get the right perspective to this part, you should be reading this post immediately after my earlier one – “Fat loss: The stages involved”.

It is easy for the body to store fat but it is very difficult to remove it from the fat cells. When you eat fat, only 3% of it is used in digesting, breaking it down, transporting and storing. It has been shown in research that if you ate 50 grams cheese containing 12 grams fat, you would end up storing almost 11 grams of fat.

The first step in burning fat is its removal from the fat cells. This is perhaps the most difficult of the three steps involved in fat reduction. The technical term used for removing fat from the fat storage cells is lipolysis.

Exercises can provide the jump-start by activating a hormone called epinephrine(a catecholamine). Epinephrine binds to the fat cells to activate fat-breaking enzymes that allow the fat to move out from the fat cells and ooze into the blood. This process normally takes place two to three hours after a meal. Catecholamines (epinephrine and norepinephrine) and insulin are the major plasma hormones that regulate lipolysis in humans.

The fats are released into the blood in the form of Free Fatty Acids (FFAs). At this stage, another hormone, Glucagon, not only stimulates the release of FFAs into the blood stream but also inhibits release of glucose into the blood. (This is important since fat is the least preferred sourced of energy; fat is burnt only when there are no other energy sources available).

This is the underlying reason why fat-burning exercises should be done at least two to three hours after a meal. Also fat-burning exercises need to be of longer duration (60 minutes is ideal) since it takes about 15 minutes for the body to move the fat out of the storage area and transport it into the fat-burning sites in the muscles. This process works best during moderate to low intensity exercises when adrenaline levels are increased.

Make your choice: losing fat or building muscle

When you come across advertising or product promotions that scream, “Lose fat and build muscle in 30 days”, don’t ever fall for that. It is just a gimmick to fool the gullible. There has been, is or will be, no miracle that can actually live up to this claim. If at all, a big fat loss and huge muscle building ever happen simultaneously, it is only possible with a potent combination of drugs and steroids, and we are not going into that.

Losing fat and adding muscles are two opposing things, in terms of simple physiology. Fat loss is a catabolic process and building muscles is anabolic. To aid fat loss, there has to be a calorie deficit. Whereas, additional calories are needed to help the body build muscle. The kind of nutritional programs required to meet these contrasting goals are radically different.

So, if you are high in fat and wish to build a muscle-bound physique, get rid of the fat first. Then, making sure you stay lean, get on with a bodybuilding regime. If you try to achieve results in both departments, you would end up disappointed.

However, once you have built a good physique, with a high lean mass and low body fat percentage, it is quite possible to refine it further – you can see gains in lean mass and losses in body fat, at the same time. But this state is usually seen only in people with highly trained bodies.

Fiber: A good weapon in the battle of the bulge

High-fiber foods can play an important role in fat control and fat loss. Many high-fiber, carbohydrate foods do not contain fat. Replacing fatty foods with high fiber foods helps in decreasing the amount of fat eaten. Less fat eaten equals less far storage and an higher amount of energy is required to be spent by the body in breaking down high-fiber, carbohydrate foods.

Moreover, fibrous foods absorb more water than non-fibrous foods and create a sense of ‘full stomach’ after being eaten. So you end up eating less often after a high-fiber meal.This indirectly contributes to your efforts towards fat loss. A high fiber diet also reduces the risk of colon cancer, by decreasing the transit time of food in the intestine and thereby the exposure time of potential carcinogens in the food.

Some fibers bind to the bile acids in the gut and pull along the Cholesterol out of the guts along with the bile acids. This can decrease the amount of LDL (bad cholesterol) in the blood.

Oats, beans, lentils, legumes, peas, bananas and pears are all good sources of fiber.

On a rough count, about 30 grams of fiber per day should be the minimum requirement in your diet. However, be cautious of ingesting too much fiber for fat loss than the recommended amount – after all, too much of even a good thing is bad.

How much fat in diet per day is ideal ?

As you must have realized from my previous posts, ‘Know your body fat: The different types’ and ‘Different types of fat in your food: the good and the bad’, fat is a very crucial part of the human body. We cannot function without fat, since the body uses it as the source of energy during the day – while sitting, standing, doing light tasks, working at the desk or even sleeping.

The amount of fat thus used up by the body is too insignificant to promote fat loss. So the answer to a fit and lean body lies in controlling the intake of fat through the food.

An average human body can easily burn around 41 grams of fat for women and 60 grams for men, each day – doing nothing.

When you eat more than these amounts needed by the body for daily processes, it becomes surplus fat and gets stored. Either you burn it off through exercises or let it build up on and on. It’s that simple.

PS: The figures of 41 grams and 60 grams may slightly vary, depending on the individual’s physique and fitness levels. But I feel that it is better to err on the lower side, if you are looking for results.

Body fat storage: lucky men, unlucky women

When it comes to burning of stored fat in the body, men have it easier than women. It is primarily due to location of body fat storage dictated by genetic codes evolved over millions of years and the gender-different hormones.

Men tend to store the body fat in their abdominal region, whereas the women store it around their hips and thighs.

When the primitive men were hunters-gatherers, they often had to go out on long journeys in search of food. The abdominal fat was the source of energy during those arduous, hungry days. Men with abdominal fat survived better than their thinner counterparts.

During times of famine, the survival rate of women who had larger amounts of fat in their hips and thighs were higher than the skinny ones. Besides, the fat was also essential and proved protective during pregnancy, as a long-term supply of energy.

Both these advantageous genetic traits got passed down the generations – evolution always favors the genetic traits that enhance survival.

The second deciding factor is the hormones. Men’s bodies produce Testosterone, which predisposes the fat to get stored on the stomach or central trunk region. Female bodies produce Estrogen, which promotes fat storage on hips, thighs and buttocks.

Abdominal body fat can be removed quite easily, through a comparatively easier regime of diet and exercise. However, the fat on hips and thighs is really hard to burn off for the women.

However, men need to realize that fat in the stomach region, accompanied by a diet high in fat can increase the risk of lower back pain, joint pain, shortness of breath, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and cancer of the colon…

Fat Management: Similar to managing a bank account

Managing your fat for Fat Loss is not much different from managing your bank account – except in this case, you wouldn’t want to do any savings.

If you earn more than you spend, you save; you start spending more than what you earn, you end up using your savings. It’s that simple - now, the calories that you consume in a day are your earning. The calories that your body burns as fuel is the spending. The fat accumulated in your body down the years is the savings.

So, to wipe out the savings, you can either earn less (consume less calories), spend more (burn more calories) or do both.

The next step is to understand your ‘spending’ and your ‘earning’. Just exactly how much is your expense, in terms of calories, per day? Unless you know what you are spending now, you wouldn’t be able to make the adjustments necessary to wipe out your savings.

Your ‘earning’ can easily be found by keeping a track of all that you eat and converting them into calories. Several calorie tables are available freely on the net to give you the calorie count of every imaginable food.

Just make sure that you record everything you eat in a typical day – morning coffee/tea, breakfast, lunch, sweets, evening snacks, tea/coffee, soft drinks, dinner, desserts, chocolates - list all of them down, find out the calorie count for each, and total them up. You can take an average day scenario for this calculation, but make sure you take the higher side – like Sunday, when you would tend to consume more.

Your ‘spending’ or your daily calorie requirement consists of three components.

1. Basal Metabolism Rate (BMR) – the calories required for powering your body’s various functions to remain alive.
2. Non-activity daily requirement – the calories required to just to go through the motions of the day, including the calories required to digest the food that you eat. (This is roughly 10% of the total calories you eat in a day).
3. Activity induced daily requirement – the calories used up by your body for various activities performed by you – this would include exercises, sports etc. You will need to figure out how many calories you burn while doing various activities.

In my next posts, I will be talking in depth about BMR, Non-activity and Activity induced requirements and also telling you how to measure them…

Different types of fat in food: the good and bad

Now that you know the different types of fat in your body (My earlier post - Know your body fat: The different types), let us look at the different types of fat in your food – where the saga of fat begins.

The three main types of fats commonly found in our food are Essential Fatty Acids (EFA), Cholesterol and saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat (PUFA) and mono-unsaturated fat (MUFA).

Let us take up saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat (PUFA) and mono-unsaturated fat (MUFA) first.

The classic examples of each would be butter, Sunflower oil and olive oil.

Saturated fats increase the LDL (the bad guy) and decrease the HDL (the good guy). To know more about LDL and HDL, see my earlier post - Know your body fat: The different types.

These go into the fat cell first but get removed from the fat cell last. Coconut oil, Palm Oil, regular Cheese and full-cream milk are a few representative examples of saturated fat.

Polyunsaturated fats are ‘good fats’ in small amounts since they can lower LDL levels. Sunflower oil and Soybean oil are examples of polyunsaturated fat. Apart from containing PUFA, green leafy vegetables also contain Essential Fatty Acids

Essential Fatty Acids

EFAs are not stored as fats but are used to provide energy for the body metabolism and hence the ‘essential’ tag. A deficiency of EFA can lead to rupturing of cells, and allowing of small molecules and water into the cell. This loss of cell function compromises the ability of the cell to produce and function optimally.

EFAs are also involved in muscle contraction, blood clotting, blood pressure control, hormone production and nervous tissue functions of the eye and brain. Do not, therefore, cut out the Essential Fatty Acids from your diet.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol is perhaps the most misunderstood and feared member of the fat family. It is essential for good health and is internally produced in the body, in the liver and most cells. Cholesterol is involved in the production of sex hormones and bile. Bile helps dissolve fats much in the same way as a detergent helps dissolve oil in a greasy plate.

Humans internally produce approximately 1 gm of Cholesterol daily and that is all the body needs. Thus specific Cholesterol particles called Lipoproteins (LDL & HDL) are found in human blood. Any extra Cholesterol in the diet can become harmful.

The levels of LDL (bad) and HDL (good) can increase or decrease according to the food you consume. Plant foods such as vegetables and fruits contain no Cholesterol. Regular exercise can increase the HDL levels.

In the end, remember that all oils, good or bad, when eaten in excess can be fattening.

Fat loss: The stages involved

Now that you know about the difference between weight loss and fat loss, as well as the different types of fats in your body, let us explore the process a bit deeper.

Losing fat means burning fat as a source of energy by the body. But before we can get to the burning stage, there are a lot of other things to consider. Imagine a huge sticker that has been pasted onto your living room wall by a naughty kid. Now, to get rid of the sticker once and for all, you would do the following steps. First, get the sticker off the wall – this might require wetting, scraping, peeling etc. Now the second step would be to take this sticker to the bathroom, balcony or any suitable place where you can burn it. Finally, you would need an incinerator, bin, container or any such thing in which the sticker can be burnt.

Fat loss works pretty much the same way. Firstly, the fat that has been ‘stuck’ onto the tissues needs to be separated from them. Then it has to be transported to the burning site. And finally, the fat has to reach the ‘incinerator’ in which it can be burnt.

Essentially, fat loss or fat burn is a three-stage process. We will look at each stage in detail in my upcoming posts…

Know your body fat: The different types

There are five different types of fat found in the body: Structural fat, Metabolic fat,Fat-soluble vitamins, Transport fat and storage fat.

Other than the storage fat – that is what we need to control and reduce - all others are very much essential to life.

Structural fats surround almost every living cell in the body, protecting and reinforcing the cell membrane.

Metabolic fat is the fat, which once digested, is converted to hormones and enzymes. These fats maintain the body’s metabolism.

Fat-soluble vitamins are contained in our fat intake. These essential vitamins – A, D, E & K may be stored in the liver or the fat tissue.

Transport Fats, as the name suggests, transport absorbed fat from intestine to the storage sites through the bloodstream. These are a specific type of fat called Lipoprotein, which is a special form of Cholesterol. There are two of them – LDL and HDL. The LDL is the ‘bad’ guy, delivering Cholesterol to the storage sites in the body and HDL is the ‘good’ guy who collects this deposited Cholesterol and takes it back to the Liver, where it is broken down to produce bile.

Last comes the culprit, the storage fat. This fat is meant to supply the body with an abundant source of fuel. It also provides the body with insulation. The specific storage site for fat is in a specific tissue called the adipose tissue, found throughout the body. When there is too much of fat in the diet, it gets stored. This is the type of fat that any fitness program or fat loss program should aim to reduce, since we don’t need an excess of storage fat.

Now you know that indiscreet cutting out of fat from your food may not be a good idea at all! Aim for a sensible fat loss and more of it in my next post...

Scuba diving: Fitness required

Life on earth, and even the embryological development of individual life, has its origins in water. Even the mineral composition of seawater is remarkably similar to that of human blood. And over millions of years, everything on the earth returns to the sea through erosion and other geological phenomena. 37 phyla of life forms have been identified so far on earth and 34 of them can be found in the sea – that’s 92%.

Water is 775 times denser than air; a few feet of descent in water is equivalent to descending several hundreds of feet in atmosphere. The pressure increases by 1 ATM for every 33 feet descent into the water – which means, the pressure exerted on the body is twice as much at 33 feet as it is on the surface, thrice at 66 feet and so on…

As the specific heat of water is 1000 times that of air, it takes 1000 times more heat energy to warm up a given volume of water than the same volume of air – by one degree. Moreover, water takes away heat from a body 25 times faster than air does. Therefore the number of hours an individual can survive in cold air is approximately equivalent to the same number of minutes he would survive in water of the same temperature.

Sound conduction is 25 times greater in water than in air; it becomes almost impossible in water to tell where the sound is coming from. With depth, illumination and colors are lost. At 33 feet, red disappears and at 75 feet, yellow is lost. Things appear uniformly blue-grey, which might lead to disorientation – even way up or way down might get confusing beyond such depths.

Nitrogen in the compressed air that is breathed by divers is capable of setting off nitrogen narcosis. Every 50 feet of descent into the sea, breathing compressed air from the cylinder, the narcotic effect of nitrogen becomes equivalent to consuming one large peg of whiskey. At 200 feet, it becomes equivalent to having had four drinks. The effect varies according to the diver's constitution.

So if you intend to venture into scuba diving, do ensure that you are at a reasonable level of fitness to enjoy the underwater adventure...

Weight Loss versus Fat Loss

Fitness Center, Slimming Center, Health Club, Gymnasium, Bodysculpting Studio, Bodycraft Spa, or whatever they are called, NONE of them ever offer Fat Loss...All the money-back guarantee, 100% refund if no results, list of satisfied customers with telephone numbers, before and after pictures etc.etc. all have do with Weight Loss. Did you ever notice ?

Try walking in to any of these outfits, with a DEXA bodyfat analysis report, and tell them that you would very much like to signup for a 30-day reduction/loss package, cost no problem. Watch their eyes light up and then tell them that the reduction/loss should be in your body fat percentage, NOT body weight. What you are looking for is not to lose healthy weight from muscle and water in your body, but only the fat. Tell them that you are willing to sign up for any program that they have, follow all their instructions about exercises and eating to the letter, even when you are asleep, but you would like to have the same 'money-back guarantee' that they offer for Weight Loss.

There would be hushed internal discussions, 'senior' staff would be consulted and either apologetic smiles or downright Jack shit on how it would be 'medically impossible' will follow. Probably from serious looking characters in white coats. You stay put - Fat Loss, not Weight Loss, please. Here is the pre-sign up DEXA bodyfat report, you shall compare it with a post-payment i.e post-package report, and if results are not seen, can you have the 100% refund or the moneyback guarantee please?

Soon you would be walking out of the place, with your credit card/cheque book untouched. If you were to pass by a mirror, do have a long look at the smug look on your face. And thank me with a Swiss Cheese Fondue (if you are a PYT, just a hug would do fine).

Now its time for you to understand the difference between Fat Loss and Weight Loss. The best way is to begin by understanding Fat itself...