HOW WE GET FAT

by Nicklaus Millican MS, RD, CES


There is a lot of misconception about how we get fat. Generally, people believe that if you eat more than you exercise, you will get fatter--if you exercise more than you eat, you'll get thinner. But as you'll learn with this article, this is FALSE!

It's important you understand why this notion is false so you can then understand why the traditional advice, "eat less and exercise more" (ELEM), is ineffective, and begin to understand truly effective fat-loss strategies.

Think Type, Not Amount

The problem with ELEM is that it uses an incorrect method of measurement. 
ELEM is based on a quantitative approach (how much, amount) based on "calories": if you eat too many calories, or don't burn enough calories, you get fatter. We tend to think of calories, then, almost as some ingredient of food. However, calories are not actually something you can touch, eat, or use during exercise--using this type of language for calories is inaccurate and leads to inappropriate strategies for fat-loss.

Calories are actually a measurement of heat. In order to find out how many calories are in a type of food, you can burn that food in a "bomb calorimeter," and measure the heat it gives off.
In this sense, anything that can burn has calories. However, your body cannot use everything that is flammable; furthermore, the food you do eat is not simply burned in a fire, like a bomb calorimeter. Calories, then, are not a very useful concept when trying to understand body-fat regulation.

Notice: it is true that different foods have different amounts of energy--some with more and some with less. However, when you eat more energy, it does not automatically become body-fat. Instead, your brain and body detect your energy levels and adjust how much you spend. In other words: If you eat more, your body simply expends more by creating more body-heat or becoming more physically active. Conversely, if you eat less energy, you will create less body-heat and become less active. In this way, it is not strictly how much energy you eat or use that determines your body-fat because your body always tries to make these equal.

So if it's not the amount of food/energy you consume that controls your body-fat, what is it?

Your body uses signals.
If you want to learn how to manage your body-fat, you need to start thinking about food, exercise, and other factors in terms of signals. Some signals tell your body to get fatter, other signals tell your body to get rid of body-fat. These signals are represented by the type of your food and exercise. Your body also receives signals based on your sleep and stress levels.

The key to controlling your body-fat, then, is learning which signals are for fat-gain and fat-loss.

Fat-Gain Signals

Insulin

"Insulin" is a powerful fat-gain signal.

Insulin is a hormone your body releases (mainly) when you eat:

• Carbohydrate
• Grains
• Sweets/Sugar
• Starches
• Fruit
• Juice
• Soda
• Liquid Food
• Soda
• Juice
• Protein Shakes
• Dairy
• Milk
• Yogurt

Insulin is important because it keeps your blood from getting overloaded with fuel (which come from the food you eat). It does this by taking fuel from your blood and putting it into different cells of your body. Additionally, insulin prevents that fuel from leaking back out of your cells, into your blood. Another relevant function of insulin is that it turns your food into fat...which can then be stored in your fat-cells as body-fat.

In terms of body-fat regulation, this means that insulin does 3 things to increase your body-fat:

1. Insulin turns the food you eat into fat.
2. Insulin pushes that fat into the cells of your body (usually, insulin pushes fat into your fat-cells, as opposed to other parts of your body--we'll get to that in the final section).
3. Insulin prevents your fat-cells from giving-up any of their fat to be burned in other parts of your body.

Stress and Cortisol

Stress is a normal and healthy component of our everyday lives; stress motivates us to seek the things which makes our lives possible, such as food.

When we experience stress, our body releases a hormone called "cortisol," because cortisol does several things to help us cope with that stress. In this sense, cortisol is every bit as necessary as stress.

However, it is when stress and cortisol remain high for too long that they become a signal to increase your body-fat. Many people experience this type of stress from their jobs, relationships, etc.

The fat-gain effects of insulin are magnified by excessive cortisol.

Excessive cortisol does at least 3 things which conspire with insulin to make you fatter:

1. Cortisol increases the amount of fat you produce from your food.
2. Cortisol increases the sensitivity of your fat-cells to insulin...increasing the amount of body-fat you store.
3. Cortisol tells your brain to seek pleasurable foods; most pleasurable foods release large amounts of insulin.

Inflammation and Insulin Resistance

"Inflammation" is a process your body uses to help repair damaged parts of your body. For example, you can see inflammation if you've ever twisted you ankle; inflammation is defined by the redness, swelling, and pain. That inflammation is helping to remove any damaged parts, so your injury can heal. Inflammation can occur in any part of your body, including places like your blood vessels which aren't visible and lack the ability to detect pain.

Even though inflammation is a necessary part of healing, excessive inflammation will damage your body. Excessive inflammation is very common, and is largely caused by an unhealthy lifestyle:

• Poor sleep
• High stress
• Poor nutrition
• Too much or too little physical activity
• Smoking, drinking, drug use
• Use of certain medications

Inflammation causes "Insulin Resistance."

Inflammation contributes to body-fat by causing insulin resistance, which means that your body becomes less sensitive insulin.

Right now, you're probably asking "...but if insulin makes me fat, and insulin resistance blocks the effects of insulin, then how can insulin resistance make me fatter?"

The reason is that different parts of your body become resistant to insulin at different times. Your fat-cells tend to become resistant to insulin last. Meanwhile, as the rest of your body is unable to suck-up the fuel in your blood, it leaves more for your fat-cells. As a result, your body-fat increases.

Conclusion

The true factors which cause you to gain body-fat are qualitative signals, not quantitative calories. This is important to understand because focus on calories leads to ineffective fat-loss strategies. Ultimately, the signals which control your body-fat are:

• Sleep
• Stress and Cortisol
• Quality of food
• Inflammation
• Insulin

Thank you for reading.