Why is it so hard to lose body fat?

We are genetically programmed to eat to excess and put on weight as fat. We are sugar babies from way back to caveman times. We love the taste of sugar (fructose). Genetically we are predisposed to enjoy eating sugar and overeating as it helps us store fat as quickly as possible.

In the upper Paleolithic Period, for cro-magnon, this was a good thing. Our body needed to store as much fat as possible. So when our ancient ancestors ran across a fruit tree or honey-filled beehive, they ate in excess. The fat they put on held them through times of famine and cold winters when food wasn’t abundant. It was survival of the fattest.

Today, we have an abundance of food and sweets. In modern times, our ancient cave-person genetic programming works against us.

In addition to our programming, we have engineered fake foods that capitalize on our taste preferences that offer little nutrition, unwanted calories, and screws with our metabolism.

Fructose, Glucose, Sucrose and Starches

All sugars and starches are carbohydrates. Fructose is a naturally occurring sugar found in many fruits. Fructose is a simple sugar or monosaccharide. Glucose is also a simple monosaccharide sugar.

Glucose is the body’s preferred energy source. People with diabetes monitor the amount of glucose in their blood.

Sucrose is table sugar, and it is a disaccharide consisting of glucose and fructose.

Complex carbohydrates with three or more sugars linked together are starches.

Foods will impact a person’s blood glucose levels depending upon the composition of the food’s carbohydrates, protein, and fats. There is a guide to the impact of food on our blood glucose, and it’s called the Glycemic Index (GI). You can check the GI of various foods on the website below.

https://glycemicindex.com/

Essentially high glycemic foods will raise and impact your blood glucose more than low glycemic foods.

The importance of the glycemic index will be in helping control our urge to eat. It may be a feature in one’s plan to reduce body fat to a healthy level. It is further explained using blood glucose values.

Blood Glucose Values — Why Should I Care?

If you do not have diabetes, you may question why you should care about your blood glucose values. Continuous Glucose Monitors (GCM) have fallen in price and are becoming popular with bio-hackers looking to optimize their health.

See my CGM bio-hacking article: https://vocal.media/longevity/bio-hacking-with-a-continuous-glucose-monitor

In regard to controlling our body-fat percentage, a CGM can track our Blood Glucose (BG) response to food. Ideally, you don’t want food to spike your BG above 140 mg/dL. The reason is that BG spikes produce a corresponding high pulse release of insulin which drives the sugar (BG) into the cells and may drop your BG value too low. Conversely, too low BG triggers the urge to eat, to raise your blood glucose value.

By maintaining a healthy BG value, you avoid spiking your BG values and subsequent rebound effects that causes.

1900's

In the early 1900’s doctors correlated high over-consumption of sugars with their patient’s obesity and diabetes. Today we relate obesity to one factor in determining Metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic Syndrome

Abdominal obesity: waist circumference of more than 35" for women and 40" for men.

Blood Pressure of 130/80 mm Hg or higher

Fasting blood glucose of 100 mg/dL or higher

High triglyceride levels of 150 mg/dL or higher

Low HDL (good) cholesterol of 40 mg/dL or less for men and 50 mg/dL for women.

A diagnosis of metabolic syndrome is established when a person has three or more factors listed above.

Fake Foods

Artificial sweeteners may seem like the answer to overeating sugars. However, the use of artificial sweeteners has a few drawbacks. One, the body learns to disassociate high-calorie intake with sweetness. Thus, making it easier to overindulge when eating authentic sugar-based foods. Another disadvantage is when you taste the high sweetness of artificial sweetener, your body prepares for a high-calorie load; when the high caloric load doesn’t arrive, your brain doesn’t get the feel-good dopamine hit it expected. This can lead to further cravings for eating.

The high sweetness of artificial sweetener can distort your taste bud so that everyday sweet-tasting foods like apples no longer taste (as) sweet. And unsweetened foods like spinach and broccoli may become uneatable.

Artificial fats and fat replacers are used throughout the food industry. Unfortunately, these fats have a similar effect on the body as artificial sweeteners, which mess with the body’s perception of food and satiety.

The long-term health risk of these artificial additives is not known.

Not Weight — Body Fat Percentage

We ought not to think in terms of weight; instead, think in terms of body fat percentage. Where does your body fat percentage fall, according to the following chart?

The American Council of Exercise Provides the Following Ranges For Body Fat Percentages

If your body fat percentage is average or less, you’re fine. You have a healthy body fat percentage.

However, if your body fat percentage is above the average fat rate, you have some work to reduce your body fat percentage. It is essential to lower your body fat percentage to optimize your health and decrease your biological age.

Your takeaway from this is not to concern yourself with your weight; concern yourself with your body fat percentage. Use your body fat percentage to guide fat loss: target, men 25% body fat or less, women, 31% or less.

Hunger Hormones

The two main hunger hormones are Leptin and Ghrelin. Leptin is produced by fat cells. It notifies your brain that you have eaten enough and suppresses your appetite. Ghrelin is made in the stomach and sends signals to the brain that you are hungry; it’s an appetite-increasing hormone. Leptin and ghrelin work together to maintain your body’s weight and metabolism. It would be great to take a leptin pill to turn off our appetite and lose fat, but scientists found leptin doesn’t work like that. Obese people typically have elevated levels of leptin and are leptin resistant.

Reducing Your Body fat- Developing A lifestyle Plan

If one wants to combat our genetic programming and lose the excess body fat you are carrying, there are many things you can do to help you achieve this.

Most people wanting to lose weight (not body fat, per say) don’t care if they lose muscle tissue as long as the numbers on their weight scale go down, so they start a diet. The thing about diets is that they all work, and then they all fail.

If all diets didn’t fail, you wouldn’t have a dozen new diets books hitting the bestseller list every year.

I’ll tell you right now none of the lifestyle changes are easy to implement in the long term. Choose only one or two to start, and after a few successful months, add another one. We are talking about lifestyle changes, and it’s the safest and most assured way of losing excess body fat.

Reducing appetite:

1) Get enough sleep. Without enough sleep, your craving for food increases. I wrote about this in the following article.

https://vocal.media/lifehack/is-too-little-sleep-making-you-fat

2) Reduce stress. When you become Stressed, cortisol increases and an increase of cortisol is associated with increased food intake. Many people deal with stress by eating comfort foods, pizza, ice cream, etc. One way to reduce stress and its adverse effects is a 5–15 minute daily meditation.

https://vocal.media/longevity/fail-proof-meditation-for-beginners

3) Stop eating sugar in as much as you reasonably can. This includes products with artificial sweeteners, and yeah, I know, it states zero calories, it’s still crap to your body, move on.

4) Eat real natural fats, not low-calorie artificial fats. Artificial fats present similar problems as artificial sweeteners.

5) Eat real food, and check its glycemic index. Aim to consume more foods with a low Glycemic Index and minimize the impact of the food on your blood glucose. Without a CGM, you can not determine how food affects your blood glucose levels, but you can use the information in the Glycemic Index to make healthy food choices.

6) Exercise is essential to boost energy and maintain muscle. If you’re not exercising, start. A few minutes a day, 3 to 4 times a week. Build slow; consistency is more effective than the periodic heroic workout.

Some writers claim that exercise blunts the appetite, which is valid for some people. My experience is that exercise creates a caloric deficit and triggers my hunger. Plan for it with healthy food; don’t succumb to fast food MAC attack.

7) Red Light Therapy has been shown to increase fat loss from working out. It improves recovery and helps build muscle tissue. Here are two articles on those topics.

https://vocal.media/longevity/how-using-red-light-therapy-can-speed-up-your-fat-loss

Using Gut Bacteria for Fat Loss

The probiotic Lactobacillus Gasseri has been shown to modestly decrease abdominal visceral and subcutaneous fat by 4.6% over the 12-week double-blind study period. This works out to an average 1.4% drop in body weight, 1.5% drop in BMI, and a 1.8% drop in waist circumference.

The Lactobacillus Gasseri¹² is a probiotic available from nutritional stores such as Swanson Vitamins. I do not have any financial interest in Swanson Vitamins or benefit in any way. This mention is not an endorsement of their product.

Supplements

The top supplements I recommend are:

Resveratrol. So many good things to say about resveratrol. A meta-analysis of 36 trials indicated that supplementing with resveratrol improves weight loss and blunts fat accumulation by decreasing adipogenesis⁷. Resveratrol also improves glucose control, insulin sensitivity, and diabetes⁸. In addition, resveratrol increases the capacity for brown fat thermogenesis⁹. The dosages for resveratrol used in these studies are all across the board, from 5 mg per day to 1500 mg per day. The dosage I use is 150 mg 3x a day with meals.

CoQ10 is an essential nutrient for the mitochondria of our cells to produce energy (ATP). The daily dose is 50 to 100 mg daily.

Dark Chocolate — Epicatechin is an important flavonoid found in dark chocolate and tea leaves. It has been shown to have multiple health benefits, which include boosting mitochondria biogenesis. This will help you burn fat. By consuming dark chocolate, you are eating fats and sugar that will increase your calories. Instead, you can purchase a pill form of coco extract with the flavonoids from Swanson Vitamins called Cacao (Raw Cocoa) or CocoVia from cocovia.com. I have no financial interest in either company.

EGCG or epigallocatechin gallate is a plant-based compound known as polyphenols that are found in green tea. It offers similar benefits as epicatechin found in dark chocolate. Clinical studies have shown EGCG has multiple benefits some of which helps with weight loss and glucose control. You can add EGCG by taking supplements or drinking green tea.

Vitamin C 500 mg daily.

Vitamin D3 is about 5,000 IU daily.

Conclusion

Losing excess body fat is a process. A process best achieved with lifestyle changes that are implemented over time. I know everyone wants a 30-day fix. What a typical person wants to achieve in 30–60 days will take about a year using lifestyle changes. Each change should be small enough to implement without creating a significant hardship in your lifestyle. After the change is successfully implemented for two months, another lifestyle change is added. The advantage of this plan is that the fat loss will be permanent and your lifestyle healthier.

Here's a six-month plan:

First two months drink two 16 ounces glasses of water per day. That's it. That's all you have to do.

Next two months - add eating two vegetable snacks per day. Not fruit, vegetables. This could be a cucumber, tomato, carrots, etc. Your choice.

Next two months - add one push-up, one mountain climb, and one squat per day. You can do more than one, but you can't do less. Feel free to switch out any exercise. But the exercise you switch out ought to be a full-body exercise.

There you're set for the next six months. Before you begin, weigh yourself and take body measurements. This way you can compare where you started to where you are.