2649: Fat Burning: Use it and Lose it by David Cameron-Smith of Les Mills on Losing Bodyfat & Healthy Living

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[00:01:08] Fat Burning – Use It and Lose It by David Cameron Smith of lesmills.com and I'm Dr. Neil, your very own personal narrator. Hey there, welcome to another edition of Optimal

[00:01:19] Health Daily. This is one of just a few podcasts in the world where blogs are read to you. And on this show, you get the added bonus of hearing my commentary at the end. Oh, and another bonus,

[00:01:30] on Fridays I answer your questions. Now on yesterday's episode that was episode 2648, we were talking about fat loss and muscle loss and burning calories. And today's post is a perfect complement to those topics. We're going to continue with this idea of fat burning. So

[00:01:48] I'm sure you're excited to hear all about it. So let's get right to it and start optimizing your life. Fat Burning – Use It and Lose It by David Cameron Smith of lesmills.com.

[00:02:05] No one has a good thing to say about body fat, but those bulges and dimples are actually a reminder of our amazing ability to store energy. Fat cells, known technically as adipocytes, commonly cluster together in their millions or billions to form the body's adipose tissues.

[00:02:22] But what is undoubtedly a wonderful evolutionary adaptation can also be the last thing we want to see when we look in the mirror. Those identified as male at birth, thanks to testosterone, store more fat around the middle. This belly fat can carry a heavy health burden.

[00:02:39] Female hormones, including estrogen, push fat further down the body, with a preference for accumulating on the buttocks and thighs. Alas, there is no exercise or diet that targets the fat stores of specific body areas. With fat loss, it's a little from everywhere, no matter

[00:02:55] what the exercise or how you lose weight. But if fat loss is your goal, then the secret is to tune your body to burn fat, not just during exercise, but all day and night too. The answer

[00:03:08] is giving power to the muscle mitochondria, the tiny structures within cells that generate energy that account for nearly all the fat used by the body. These small powerhouses can be retuned to use more fat, and the evidence shows that high-intensity training may well be the best way

[00:03:26] to achieve this. Putting your muscles and mitochondria into an energy crisis, the kind that has you really huffing and puffing, triggers the molecular machinery in mitochondria to adapt. They do this by increasing in number and size, and by turning on the fat-burning enzymes.

[00:03:44] Because fat is such a great source of energy, intense training teaches the muscles to make greater use of this plentiful energy source. Within the first few minutes of exercise, adrenaline and nervous activity triggers fat cells to start slowly releasing their fat loads. As the levels of

[00:04:02] fat in the blood rise, it is transported by the exercising muscles and directed towards the mitochondria to fuel muscle contraction. The rate at which fat is burned can be measured in the amount of carbon dioxide generated. In a laboratory setting, this involves people breathing through

[00:04:20] a tube connected to a gas sensor. By gradually increasing how hard or long a person exercises, the intensity at which the greatest amount of fat is used can be determined. Called the fat max,

[00:04:34] this occurs most often around the intensity of a long, slow jog or cycle that's vigorous enough to have you panting just a little. Trouble is, the optimal exercise intensity for fat max is time

[00:04:47] hungry. If you've got more than 2 hours each day to work out, then it might be the training strategy for you. If not, then high-intensity training may be the best solution. Researchers at the prestigious

[00:04:59] Mayo Clinic in the US have analyzed all the genes and proteins required for maximal fat burning in response to different types of exercise training. In both young exercisers, those between the ages of 18 and 30, and older exercises, those between the ages of 65 and 80, high-intensity interval

[00:05:19] training had by far the greatest activation of muscle fat burning capacity. There was a 49% increase in maximum capacity to burn fat in the younger group. In the less fit, older group, it was a massive 69% increase in just 3 months. So, going hard in the gym provides a powerful

[00:05:40] boost to burn more fat, irrespective of age. The Skinny on Fat Fat cells are formed from tiny stem cells that sit hidden in the most interesting places, including in the eyelids, the soles of the feet, and in the middle of the back.

[00:05:56] Wherever and whenever these tiny stem cells, sometimes known as progenitor cells or pre-adipocytes, sit waiting for their chance to spring into action and grow into fat cells. It's still not known whether the number of fat cells we possess is genetically programmed.

[00:06:12] Through childhood and into adolescence, increasing body fat drives increased activation of the fat stem cells, which drives the number of fat cells in adulthood. In the middle years, the total number of fat cells in most people stays relatively constant. Some scientists argue that

[00:06:29] people with a greater fat cell count are most likely to become obese, while those with fewer fat cells are destined to be skinny. Other scientists are not convinced. They point to the percentage of the population now overweight or obese, which is greater than the population

[00:06:46] with a healthy body weight, suggesting even those with lower fat cell counts are becoming overweight. Although most fat ends up in adipose tissue, there is the chance that some fat will spill into other tissues and organs, like the liver for example, posing major health concerns.

[00:07:03] Fatty liver is now recognized as a contributor to heart disease, while a fatty pancreas is a newly identified risk for diabetes. Most fat cells look white under the microscope. This is the glistening color of the stored fat. But some fat cells have a brown hue, known as brown

[00:07:22] adipocytes. These smaller brown fat cells are found in small animals like rats and mice and hibernating animals like squirrels and bears. Remarkably, this brown fat is designed to burn fat and generate energy and heat, vital during the hibernation months. Chance discovery has shown

[00:07:41] that brown fat cells also exist in humans, where they are actually more beige in color than brown. The race is now on to find how white fat might be turned to beige, thus activating its fat burning

[00:07:53] capacity. You just listened to the post titled, Fat Burning, Use It and Lose It by David Cameron Smith of lesmills.com and I'll be right back with my commentary. In 2011, a group of high school cheerleaders began exhibiting a bizarre mix of neurological symptoms, tics, twitches, and strange

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[00:09:03] your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. Dr. Neil here for my commentary. Okay, so when it comes to fat, there are four

[00:09:17] things to consider. 1. The total number of fat cells in the body. 2. The size of those fat cells. 3. Where on the body the fat is held. And 4. Whether it's brown or beige fat or white fat.

[00:09:34] Now, of these four, some of them we have control over, some we don't. For example, we don't have much control over where on the body excess fat is stored. As today's author David mentioned,

[00:09:46] those that were identified as male at birth have the tendency to store fat around the belly. Storing fat around this area of the body does increase risk for certain diseases like heart disease and certain forms of cancer. On the other hand, those that were identified as female at

[00:10:02] birth tend to store fat around the hips which actually prevents certain diseases. This seems to be built into our DNA. But to some extent, we can control the number of fat cells and the size

[00:10:14] of those fat cells. How? Through diet and exercise. And as David mentioned in today's post, if we have limited time to dedicate to exercise, something we can consider is incorporating high intensity interval training. An example of this type of training would be say, sprinting for 20

[00:10:33] seconds, then resting for 40 seconds. Then after those 40 seconds of rest are up, sprinting again for another 20 seconds, then rest for another 40 seconds. Repeat this pattern for 10, 15 or even 20 minutes. Then once those 10, 15 or 20 minutes are up, you're done. Work out over and begin the

[00:10:55] cool down and stretch. So in this way, this form of training is a time saver. You finished a workout in under 30 minutes. But some words of caution. There's no need to perform high intensity training

[00:11:07] like this every single day. You would want to add in some light activity days in between. And second, as always, talk to your healthcare provider before starting any exercise program. Alright, that'll do

[00:11:20] it for today. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for sharing this show with someone. I hope you have a great rest of your day and I'll be back here tomorrow as usual. So I'll see you there where your optimal life awaits!