Why Electrolytes Are So Important

For exhaustive exercise and training, electrolytes are vital for performance.

When you sweat you lose more than just water, you lose vital electrolytes. Refueling and rehydrating after intense training is second nature for some athletes. However, not everyone realizes the importance of replenishing key electrolytes lost through perspiration, and that it can make or break performance.

Electrolytes, such as sodium and potassium, are electrically charged minerals that travel through the blood and extracellular fluid. They regulate the body’s hydration, blood pH, blood pressure, recovery of damaged tissues, and nerve and muscle function. Electrolyte levels are tightly controlled within a strict concentration range by the kidneys and a variety of hormones.

While all electrolytes are important, special attention should be paid to maintaining sodium and potassium levels to protect against muscular and neurological deficits that can hinder performance.

Sodium

The most highly concentrated electrolyte in sweat is sodium. A study of an elite soccer team during a 90-minute training session found on average two grams of sodium were lost through sweat (1). These sodium losses can cause impaired mental and physical performance (2).

Sodium plays a key role in many important processes, including the vital regulation of cellular charge balances. As a positively charged ion, sodium works in contrast with the negatively charged potassium to create cell membrane potential. The charge-driven activity of membrane potential drives normal muscle and nerve function (3).

Maintaining stable sodium levels is especially important during an intense workout to avoid a drop in blood pressure. When sodium levels are low, the amount of extracellular fluid in circulation decreases resulting in less blood volume and a lowered blood pressure, which can cause fatigue or worse depending on how low levels drop (4).

Potassium

Potassium is also particularly important for athletes due to its role in regulating fluid and nutrient balance across cell membranes, which affects muscle and neuron activity (3). Without enough potassium in the body, muscle cramping and weakness, along with low energy is common.

Even though not as much potassium is lost in sweat as sodium, it’s still important to restore depleted stores after a workout. This is because significant changes in potassium levels in the blood can be dangerous. When potassium levels fall far below the normal range, the nerve impulses that cause the heart muscles to contract are disrupted. In some extreme cases this can result in a dangerous irregular heart beat or arrhythmia (5).

Sports drinks are a great tool to help rehydrate and restore electrolyte balance, especially when exhaustive workouts or athletic events cause substantial loss of fluids and electrolytes. However, many popular formulations contain excess sugar and calories that make them an unhealthy choice for non-athletes, not to mention being filled with artificial flavors, colors, and sweeteners.

Refrences

1. Maughan RJ, et al .Water balance and salt losses in competitive football. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2007 Dec;17(6):583-94.

2. Sawka MN, Burke LM, Eichner EL et al. American College of Sports Medicine position stand: Exercise and fluid replacement. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2007;39:377-390.

3. Higdon Jane. Sodium (Chloride). Linus Pauling Institute: Micronutrient Research for Optimum Health. 2004 Feb.

4. Sahay M, Sahay R. Hyponatremia: A practical approach. Indian J Endocrinol Metab. 2014 Nov-Dec; 18(6): 760–771.

5. 2005 American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care: Part 10.1: Life-Threatening Electrolyte Abnormalities Circulation. 2005;112:IV-121-IV-125.

New Dietary Guidelines Reverse Flawed Recommendations on Cholesterol

For the past half century, cholesterol has been touted as a grave health hazard, and dietary fat and cholesterol have been portrayed as being among the “deadliest” foods you could possibly eat.

This may finally change, as limitations for cholesterol will likely be removed from the 2015 edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans. It’s about time really, as 60 years’ worth of research has utterly failed to demonstrate a correlation between high cholesterol and heart disease.

Not only does undamaged natural cholesterol not cause heart disease, it is actually one of the most important molecules in your body; indispensable for the building of cells and for producing stress and sex hormones, as well as vitamin D.

Cholesterol is also important for brain health, and helps with the formation of your memories. Low levels of HDL cholesterol have been linked to memory loss andAlzheimer's disease, and may also increase your risk of depression, stroke,violent behavior, and even suicide.

New American Dietary Guidelines May Remove Limits on Cholesterol

A draft¹ of the 2015 edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans,² created by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, now states that “cholesterol is not considered a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.”

And, according to a recent report in the Washington Post,³ an insider claims the new stance on cholesterol will remain in the final report. As noted by medical journalist Larry Husten:⁴

“The proposed change reflects a major shift in the scientific view of cholesterol that has taken place in recent years.

Although serum cholesterol is still considered an important risk factor, cholesterol consumed in food is now thought to play a relatively insignificant role in determining blood levels of cholesterol.”

However, if you process saturated fat or cholesterol and heat it by frying, then  you create very dangerous products that will clearly increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. So this new information does not give you free license to eat any type of cholesterol. Remember, trans fats are worse than sugar for your health.

Guidelines on Fat and Cholesterol Should Never Have Been Made

Steve Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, toldUSA Today:⁵ “It’s the right decision. We got the dietary guidelines wrong. They’ve been wrong for decades.” This message was echoed in Time Magazine, which recently reported that:

“[I]n the latest review⁶ of studies that investigated the link between dietary fat and causes of death, researchers say the guidelines got it all wrong. In fact, recommendations to reduce the amount of fat we eat every day should never have been made.”

Low-fat diets saw a real upswing in 1977, but according to research published in the Open Heart journal,⁷ led by Zoe Harcombe, PhD, there was no scientific basis for the recommendations to cut fat from our diet in the first place.

What’s worse, the processed food industry replaced fat with large amounts of sugar, While Dr. Harcombe shies away from making any recommendation about how much dietary fat might be ideal, she suggests that the take-home message here is to simply “eat real food.”

I have to say, it’s refreshing to finally see that message being repeated in the mainstream media. As reported by Time Magazine:⁸

“The less adulterated and processed your diet is, the more nutrients and healthy fats, proteins and carbohydrates your body will get, and the less you’ll have to worry about meeting specific guidelines or advice that may or may not be based on a solid body of evidence.”

Processed Fructose Affects Your Body Like Alcohol

The low-fat craze led to an avalanche of new processed food products, promising to benefit both your waistline and your heart. Alas, nothing could have been further from the truth.

When fat was removed, sugar was added in, and this has led to a massive increase in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. As it turns out, your body metabolizes fructose in the same way it metabolizes ethanol, creating the same toxic effects.

Unlike glucose, which can be used by virtually every cell in your body, fructose canonly be metabolized by your liver, because your liver is the only organ that has the transporter for it.

Since nearly all fructose gets shuttled to your liver, and, if you eat a typical Western-style diet, you consume high amounts of it, fructose ends up taxing and damaging your liver in the same way alcohol and other toxins do.

In fact, when you compare the health outcomes of fructose versus alcohol consumption, you see the diseases they cause are virtually identical:

Chronic Ethanol Consumption	Chronic Fructose Consumption
Hypertension	Hypertension
Cardiomyopathy	Myocardial infarction
Dyslipidemia	Dyslipidemia
Pancreatitis	Pancreatitis
Obesity	Obesity
Hepatic dysfunction (ASH)	Hepatic dysfunction (NASH)
Fetal alcohol syndrome	Fetal insulin resistance
Addiction	Habituation, if not addiction

Non-Alcoholic Liver Disease Has Become a Serious Public Health Concern

Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, has been a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism and sounding the alarm on processed fructose in particular.

In one of his papers,⁹ published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in 2010, Dr. Lustig describes three similarities between fructose and its fermentation byproduct, ethanol (alcohol):

1. Your liver's metabolism of fructose is similar to alcohol as they both serve as substrates for converting dietary carbohydrate into fat, which promotes insulin resistance, dyslipidemia (abnormal fat levels in the bloodstream), and fatty liver
2. Fructose undergoes the Maillard reaction with proteins, leading to the formation of superoxide free radicals that can result in liver inflammation similar to acetaldehyde, an intermediary metabolite of ethanol
3. By "stimulating the 'hedonic pathway' of the brain both directly and indirectly," Dr. Lustig noted, "fructose creates habituation, and possibly dependence; also paralleling ethanol"

As recently reported in Scientific American,¹⁰ non-alcoholic fatty liver disease¹¹ (NAFLD) now affects an estimated 25 percent of Americans, including an estimated 20 percent of children, who have never had a drop of alcohol. Cases of NAFLD have even been reported in children as young as three years old. This may sound like an impossibility. But did you know that most infant formulas contain the sugar equivalent of a can of Coca-Cola?

Ditto for many baby foods, which can contain as much sugar and harmful trans fats as chocolate cookies or cheeseburgers. Babies are methodically “poisoned” with exorbitant amounts of refined sugar and processed fructose from day one, so it’s really no wonder that so many of our youngsters struggle with weight issues and associated diseases.  As explained in Scientific American:¹²

“NAFLD describes the accumulation of fat in hepatocytes, or liver cells, in excessive amounts. These fats are typically triglycerides, which the body naturally stores and creates from calories that it doesn’t need right away. Normally these fats are burned off for energy, but if the body is overwhelmed with calories and a lack of exercise, then the triglycerides are simply never released. They instead accumulate in the liver and cause NAFLD, which can lead to inflammation, scarring, liver dysfunction and even liver cancer.”

Wrong Dietary Guidelines Has Led to Flawed Medical Interventions, Too

Since the cholesterol hypothesis is false, this also means that the recommended therapies—low-fat, low-cholesterol diet, and cholesterol lowering medications—are doing more harm than good. Statin treatment, for example, is largely harmful, costly, and has transformed millions of people into patients whose health is being adversely impacted by the drug. As noted in the featured video, we now know a whole lot more about HDL and LDL, commonly referred to as “good” and “bad” cholesterol respectively, although that is also a bit of a fallacy.

Depending on the size of the particles, LDL may be either harmful or harmless, so LDL is not necessarily “bad” across the board. The issue of particle sizes is discussed in greater detail in my 2013 interview with Chris Kresser, L.Ac. If you’ve had your cholesterol levels checked, your doctor most likely tested your total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. But we now know those are not accurate predictors for cardiovascular disease risk.

A far more accurate predictor is your LDL particle number, the test for which is called an NMR Lipoprofile. It’s easy to get and all major labs offer it, including LabCorp and Quest. Most insurance policies cover the test as well. Best of all, even if your doctor were to refuse to order it, you can order it yourself via third-party intermediaries like Direct Labs, or you can order the test online, and get blood drawn locally. Also:

1. Check your HDL to total cholesterol ratio. HDL percentage is a potent heart disease risk factor. Just divide your HDL level by your cholesterol. This ratio should ideally be above 24 percent.
2. Boost your HDL cholesterol and lower your triglyceride levels. High triglycerides are a very potent risk factor for heart disease. In combination, high triglycerides and low HDL levels are an even bigger risk; this ratio is far more important to your heart health than the standard good vs. bad cholesterol ratio. In fact, one study found that people with the highest ratio of triglycerides to HDL had 16 times the risk of heart attack as those with the lowest ratio of triglycerides to HDL.
You calculate your triglyceride/HDL cholesterol ratio by dividing your triglyceride level by your HDL level. This ratio should ideally be below 2. So while you strive to keep your HDL cholesterol levels up, you'll want to decrease your triglycerides. You’ll find strategies for increasing your HDL level below. Triglycerides are easily decreased by exercising and avoiding grains and sugars in your diet.

Statins Are Based on a Flawed Premise

Part of the reason why cholesterol-lowering drugs like statins are ineffective for heart disease prevention (besides the fact that the drug causes heart disease as a side effect) is that drugs cannot address the real cause of heart disease, which is insulin and leptin resistance, which in turn increase your LDL particle number via a number of different mechanisms. While some genetic predisposition can play a role, insulin and leptin resistance is primarily caused by a combination of factors that are epidemic in our modern lifestyle:

• A diet high in processed and refined carbohydrates, sugars/fructose, refined flours, and industrial seed oils
• Insufficient everyday physical activity. Chronic sitting is also an independent risk factor that causes biochemical changes that predispose you to insulin and leptin resistance, even if you’re very fit and exercise regularly
• Chronic sleep deprivation. Studies have shown that even one night of disturbed sleep can decrease your insulin sensitivity the next day and cause cravings and overeating
• Environmental toxins. Exposure to BPA, for example, can disrupt weight regulation
• Poor gut health. Studies indicate that imbalances in your gut flora (the bacteria that live in our gut) can predispose you to obesity and insulin and leptin resistance, and processed foods high in sugar effectively feed harmful bacteria, allowing them to take over

For Heart Health, Focus on Boosting Your HDL

A healthy diet is foundational for optimal health, and step number one is to ignore the advice to eat a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet. Other strategies that will help reduce your risk of heart disease include the following:¹³

Replace processed foods (which are loaded with refined sugar and carbs, processed fructose, and trans fat—all of which promote heart disease) with whole, unprocessed or minimally processed foods, ideally organic and/or locally grown.

Avoid meats and other animal products such as dairy and eggs sourced from animals raised in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Instead, opt for grass-fed, pastured varieties, raised according to organic standards.

Eliminate no-fat and low-fat foods, and increase consumption of healthy fats. Half of the population suffers with insulin resistance and would benefit from consuming 50-85 percent of their daily calories from healthy saturated fats, such as avocados, butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk, raw dairy, organic pastured egg yolks, coconuts and coconut oil, unheated organic nut oils, raw nuts, and grass-fed meats. No- or low-fat foods are usually processed foods that are high in sugar, which raises your small, dense LDL particles. Balancing your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio is also key for heart health, as these fatty acids help build the cells in your arteries that make the prostacyclin that keeps your blood flowing smoothly. Omega-3 deficiency can cause or contribute to very serious health problems, both mental and physical, and may be a significant underlying factor of up to 96,000 premature deaths each year. For more information about omega-3s and the best sources of this fat, please review this previous article.

You also need the appropriate ratios of calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium, and all of these are generally abundant in a whole food diet. To get more fresh vegetables into your diet, consider juicing.

Optimize your vitamin D level. Some researchers, like Dr. Stephanie Seneff, believe optimizing your vitamin D level through regular sun exposure, opposed to taking an oral supplement, may be key to optimizing your heart health. If you do opt for a supplement, you also increase your need for vitamin K2.  Meanwhile, Dr. Robert Heaney recently highlighted research showing that carnivorous animals actually get some of the vitamin D they need from the meat they eat. For the longest time, meat was not considered a good source of vitamin D, primarily because it was so difficult to measure that we didn’t think it contained useful amounts. He recommends getting approximately 5,000 to 6,000 IUs of vitamin D per day from all sources – sun, supplements, and food – in order to reach and maintain a healthy blood level of 40-60 ng/ml.

Optimize your gut health. Regularly eating fermented foods, such as fermented vegetables, will help reseed your gut with beneficial bacteria that may play an important role in preventing heart disease and countless other health problems.

Quit smoking and reduce your alcohol consumption.

Exercise regularly. Exercise is actually one of the safest, most effective ways to prevent and treat heart disease. In 2013, researchers at Harvard and Stanford reviewed 305 randomized controlled trials, concluding there were "no statistically detectable differences" between physical activity and medications for heart disease. High-intensity interval training, which requires but a fraction of the time compared to conventional cardio, has been shown to be especially effective.

Pay attention to your oral health. There's convincing evidence linking the state of your teeth and gums to a variety of health issues, including heart disease. In one 2010 study,14 those with the worst oral hygiene increased their risk of developing heart disease by 70 percent, compared to those who brush their teeth twice a day.

Avoid statins, as the side effects of these drugs are numerous, while the benefits are debatable. In my view, the only group of people who may benefit from a cholesterol-lowering medication are those with genetic familial hypercholesterolemia. This is a condition characterized by abnormally high cholesterol, which tends to be resistant to lowering with lifestyle strategies like diet and exercise.

Carb Loading 101

How to fill out before contest day.

Let's summarize some contest-prep guidelines for calories, protein, carbs, and fat: Total calories should not be reduced below that which produces one to two pounds of weight loss per week. Six weeks or so out from contest day, you’ll want to reduce weight loss to one pound per week to save muscle. Protein should range between 1–1½ grams per pound of body weight. Carbohydrates should stay as high as possible while keeping protein in the ideal range and still allowing one to two pounds of weight loss per week. Resist the temptation to cut carbs too low. Fat can make up the rest and should fall between 15–20% of total calories. If this is your first contest, give yourself a week for every two pounds you think you’ll need to lose. 

Now, let's discuss how to fill out again before contest day. After months of dieting, your muscles are going to be fat from carb and water depletion. You need to replenish the glycogen in your muscle in order to get your fullness back. We call this carb loading. 

Traditional carb loading is accomplished by manipulating carb intake and training in two distinct phases. The carb-depletion phase involves depleting the muscle of its glycogen stores through a high volume of exercise and a very low carbohydrate intake. This depletion phase is then followed by a repletion phase. The repletion, or “loading” phase, consists of greatly reducing the volume of exercise, and at the same time, gorging on carbohydrate-rich foods for about three days. Successfully completing the depletion phase and the loading phase results in super-compensation of glycogen levels in the muscles and if done correctly (and a bit of luck) results in a much fuller appearance to your muscles. 

As anyone can attest who has tried traditional carb loading, it ain’t pleasant! Sure, the loading phase is a piece of cake, but the depletion phase can be killer. The reason it’s so difficult is the side effects of depleting your body’s glycogen stores. One of the first and most challenging is gnawing hunger. Not the kind you get just before dinnertime—I’m talking serious hunger that makes it difficult to concentrate. You’ll also experience symptoms of hypoglycemia; namely, weakness, loss of stamina, lethargy, and irritability. The loss of stamina makes it very difficult to complete the depletion workouts. Not to mention, it can make you very difficult to live with for a few days. 

Most people find this method extremely difficult. As mentioned earlier, the depletion phase tends to induce dizziness upon standing, fatigue, headache, and irritability, not to mention an intense appetite. In my personal experience I’ve also found the ensuing loading phase to cause significant bloating and unwanted water retention. Not everybody experiences this, but many do. Although not widely known, there is a modified method of carb loading that has shown to be just as effective as the traditional method. We’ll delve deeper into this new method next month! - FLEX

Eat Right: Grow Faster

A Scientific Approach to Maximizing Food Absorption For Muscle Gains

My twin brother, Tony Prisk, recently came to me with a very common problem. He can’t seem to get his legs to grow. Now, being that we are twins and I was able to build legs to win an IFBB pro card [Dr. Prisk obtained his pro card by winning the welterweight division at the NPC Nationals,] I know that his legs can grow. So this leaves the question, why aren’t they growing? Is it histraining? His recovery? His diet? His supplementation?

      I asked him about his training in the gym. He said he was doing all the mass movements like squatting heavy, leg press and deadlifts. He was utilizing mass-building techniques like drop sets, negatives and undulating volume. His form was spot on. He was getting enough sleep. He was getting enough rest between leg-training sessions. He was taking a myriad of GNC supplements that I sent him. It turns out that everything was right, except he wasn’t “eating to grow!”

 The Concept

      First, you have to determine just how many calories you actually need to maintain your weight with regards to total daily energy expenditure. Log your dietary intake for a couple of weeks, weigh yourself first thing in the morning twice a week and see if your bodyweight fluctuates. If it stays the same you need more calories to grow, if it decreases you need even more calories, and if it increases you’re on the right track, but may even then want to add more calories.

      Then you need to consider how active you are in the gym or on your job. One way to get a sense of this is to use a wearable calorie-counting device or phone app. Again, these aren’t very accurate so you will have to adjust as you go, but they give you a starting point. Add your extra calorie burn to your caloric needs and then add up to 500 calories. This will ensure you that you are never energy deficient. More calories will help with gaining weight, but you will run greater risk of storing fat.

      Second, you have to adjust your macronutrients (carbs, fats and protein) to meet your individual needs. All proteins, fats and carbs are not created equal.

 Not All Proteins Are Created Equal

      We all know that bodybuilders need more protein than the 0.8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight that the RDA recommends. The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) and American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) also agree with this, recommending nearly 1 gram per pound of bodyweight for strength-training athletes.1,2 However, some believe that this may still be insufficient for maximizing gains from heavy resistance training.3 In fact, I believe that counting the absolute number of all grams of protein may be a little misleading, because all proteins are not created equal.

      Once we have verified that we are getting the majority of our protein intake from complete proteins, we must also realize that all complete proteins are not created equal. Each protein has different ratios of the essential and non-essential amino acids. Some proteins such as the dairy proteins are particularly rich in the branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs; leucine, isoleucine, valine). It turns out that this difference in BCAA content is an important distinction.

      A recently published study has shown that when we consume protein in a skewed fashion (like most Americans) with the majority of our protein intake at dinner and much less at lunch and breakfast, we do not maximize our muscle growth potential.4 This study looked at the difference between eating ~10 grams, 15 grams and 65 grams of protein for breakfast, lunch and dinner, respectively, versus eating 30 grams for each meal. By increasing the protein content of the first two meals, it is theorized that a threshold was met whereby muscle protein synthesis was turned on at each meal.  

 Healthy and Unhealthy Fats

      There are essential fats that we can’t live without. Even though recent studies suggest that saturated fat may not be as evil as once thought, if you eat too much when trying to grow you will probably not be at your healthiest. That being said, restricting your cholesterol and saturated fat intake excessively can cause reductions in testosterone production, potentially hindering muscle growth.6 So, if you are not a “hormone supplemented” bodybuilder, extreme limitations of your fat intake can be detrimental to your goals. By maximizing the polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially the omega-3s from fish oils, you are more likely to see some health benefits from eating to grow. I would recommend keeping your fat content above 30 percent of your total daily calories and strictly avoid toxic and inflammatory trans fats. As for all of the macronutrients, getting the majority of your fat from whole (unprocessed) foods will help you to avoid unhealthy fats.

 Carbohydrates

      Carbohydrates stimulate the release of insulin, your body’s most anabolic hormone. By consuming more than adequate amounts of carbohydrates with each meal and around your training, you can maximize strength-training performance in the gym to attain the most adaptive responses for muscle growth. Carbohydrate-deficient diets can limit testosterone production8; whether this is significant enough to limit muscle accretion is not known. Regardless,low-carbohydrate diets can limit strength as glycogen fuels weight training.

      The American College of Sports Medicine recommends consuming 2.7 to 4.5 grams of carbohydrate per pound bodyweight per day.2 The amount required is very dependent on energy requirements after calculating your protein and fat needs. The more endurance or high-volume training you perform, the more carbohydrate you should consume. Additionally, 0.5 grams of carbohydrate per pound bodyweight will be more than enough in a post-workout meal to restore muscle glycogen stores. Again, whole foods such as yams, potatoes, rice, quinoa and others would be recommended over sugars.

      The data about the “anabolic window” has become muddied in recent years. There is data to support consuming protein and carbohydrate within an hour before or after your training. However, other studies have shown that if you are consuming adequate amounts of protein throughout the day the timing around the workout doesn’t matter.9 Essentially, if you are consuming your protein (and thus leucine) every three to four hours as we previously discussed, you will have some protein fairly close to the start of your training and after. Because the research is so muddied, I still recommend having half of a 40- to 50-gram whey +/- carbohydrate meal before and after your training when “eating to grow.”

 Vegetables

      Another, often under recognized, aspect of “eating to grow” is the importance of vegetables. Vegetables are not only important for their antioxidant vitamin, mineral and fiber content. Veggies, especially green leafy veggies, are rich in nitrates. Nitrates act as nitric oxide donors. This is just like the arginine- and citrulline-rich supplements used to boost your pump in the gym.

      Foods like spinach, celery and beets are rich in nitrates and boost nitric oxide. Researchers have found that beetroot juice supplementation results in better tolerance of the intense exercise and better metabolic handling of oxygen than beetroot juice that was depleted of nitrate.10 The subjects on the nitrate-rich beetroot juice took longer to fail at a high-intensity sprint than those on a placebo-nitrate depleted beetroot juice. With higher intensity training you can imagine this could provide greater potential for muscle growth stimulus. With the added antioxidants, you may even recover from that training faster. Do what your mama told ya: eat your veggies!

 Diet Essentials

 In summary, there are a few things you need to be certain your diet contains:             

      1. Whole food sources of quality proteins, fats, and carbohydrates

      2. 0.05 grams of leucine per kilogram bodyweight per meal

      3. Nitrate-rich veggies

 Dr. Victor Prisk is a board certified orthopaedic surgeon and IFBB professional bodybuilder in Pittsburgh, PA. Dr. Prisk is an active member of the GNC Medical Advisory Board and creator of the “G.A.I.N. Plan.” He is an NCAA All-American gymnast, champion swing dancer and 2010 NPC Welterweight National Champion. For week-to-week updates on his app and books, check out his blog at www.YourGAINPlan.com and Twitter posts @victorprisk

What Happens to Body Fat When You Cleanse?

Ah, the visual joy of weight loss—your face is more defined, your belly no longer protrudes over the waist of your pants, and parts that used to jiggle are now toned. On the outside, fat loss seems like a fairly simple process. However, what happens in your body during weight loss involves an intricate web of metabolic changes that include structural transformation of fat cells, the breakdown and use of fat for energy, as well as changes in hormone production.

Performing Isagenix Cleanse Days—a combination of intermittent fasting with herbs and vitamins that support detoxification—is an effective approach for weight loss, especially for targeting fat loss. In fact, the UIC study using Isagenix products found that those who follow the Isagenix system had more fat loss and twice as much visceral fat loss than those who followed a “heart healthy” diet.

How does fat loss occur when you incorporate Cleanse Days into your routine? To understand, we’ll have to start with the basics, or Fat 101:

Getting to know fat

Adipose tissue—or body fat—is comprised of millions of fat cells, also called adipocytes, with the average adult having around 40 billion. The weight of adipose tissue is about 20 percent of body weight, making it one of the biggest organs in the body.

Fat can be defined by where it’s found in the body: subcutaneous fat is located just below the surface of the skin while visceral fat is found in the abdominal cavity, surrounding the internal organs. Furthermore, there are two types of adipose tissue: white and brown. White adipose tissue is primarily used as an energy reserve and brown adipose tissue functions to generate heat.

Adipose tissue is a metabolically active organ rather than just an inert mass as many may have guessed. In fact, each depot of the organ even receives its own vascular and nerve supply.

Adipose tissue has been identified as an endocrine organ because of its production of hormones known as adipokines. These signaling proteins influence several important functions including glucose and lipid metabolism, blood coagulation, insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, and steroid hormone modulation (1). Excessive adipose tissue has been shown to disrupt the normal endocrine functions of fat cells and can negatively affect health through insulin resistance, abnormal blood lipids, and even increased cardiovascular disease risk.

Leptin is an adipokine that regulates hunger and appetite by telling the brain, “I’m full!” Although intuition may assume that leptin levels would be low in obese individuals due to chronically excessive food intake, the opposite is true. Leptin has been shown to be tightly related to fat cell size: the bigger the adipocyte, the greater the expression of leptin (2).

This would mean that obese persons are constantly feeling full, right? Wrong. Obesity is associated with resistance to the effects of leptin on the brain appetite centers, so they actually end up having an impaired response that doesn’t indicate fullness. This exemplifies how complex the relationship is between adipose tissue and the endocrine system.

Fat cells increase in size, then in number

When energy balance becomes positive (meaning there are more calories consumed than burned), the adipose organ increases, particularly in the amount of white adipose tissue. White adipocytes undergo hypertrophy (increase in volume) followed by hyperplasia (increase in number).

It’s been proposed that adipocytes have a maximum volume, referred to as “critical cell size” that may be genetically determined (3). This means that fat cells can only get so big. Once they reach their critical cell size, they trigger production of new adipocytes. In other words, your existing fat cells are filled until they reach their capacity (much like a balloon) and then signal the body to make more fat cells.

You are more likely to make additional fat cells at certain times in your life. Research has shown that the natural production of fat cells steadily increases during childhood and levels off in early adulthood (4). Although more research is needed, this could indicate that children who are obese are more likely to be obese as adults and experience greater difficulties in trying to achieve weight loss.

How the body burns fat

When energy balance is negative in the body (meaning there are more calories being burned than consumed), the hormones that access stored fuel are increased, namely glucagon. In short, the body flips from an energy-storing state to an energy-burning state.

First, the body will burn stored carbohydrate, also known as glycogen, which is found mostly in the liver and muscles. Once the glycogen energy reserve has been exhausted, the body breaks down fat in a process called lipolysis.

What happens to fat cells during weight loss?

During negative energy balance such as on Cleanse Days, the body will use the fat for fuel causing the fat cells to shrink in size. As fat cells decrease in size, so too does the amount of signaling molecules produced. Over time, this reestablishment of normal endocrine function can be immensely beneficial for health including decreasing the molecules that induce inflammation.

Additionally, fat loss accompanied by adequate intake of optimal nutrition—such as  vitamins (B vitamins, vitamins C and E), minerals (selenium, zinc, copper), and other bioactive nutrients including coenzyme Q10 and polyphenols—support the detoxification systems of the body in the removal of toxins. (Read more in The Basics of Detoxification.)

It is interesting to note that fat cells have the ability to shrink but rarely decrease in number. However, during fat loss, cells can decrease as much as 400 percent in size! For many, this morphological transformation supported by dietary interventions such as Cleanse Days means more than just a slimmer appearance; it can improve health and even add years of quality life.

References

1.    Rossmeislova L, Malisova L, Kracmerova J, Stich V. Adaptation of human adipose tissue to hypocaloric diet. Int J Obes (Lond) 2013;37:640-50. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2012.80

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