HPC-UK’s Top Tips for Fat Loss; Tip No.4 - Eat Low Glycemic Carbohydrates.

I have shown in previous articles how carbohydrates are classified in terms of their capacity to raise blood sugar. 

For a lean body for life, stick to those with a low glycemic index. 

The most misguided mistake seen with the average dieter is the use of foods such as rice cakes or low fat cereals and cereal bars, akin to cardboard in my mind. Foods such as these generally have a glycemic index about the same as, or higher than, table sugar. They are all rapidly converted to sugar in the blood which usually causes insulin to go wild. 

The high level of insulin helps to turn the sugar into triglycerides which is stored as fat. The excess insulin is also converted into triglycerides, and also subsequently stored as fat. Add to this the fact that high levels of blood triglycerides cause temporary insulin resistance and promote the development of chronic insulin resistance which eventually leads on to diabetes.

It’s wise to heed the wisdom of Ben Franklin when he said ‘The honey is sweet but the bee has a sting.’

HPC-UK’s Top Tips for Fat Loss; Tip No.3 - Eat The Right Fats

The only fats you need are the essential fats linoleic acid (omega-6) and alpha-linolenic acid (omega-3). Essential fats in amounts that you need will not put on bodyfat, in fact quite the opposite. With the right fats, you’ll get leaner than ever, easier than ever.

Essential fats regulate or play a part in pretty much all of your of bodily processes, a number of which I’ve described in my articles. But suffice to say without essential fats in your diet, your body will never be in an optimal condition to function or stay lean for life.

Other than essential fats, try to limit the fat in your diet, especially hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats and their progeny trans- fats which usually come via processed foods. Don’t become too meticulous here though, just simple things like trimming the excess fat off of cuts of meat. Aim to keep total fats to 15-20% of your daily intake of food, you’ll get more indirectly in your diet, from unseen sources.

To make sure your body is functioning properly don’t forget to ‘Grease the Groove’.

HPC-UK Top Tips for Fat Loss. Tip No.2 - Stabilise Your Insulin

‘Dieting’, skipping meals, low/ no-fat foods, snacking on bars instead of eating, and the sundry other usual methods of the weight loss industry, all trigger a disruption in your insulin metabolism.

Simplified, all of the above methods destabilise your insulin. When you do eat, you get a big insulin burst. Insulin is a storage hormone. It causes your body to store everything. Not only do you store any extra food, but your liver converts all the excess insulin into triglycerides – fat, - and stores that too. So you can cut calories by skipping meals, yet still increase your bodyfat. Keeping a stable balance between the storage action of insulin and the catabolic action of its opposing hormone glucagon is crucial for being lean.

Aim for insulin stability and insulin efficiency. It’s the main way to affect your fat loss ability.

First, eat five to six small meals per day, each containing some low-glycemic carbohydrates, good quality protein and essential fats. HPC-UK clients are advised to eat every three or so hours using a schedule such as 7 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 4 pm, 7 pm, and 10 pm. They never suffer low blood sugar. Nor do they suffer insulin bursts. Their blood shows a stable balance between insulin and its catabolic partner, glucagon.

As the old saying goes ‘The continuous drip polishes the stone.’

HPC-UK Top Tips for Fat Loss; Tip No.1 - Never Put Your Body Into Fat-Defensive Mode

A large majority of people fail to change their bodyfat permanently because, in their impatience to lose fat, they force the body to defend its habitual level of fat. As I’ve shown in previous articles after a few attempts they admit defeat, blame their parents and console themselves with cake. Obviously, people do differ in their inherited tendencies to accumulate fat. But only a very small percentage can blame their level of bodyfat on their genes, in all honesty this isn’t you. We know now that neither the number of fat cells you carry, nor their size, is genetically fixed. For most of us, bodyfat is a reflection of what we eat and what we do.

Once you trigger fat defense with the usual methods, such as skipping meals or reducing calories, eating really odd diets, or special low-calorie packaged meals, you lose the ability to permanently change your bodyfat. There is no way your body can make the required changes because your body is on high alert fat defense all the time. Leave the latest diet fads for the numpties.

If you have been fooled into fad dieting, and have used any of its many different forms for more than six months, you have put your body in terrible shape to lose fat and maintain the loss. Don’t worry though, follow the HPC-UK Tips for Fat Loss, and within one year you will be able to control your bodyfat for life

Remember, ‘Haste Makes Waist’.

Jamie’s Not So Revolutionary, Albeit Infinitely Worthy, Food Revolution

There has been a bit of a brouhaha in the past week regarding the Governments plans to tackle the Obesity bomb that has just begun to explode. I am at a loss for words to begin to explain the stupidity of the planned ‘fat tax’, so I won’t do that here. What I am going to comment on is the equally ‘imbecilic’ advice from Andrew Lansley to ‘Eat Less, Move More’, and the more deserving advice from Jamie Oliver to ‘Eat Differently’.

‘Eat Less, Move More’ has been an oft trotted out phrase by generally good intentioned by woefully ignorant people. This phrase is based on the concept of energy balance, which as I’ve shown has used Calories as a basis for measurement for various reasons, from simplicity to outright fraud. We’ll look at the nutrition side of things here, and possibly return to the physical exercise part in a later piece.

Let’s start with a simple premise:

I can design a program where I can increase your calorific intake by 50% and you will still lose weight (by this I’m referring to bodyfat).

I can also design a diet where I reduce your calorific intake by 50% and cause you to end up fatter.

So in the first case a person can go from eating 2000 Kcal to eating 3000 Kcal per day and actually slim down. In the second case the same person could go from eating 2000 Kcal to eating 1000 Kcal per day and get fatter.

How is this possible when it goes completely against the logic of energy balance? Well it does and it doesn’t. You have to remember that food is not just a container for energy, but is also a chemical signal. These chemical signals can have profound effects on the way the body functions.

Let’s use two isocaloric diets (same amount of Calories in each) of 2000Kcal as an example to explain how this works. This amount of Kcal’s is, according to the authority, the amount required for a 10st 7lb (147lb/ 67Kg) female. Let’s assume she has a fairly reasonable level of bodyfat of 18%.

In the first diet let’s use the Government recommendations for macronutrients (Carbohydrate, Protein and Fat) which are 50:15:35, providing 250g of Carbohydrate, 75g of Protein and 78g of fat.

In the second diet let’s change the ratios to 33:30:37, providing 165g Carbohydrate, 150g of protein and 82g of fat.

According to the Calorie based energy balance argument both diets should maintain weight in the female example. However, what you’ll find is the second diet will cause a reduction in weight, even though the second diet is slightly higher in fat and the total Calories haven’t changed. This is due to the ‘Thermic Effect of Food’ (TEF). Simply put, to digest and metabolise food requires energy, and some foods require more than others.

By increasing Protein and decreasing Carbohydrate, we have to increase metabolism in order to process the nutrient. The TEF can account for 5-15% of your daily energy output depending on what you eat. 15% of a 2000 Kcal diet is 300 Kcal or 2,100 Kcal extra expended per week, without having to raise a pinky.

The above could account for a fat loss of about 1/2lb per week simply by altering your ratios. However, it doesn’t stop there, as Jamie Oliver alluded to; choosing the right food is more important than simply the Calorie content, let’s briefly explore this part.

Food doesn’t just provide energy; it also influences many processes in the body, including hormones. As anyone who has taken the contraceptive pill or a course of corticosteroids will attest, hormones can very quickly affect your level of bodyfat.

I’ve shown previously that depending on your selection of carbohydrates, your body will respond in either a favourable manner or go completely in the opposite direction.  In very simply terms, choosing lower Glycemic Index carbohydrates over Higher Glycemic Index will maintain low and stable insulin levels, both which support fat loss and maintenance of muscle. Higher glycemic carbohydrates (except at very specific times) will do the opposite and influence the body to create bodyfat and actually decrease muscle, by taking insulin too high and causing a see-saw effect in levels.

So even if you were using an undesirable macronutrient ratio, you can create an environment for fat gain or fat loss simply by selecting the right carbohydrate.

I won’t go into protein as this can get quite complicated, and I was at risk of boring you 758 words ago, so without tempting fate and hoping you’re still with me, let’s finish up with fats. This section also goes part way to explaining why a ‘Fat Tax’ is ridiculously myopic.

Fats are a perennial target when nutrition is discussed, usually for the wrong reasons. Choosing the right fats will make or break a body. Period.

Current recommendations are to increase monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and to reduce saturated fats. Great advice on the surface, but again it’s not this simple. Leaving out monounsaturated fats as they are, not completely, but relatively benign, we’ll locate our gaze on the other two main classes.

For close to 2-3 decades polyunsaturated fats have been promoted as the hero in the fat world, and for good reason. Both Omega 3 and 6 are essential to the body as we cannot make these fats internally as we can with many others. Being essential they have profound effects on the way the body functions, such as, but in no way limited to, levels of haemoglobin and Insulin metabolism, and this is starting to show in the health of the population.

Omega 6 is fairly easy to get in the diet, and the promotion of grain based foods as a basis for a healthy diet has made this even more the case. Omega 3 is not found so readily and even when it is found it spoils very easily, so getting enough in the diet is a lot harder.

This imbalance and its effect on the physiology of the body is one of the reasons for the continuing levels of, amongst many others, Cardio-vascular disease, Cancer and the alarming levels of obesity we are witnessing. If you’ve been reading my work, you’ll have seen the current theory that chronic inflammation is intrinsically linked not only to the above diseases but very much a central player in the ability to control body fat.

What about saturated fats, the much hated, demonised child of the fat family. Even here, it’s not that simple. There are many saturated fats, which all have different effects on the body. Stearic acid, the major saturated fatty acid found in beef, doesn’t raise LDL cholesterol like other saturated fats, but it does promote creation of bodyfat. Other saturated fats such as Lauric acid found in Coconuts do not raise bodyfat. It also raises HDL cholesterol, but also raises LDL cholesterol. So it’s not as easy as saying all saturated fats are bad, as they can have beneficial effects, of which most people are unaware. So the inclusion of saturated fat in the diet is not only warranted it’s actually desirable.

So where does that leave us? Well, if we took Andrew Lansley’s advice and simply ate less, we’d in all likelihood end up both fatter and in much poorer health. If we take Jamie Oliver’s advice to eat differently and more knowledgably, we’d have a vastly healthier nation, and this would be reflected by our sleek physiques.

Demolition Man

In the previous article we looked very briefly at antioxidants and how uncontrolled oxidation creates excess free radicals. I suggested that in order to maintain a long lived healthy body and mind, we need to balance this process.

Most commentators on health in the general media would have you believe that free radicals are fiendish Gremlins that wreak havoc upon the body that should be entirely eliminated. It’s also been suggested that the fact that the body seems to naturally produce free radicals as a natural component of energy processing is an inherent flaw in the design of the Human body. Pish!!!

Excess free radicals will damage the body there is no doubt, we looked at the process by which this happens. However, far from an undesirable element, the body also uses free radicals in a huge array of processes, one notable function being immunity. Without free radicals, you would be prey to every passing virus, bacteria, microbe or sundry other wee beasties. Much like Special Force Units in the military, the fittest members of a population are recruited to execute specialised manoeuvres that the majority of the population neither have the skills or the necessary partitioned enmity that is demanded to have the required devastating effect. Or more succinctly put by John Spartan in Demolition Man ‘Send a Maniac to catch a Maniac’.

Ever wondered why most infections begin with a sore throat. The throat is one of the most accessible points of entry into the body (it’s actually still outside of the body, but I digress), where the aforementioned viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, microbes, chemicals etc. have the best chance of mounting an invasion. Upon detection of an unwanted invader, the body immediately contacts specialised armed forces called lymphocytes. This response is known as the lymphocyte proliferative response which is part of cell mediated immunity. This initial response and the subsequent battle for ground ‘is’ your sore throat.

The lymphocytes are divided into different components called T-Cells, B-Cells and Natural Killer Cells and much like the Armed Forces divisions of Army, Navy and Air force, each adheres to a specific remit. Within each division are sub-divisions, much like the Marine infantry within the Navy, with an even more specialised role within an already specialised unit.

Generally, foreign elements are tackled by Natural Killer Cells, which act as sentry guards. Natural Killer Cells do not need direction from the immune system as they auto-regulate their activity.  Natural Killers, on a daily basis destroy viruses and tumors before they can take hold and multiply. However, because of their fairly indiscriminate and very potent nature, the body keeps Natural Killers on a pretty short leash.

During this initial stand-off both the invading elements and the Natural Killer Cells create a substantial amount of collateral damage to normal body cells. Damaged cells, in response, raise a red flag (chemical signals such as prostaglandins and leukotrines) to alert the immune system that ‘it’s on’.

The Immune system then deploys another group of lymphocytes that are of a more discerning constitution. Although they are more selective in targeting, the collateral damage is even more severe.

Usually the first team to turn up at the battlefield are class of Phagocytes called Neutrophils. Neutrophils upon identifying an invader, attack by engulfing them. Having ingested the invader the Neutrophil essentially takes a huge breath, taking in 50 times the amount of Oxygen. This results in what is known as an ‘Oxidative burst’ within the Neutrophil, destroying the ingested foreign element by enlisting free radicals. The Neutrophil can perform this action about 20-30 times before the oxidative damage accumulates and damages the Neutrophil itself. At this point of no return, the Neutrophil detonates like a bomb, causing massive fallout from the oxidative contents and the free radicals that have been generated.

This may seem like a flaw in design of the immune system. Not at all, it’s genius, you just need to look at it from the right angle. The shrapnel emitted from the explosion hits, and damages, everything, both normal tissue and invading elements alike. This fallout weakens the invaders, softening them up for the killer blow delivered by your immune cells. To prevent the body from being overly damaged by the friendly fire, your cells require appropriate levels of antioxidants to shield themselves.

This is only the beginning stages of immune response, the later stages recruit various other cells such as Monocytes, T-cells as the battle becomes a lot more targeted via Humoral Immunity. However, even this brief skim over oxidation, free radicals and immunity demonstrates the delicate balance we need to maintain in order to allow oxidation to occur for beneficial reasons and having sufficient antioxidant armour to protect ourselves from rogue soldiers.