Revvin’ the Engine

‘Okay. First of all, it's cretin. If you're gonna threaten me, do it properly.’ ~ Mike - Monsters Inc

People who take programs with HPC-UK are often surprised at the lack of emphasis placed on Calories in vs Calories out, or, as it’s otherwise called, energy balance. Now, while energy balance is important in the overall scheme, it is dependent, and this is key, on how your mind and body react to food.

If you’ve read my previous work you’ll notice that as much as possible I like to modulate bodily function by focusing upstream, rather than directly affecting end stream processes. This method is used so that the body can put all the checks and balances in place to control the end process. If you would like an example of this top-down protocol read my article on how to increase Testosterone. The article is called ‘The Brain Game’, and can be found here http://hpc-uk.net/2.html

A new study (1) has just added support to the way I design protocols from a number of perspectives, let’s have a brief look at what the study found.

The recent study (a summary can be found here http://tinyurl.com/c3nnjr5) was focused on a group of cells located in a part of your brain called the hypothalamus. Your hypothalamus is responsible for regulation of hunger, thirst, and temperature, as well as feelings of excitement, pleasure, anger, anxiety and fear. It is a very important structure that an optimally functioning body is intimately dependent upon. The specific cells the study looked at are called Orexin neurons.

Orexin neurons are responsible for your state of wakefulness and partially your reward circuitry. Also, until this study came along Orexin cells were only thought to influence metabolism via signals that promote hunger. Well this new study shows that they do more than that, they actually alter your metabolic rate and the way your body partitions and metabolises nutrients.

The activity of Orexin cells can be turned up, which stimulates metabolism, or turned down, which does the opposite and reduces the metabolic rate. Glucose (sugar) has been shown to cause a reduction in the activity of the Orexin cells, which will cause a drop in the metabolic rate, and also cause your state of wakefulness to become subdued. Essentially glucose causes you to be and feel sluggish.

A class of amino acids (non-essential), were shown in this study to strongly increase the activity of the Orexin cells, which stimulated the metabolic rate to increase and promote a state of wakefulness and reward seeking behaviour. Fundamentally, this is the opposite state to that which is induced by glucose.

So carbohydrate alone tends to cause reduced activity in Orexin cells, and protein alone causes an increase in their activity. However, we generally do not eat our meals as separate nutrients, most meals are mixed. The study also commented on this too.

Although the presence of glucose reduced the activity of the Orexin cells, the concurrent presence of non-essential amino acids actually restricted the effect of the glucose. Therefore, consuming sufficient protein (to provide the amino acids) at each meal will not only stimulate your metabolism in its own right, but will attenuate the negative effect of carbohydrate on your metabolic rate.

The study also provides another huge implication. One way the body alters metabolism is through sensing total energy balance. However this study demonstrated that the body also alters metabolism via other key measurements in this case the glucose/ (non essential) amino acid ratio. I won’t go into too much detail here, but in evolutionary terms this makes perfect sense. High glucose levels equate to a fed state, therefore your body reads into this situation as ‘Okay, we have sufficient food, let’s rest and recuperate’. Hence the action of glucose to reduce wakefulness and reward seeking behaviour.

High ratio’s of non-essential amino acids generally occurs under fasting and starvation conditions, not really a time to be kickin’ back. In this situation the body is reading ‘Okay, we are starving, let’s go hunt and forage for food’. This situation requires you to be on high alert (for both predators and prey) and also to be physically capable of chasing down your meals, or if foraging, up to the task of sustaining long periods of physical activity in order to collect sufficient edibles.

I have a feeling this area of study is going to be ‘big’. What I’m going to do is curtail this quick little article here, then, I’ll expand in later articles on how Orexin cells can alter the way your body metabolises nutrients, and how we can manipulate this pathway to our advantage.

References

1. Mahesh M. Karnani, John Apergis-Schoute, Antoine Adamantidis, Lise T. Jensen, Luis de Lecea, Lars Fugger, Denis Burdakov. Activation of Central Orexin/Hypocretin Neurons by Dietary Amino Acids. Neuron, 2011; 72 (4): 616 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.08.027

HPC-UK’s Top Tips for Fat Loss. Tip No.10– Go In For The Long Haul

Fat loss and a body that can remain lean for life are not achieved overnight. Despite living in a culture where instant gratification is rife, physiological dynamics have to wait on nature.

Bodyfat tends to be accumulated very slowly, usually at a rate of about 30g per day, almost imperceptible. 30g a day is only 2lbs per month, but over a year that’s 24lb, two years down the line that tiny daily amount can put on an additional 4 stone of fat.

Because the change is small, it doesn’t stimulate an aggressive response by your body, and because it’s almost impossible to perceive, your brain doesn’t register the change, so you do nothing about it. Then you wake up one morning thinking ‘How did this happen?’

To effectively lose bodyfat and remain that way permanently you need to ‘play the game’. Don’t think you can bend the rules and expect the body not to counter your action. Your body will beat you every time, it has many more tricks up its sleeve than you can imagine. So to permanently change your level of bodyfat you need to lose bodyfat slowly, about ½ lb per week, if you are severely overweight you can get away with a bit more.

Again, like fat gain, you may think that nothing is happening to your body, but if you follow the tips given, your body will gradually change to a permanently leaner condition, all without the deprivation of usual weight loss practices.

Done properly, fat loss and remaining lean is easy. It doesn’t require strenuous dieting, avoidance of chocolate or the occasional cake. It certainly doesn’t require weird dietary or lifestyle practices. You possess a body that is able to stay lean while enjoying delectable foods, one of life’s greatest pleasures.

Using the previous tips will be the best step you can take on achieving this supposed, but very attainable, physical utopia. You have it within you to accomplish this goal, but if you feel like you need a steady hand to help you through the initial wobbly steps, get in touch, we’ll be glad to provide the necessary support.  

‘Failure is the path of least persistence.’ - Unknown

HPC-UK’s Top Tips for Fat Loss. Tip No.9– Turn Up The Heat

You can induce the body to use fat directly for heat. This important mechanism involves special structures known as uncoupling proteins. As I have briefly explained in previous articles most of your energy is processed and packaged into a temporary chemical cage called ATP. For most of your body’s energy needs ATP is used, and a by-product of this is heat generation. This also includes heat generation by what is known as shivering thermogenesis. Basically, powered by ATP, opposing muscles contract rapidly resulting in very little actual movement. In extreme cases of cold exposure it’s a vital mechanism to stay alive, but for everyday needs it’s an inefficient means of heat production.

First discovered in 1979 Thermogenin (UCP 1), is an uncoupling protein found mostly in brown adipose tissue. It can produce heat from nutrients without first being converted to ATP, hence the name uncoupling, as the process is independent of the usual energy cycle. This production of heat is termed thermogenesis.

Since 1997 scientists have discovered an additional 4 uncoupling proteins which unlike UCP 1 are found in common tissues in the body. However without turning this into a thesis on uncoupling, I’ll leave the explanation there. If there is call, I will write a larger piece on this subject.

However, the upshot of this is that influencing uncoupling and the resultant thermogenesis is an extremely potent method of fat loss. There are many chemicals that will greatly increase the gene expression of the UCP’s, resulting in the use of 1000’s of Calories worth of fat per day. Stating the obvious, generating this much heat is very dangerous and there have been numerous deaths associated with both intentional and unintentional exposure to these chemicals. Therefore I wouldn’t advise using them, nor will I name the compounds that are used.

Luckily there are many milder compounds that can stimulate uncoupling, that are found in everyday food with very low potential for toxicity. Stimulating uncoupling in this way, you can safely induce thermogenesis to use 10-15% of your total energy. An average 35 year old woman could use an additional 330 Kcal per day, all coming from fat. This would result in a loss of 2/3 lb of fat per week, without having to lift a finger. Over a year you are looking at a loss of 35lbs of fat.

For optimal fat loss, reset your thermostat.

‘The heat is on, on the street
Inside your head, on every beat
And the beat's so loud, deep inside
The pressure's high, just to stay alive
'Cause the heat is on’

~ Glenn Frey – The Heat Is On

HPC-UK’s Top Tips for Fat Loss. Tip No.8– Exercise; Part 3

The number of exercise sessions you perform per week is essential. It’s been shown time and time again that the frequency of your exercise is a major factor in fat loss. One representative study observed that exercising five times per week stimulated three times the fat loss than a three times per week protocol, even though the total time was more in the three times per week group. The group that exercised only once per week lost no fat at all.

For fat loss, five weekly workouts of 30 minutes per day is superior to three sessions of 60 minutes, even though the three session protocol in total is half an hour longer.

One of the reasons it works is this. Exercise alters your physiological state hugely, so that food taken in after exercise is processed and partitioned more advantageously, than if exercise had not been performed.

A simple way to think of it is as follows. When you wake up your metabolism is going at a snails pace. If you do no exercise, your metabolism will stay low throughout the day and you’ll essentially be on maximum calorie retention for anything you eat. If however, upon waking, you perform a basic exercise session, your metabolism is elevated almost immediately, and will stay this way for most of the day. You will then be on minimal calorie retention from the food you eat.

Frequent exercise is key.

‘Get your motor running, head out on the highway. Looking for adventure in whatever comes our way.’ ~ Steppenwolf - Born to be Wild (1969)

HPC-UK’s Top Tips for Fat Loss Tip No.7– Exercise; Part 2

Despite all the elaborate charts that show that one particular exercise or class uses more calories than another, it’s all an overly simplified and irrelevant nonsense, fat loss has little to do with the calories used during the exercise session. The right exercise (see the previous tip) raises your metabolic rate not only while you are doing it, but also at a highly elevated rate up to 18 hours afterwards, and at a slightly lower, but still elevated rate for 48 hours. This is known as Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC).

Aerobic exercise stimulates only a transient and small rise in EPOC, whereas resistance training stimulates an enduring and substantial rise.

However, even if you do the right exercise, if it’s done in the evenings close to bedtime, the effect is dramatically reduced. Sleep causes your metabolic rate to drop like a sack of potatoes. If you do the wrong exercise, at the wrong time, as most people do, in respect to fat loss, it’s as much use as a chocolate teapot or a Toblerone toast rack.

To get the biggest fat loss effect from exercise, perform it in the mornings and the earlier the better.

‘Morning is when the wick is lit.  A flame ignited, the day delighted with heat and light, we start the fight for something more than before.’  ~Jeb Dickerson

Tame the Flame

In the previous articles in this series we have glanced at the main cause of aging, that being excessive oxidation. We discovered that it isn’t the demonised process that it is made out to be. I even hinted that recent discoveries in science have shown that it is an essential signal in the body for optimal functioning. But it does need to be precisely controlled, so that it doesn’t end up causing more damage than is required to keep house.

I also briefly described how processes aren’t separate, as there is constant overlapping interplay in your physiology. If you stub your toe, it isn’t limited to that specific area. A message will be sent to your brain, which will then relay the message to your mouth to usually shout an obscenity as an expression of your resultant change in emotions of increased pain and anger. Your hands will also be informed to reach down and grab the offended digit. You may, if you’re anything like me, shed a tear. This is a gross oversimplification of what actually occurs, but hopefully it’s sufficient to imply the general idea.

The next major cause of aging, and an underlying factor in many of the conditions that plague the majority of the population, is what is known as inflammation. You would have experienced this process any time you have suffered from an injury. If the injury is minor such as a simple scratch, you probably would have noticed some redness and a little pain. As the injury becomes more serious so does the inflammatory response. A bee sting for instance not only damages the skin by the barbed stinger that pierces the skin, but also the injected toxin from the venom sac causes a huge toxic reaction, which depending on the person can range from redness, swelling, heat, pain and disturbance in function sometimes even to the point of death in certain susceptible people. This response is inflammation.

Inflammation is an essential process by which the body deals with all sorts of injuries, infections, and toxins. It achieves this by increased circulation and delivery of nutrients, and also by immune defense. In most instances, once the repair and maintenance work is done, the tissues return to normal.
With usual aging, and the average lifestyle, however, the inflammation doesn’t go away, but builds progressively until it hampers normal function. This has been termed ‘silent inflammation’ as it is below our consciously perceptible level, so it continues unopposed damaging our body until it results in a debilitating and often terminal disease.

Low-grade chronic inflammation gradually builds throughout our bodies and is treated as the inevitable crepitis and aches of age and simply put up with. This is the worst mistake, as recent findings show that this unchecked inflammation gradually destroys your joints, your organs and your brain.

So much so, that the new evidence shows clearly that inflammation is a major cause of the leading degenerative diseases. Current information puts chronic inflammation as the key factor in over 95% of all disease states such as cerebro-vascular disease, hypertension, adult-onset diabetes, osteoporosis, stroke, some forms of cancer (especially colon cancer) and Alzheimer’s and the list is growing.

Inflammation is caused by three main stimuli; Physical, Chemical and Emotional.

Physical stress is fairly easy to identify, it can range from a simple knock such as bumping into the corner of a table, to being subjected to a horrific motor vehicle accident.

Chemical stressors are a bit more ambiguous, from easily perceptible sources such as cleaning products like bleach coming into contact with the body to the very imperceptible sources such as man-made chemicals in processed materials or the invisible but omnipresent air-pollution. Then there are the chemical’s that you purposely put into your body, otherwise known as food. Food can either be an extremely pro-inflammatory signal, or the polar opposite and actually extinguish the flames.

Finally, there’s emotional stimuli. Your emotional state has a major impact on the inflammatory pathway in your body. In fact it is the main variable, other than food, that you have control over. Whilst we can be more careful not to bang our bodies up too much physically, life is unpredictable and accidents not only do, but occur more regularly than we’d like. The same goes for chemical stressors, as much as we try to avoid over exposing our body to toxins, in our current society, it’s a built in flaw to the system. However, your emotions, especially the most damaging negative ones, are entirely under your control.

I’ll explain how this occurs in the proceeding parts of this series. But if you want to slow down, or as has recently been proven, reverse the negative effect of the stress response on the aging process and telomere functioning, then you can begin right away.

I began to show in previous articles how you can use meditation to dampen down and even eliminate the majority of your negative emotions. You can read about it here http://tinyurl.com/5t864vn and in the preceding articles.

However some people do not like the fact that they are spending time seemingly doing nothing, although they don’t object so voraciously when they spend hours every day watching tut on the tube, but I digress. The external craving for stimulation has become so engrained that a compromise had to be sought. However just because it’s a compromise doesn’t mean it has to be a zero-sum game.
Meditation is a state of mind, not necessarily requiring a motionless body, so we can practice silencing our mind whilst in action.

You can meditate while doing repetitive daily chores that really require little thought. Or while practicing a movement pattern such as Tai Chi or a sequence of form from other martial arts, the more flowing arts such as Aikido lend themselves better to the purpose of the exercise.

The easiest way to do this, as the physical act aids in the calming process, is to practice stretching in the evening. It doesn’t take long, 20 minutes or so, is more than sufficient. If you are so inclined you can extend this time period. If you are unsure of how to stretch, then consider attending a few yoga classes to learn a basic routine to follow. Once you have a rudimentary routine, simply focus on your breathing as you move through the routine, this will aid in centering your mind. As you move into stretches or allow yourself to move further into stretches, try to time this to coincide with a gentle and extended exhalation.

It’s well worth your time to practice learning how to enter this state of mind and reduce the burden of distress on your life. Remember your thoughts cultivate your personality. If you tend towards being distressed, the residual effects of these thoughts propagate a fearful, anxious and often hostile personality. These people generally suffer from worse physical and mental health, and are chronically poorly.

Once you have learned how to achieve Mushin in your stretching routine, you can then gradually extend this practice to other areas of your life. Eventually more and more of your life is spent in this state, which enables you to experience existence without suffering the damaging effects of anxiety, pain, anger, bitterness and melancholy.  

I realise it sounds a bit airy-fairy, but you have the power within you to transform your life, and it all begins with a simple choice in your head.

HPC-UK’s Top Tips for Fat Loss; Tip No.6– Exercise; Part 1

To gain the biggest advantage from exercise, you should use resistance training to acquire muscle. Muscle is the main motor that uses fat for fuel. Even just sitting there, a pound of muscle uses 6 Kcal per day. Compare this to a pound of fat, which will only use 2 Kcal to fuel itself. If you exercise that muscle with resistance training, it will ramp up its usage to about 20 Kcal per day. No matter how hard or long you exercise, fat cells will trundle along at the same rate of fuel usage. Muscle is the main variable you have within your control to modulate your metabolic rate.  

Having said that, 6 Kcal at rest and 20 Kcal, if exercised, per day doesn’t sound a lot, but let’s apply to a real life case. One of my clients has (minus their bodyfat) 170lbs of lean tissue. On average 50% of a males lean body mass is muscle, so he is carrying about 85lbs on his frame.  If we confined him to bed-rest for a day his level of muscle mass would use about 510 Kcal to fuel functions such as maintenance of muscle tone and other housekeeping duties. If we exercised him for about an hour with a resistance training routine his muscles would ramp up their usage to 1,700 Kcal; a difference of 1,200 Kcal. Only 50% of this would come via fat so we’re talking about 66g of additional fat used throughout the day.

Let’s up the ante, say we gain 10lbs of muscle and exercise that muscle daily, we have now caused an additional 200 Kcal hike in our metabolism per day. Over the course of a year, without doing anything else this would be enough to drop anywhere between 10-20lbs of fat.

And, before you throw up the old cliché about not wanting to turn into a bodybuilder, let’s clear that up, it doesn’t happen. Even on an optimum plan of training and nutrition, and if you were under 30, and a beginner, would you stand to put on 10 lbs of muscle in a year. The rest of us, where sometimes life gets in the way of all of the above requirements, would at best be anywhere close to putting on up to 5lbs in a year, and that’s if we have everything dialed in.

Don’t be like Starsky pondering whether you can handle the V8, take Hutch’s advice ‘I’m not your mother’, ’Now Go…….Go’.