What follows is a fabulous explanation of how fat burning works. I know its long and so Im asking your indulgence but its so cool to learn this stuff from Wayne Andersen, MD. Your thoughts??? Why does a person lose weight safely and quickly? Our program works by putting your body in a “fat burning state”. This is more technically known as a controlled mild dietary ketosis. Ketosis is a stage of metabolism where your body has depleted the reserves of its main form of energy – glycogen. Once those reserves are gone, your liver will begin breaking down stored fat in the body for use as energy. Breaking down the fat yields fatty acids and three types of ketone bodies (hence, the name ketosis). The ketones are then burned by the cells in your body as an alternative fuel. This name ketosis is not to be confused with the term ketacidosis, which is an unrelated condition that occurs in uncontrolled diabetes) So, to avoid confusion, we will call it “Fat Burning” or the “Fat Burning State”. Getting Into the Fat Burning State (FB) Switching your body from carb burning to fat burning can be a little challenging for some. Our bodies have done what they’ve always done for millions of years – they’ve adapted to life as they know it. Our lives have led to us being overweight by indulging in bad foods in bad quantities. Our bodies are now used to that type of existence. Introducing a new nutritional paradigm (fat burn) to our bodies will necessitate it’s adapting to the new condition. First, your body will notice a drop in caloric intake. We’ve gotten our bodies used to abundant calories and carbohydrates for long periods of time or to an up and down pattern of calories/carbs which our bodies see as “feast or famine”. Either way, when we decrease the calories/carbs , our bodies may react: • Hunger – you may feel hunger because your body is used to having more than it has now. Some people find that the close spacing of fuelings keeps them from feeling hungry. • Fatigue – you are taking in less fuel (food) than you used to and your body will probably try to compensate by getting you to slow down your expenditure of energy. It does this by decreasing your metabolic rate. This can make you feel tired, even dizzy. It’s a type of warning that your body’s giving you saying “if you don’t get some food, I’m going to start burning fat!” • Headache – some report headaches associated with “carbohydrate withdrawal”. Whether it’s truly withdrawal or not, I don’t know. However, it certainly seems that way to those who suffer its effects. The typical headache relief methods (ibuprofen, acetaminophen, aspirin) are allowable while on MF, however your stomach may seem more sensitive to them because it’s no longer loaded with food. Try to use such products soon after having a meal and drink plenty of water. • Irritability – when youre hungry, tired and/or have a headache…you can be understandably irritable. Try to keep in mind that you may be more inclined to react negatively to things during this short time. Just know this will pass. The good news is that getting into the Fat Burning state usually takes only 3-4 days. Once you’re in FB, you’ll feel a difference in your energy level. It will go up significantly as your body begins to enjoy having an alternative fuel source – fat stores! This is really something to celebrate- and its important if we are health coaches, to be checking in with our clients each day, making sure they are following the program correctly until the Fat Burning state is achieved! Being in Fat Burning As the fat by products pervade your bloodstream to supply the cells with energy, your state of FB begins to manifest some side effects. I will review the most common and please make note that they are not bad for you or cause any harm. Ketones show up in your urine, which are sometimes able to be detected with Ketostix, but the state of ketosis that MF evokes is so mild that often such tests won’t show a positive result on the Ketostix. And we do not suggest you use this as a measurement. One of the three types of ketones is permeable to the lungs and can pass from the blood through the lung walls and becomes incorporated into your exhalations, the same way that carbon dioxide passes out of the body. This can cause “ketosis breath” and a slight metallic or sweet taste in the mouth. This is unpleasant, but can be easily overcome with frequent brushing of teeth (a few times a day) and sugarless gum/mints. (watch the carbs in the mints!) Menses for women can also be affected while in fat burn. Your cycle may be start sooner than you plan, it can be disrupted or cease all together. While this is an odd occurrence for a woman, it is not completely unexpected while in this state. You may or may not occasionally feel hunger while in FB, but it should be more mild than normal. Since you’re eating every few hours, you shouldn’t feel that gnawing sensation associated with hunger prior to being in fat burn. As your body adapts to the new circumstances, it may even develop an internal clock that will make you mildly hungry right around meal time. For some, there is no hunger at all and people need to remember or even be reminded that they need to eat! Another side effect for some is an increased sensitivity to cold. Hands and feet can be particularly affected. Warm drinks (tea, coffee, MF cocoa/chai tea/mocha/cappuccino), sweaters, heat packs, etc can all help with this. Breaking Fat Burning Staying in Fat Burning revolves around keeping your body from getting excess carbohydrates. If you give your body more carbs than are suggested for the Fat Burning state, it will end the FB state and resume using carbohydrates. This crash out of FB has some side effects as well: • Hunger – your body will assume that since you’re getting enough carbs to end FB, there must be ample food available. Coming out of FB and having food available is exactly the type of situation that the body has adapted for over the millennia - “Feast or Famine”. Now, it sees it as a time to feast so that you can replenish the glycogen that you depleated while getting into FB. That replenishment requires more fuel – more food! Therefore, your body tells you to eat, eat and eat. You’ll be almost insatiably hungry. • Immediate and dramatic weight gain – As your body restores its glycogen, you’re gaining weight…quickly. Several pounds in a period of a couple days is not uncommon. Resuming Fat Burning If you fall out of FB for some reason, the best thing to do is to start working to get right back in it. Resume the program as if you hadn’t gotten off at all. Keep on your meal schedule and get in your 5 MF meals and a Lean and Green. Don’t abandon the day, weekend or week by just giving up on it because you’ve “messed it up”. Just get right back into the program right away! Doing this helps to significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to get back into FB. The longer you stay out of FB, the longer it takes to get back into it. So, hop right back on the wagon! Some people I have coached have thought of it this way. If the 5-1 program costs around $12 per day, and If I choose to eat off plan and it takes me 3 days to get back into FB, that was a $36 decision. You have to ask yourself... was it worth that amount of money to make that choice? Or would a better choice be to Stop-Challenge-Choose through that moment of weakness and stay on plan. Riding the FB wave all the way in to shore is the quickest, easiest and most economical way to reach your health goals! Best of all, once youve reached your healthy weight, you can use this very same system with expanded variety of foods and calories to maintain it. And, with the addition of healthy movement, youll be burning enough extra calories to stay at your ideal weight indefinitely! This is all part of and Dr. As balanced plan to move us beyond weight loss to a state that supports us for life-- in optimal health!
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 20:42:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015