When asked what is the best way to get rid of fat, my most accurate answer is to never get fat in the first place. The problem with body fat is that when you start to accumulate it in large quantities (more than 20lbs over fat), it actually changes your physiology and makes it harder to get rid off. The fatter you are actually, the more likely you are to become even more fat because fat in abundance makes you fatter!
- Fat is the main location of the enzyme aromatase. This enzyme takes androgens like testosterone and converts them into estrogen. The nice thing about testosterone is that it tells satellite cells (the stem cells of your muscle bodies) to become muscle cells, rather than new fat cells. When you have low testosterone and high estrogen because of too much aromatase activity from being over fat, your body will make a larger proportion of new fat cells as opposed to muscle cells.
- Testosterone is also helpful in making your body lean tissues more insulin sensitive. When you are insulin sensitive you store more carbohydrate reservers in the muscle cells for use during exercise etc. When you are over fat, you are low in testosterone because of aromatase converting it to estrogen again, so you muscles are not insulin sensitive. On top of that fat cells also have insulin receptors and so the fuel you should be storing in lean muscle tissue is now being taken up by the fat cells, making them bigger and fatter.
- Fat cells are largely responsible for the production of leptin, the hormone of satiety in your body. Basically leptin helps let you know when you have eaten enough. When you are over-fat, you produce too much leptin to the point that the brains receptors for leptin down regulate and it no longer receives the message that you have eaten enough and are full. The end result is not feeling satisfied from normal meals. Overweight people are not necessarily hungry all the time, but when they eat, they do not get the rewarding feeling of a good meal. This causes them to desire more high carb and junk foods to get this feeling. So being over fat makes you not only eat more, but more importantly make poorer choices of food.
- Fat cells produce cytokines, small, secreted proteins that among other things, produce and regulate immunities and inflammation. When you become over-fat, the increased inflammation leads to increased cortisol, decreased metabolic rate, and increased abdominal fat. This is part of the cascade of metabolic syndrome that leads to insulin resistance, heart and cardiovascular disease. Inflammation also decreases testosterone, growth hormone, and thyroid hormone, leading to muscle loss and fat gain.
- Being over-fat makes you depressed and inactive. Being over-fat usually involves in imbalance in the fats in your body. Diets high in omega-6 and low in omega-3 not only make you fatter, but they damage the brain making you depressed and fatigued. On top of that being over-fat can have a great emotional impact on individuals. Emotions can cause increased cortisol, decreased testosterone, and actually effect blood sugar without eating anything at all. So feeling bad about being over-fat can actually make you more prone to gain fat without ever eating a single calorie!
Too recap, the best way to get rid of fat, is to never let yourself get over-fat in the first place. If you have let yourself get into this viscous cycle, it’s important to use a consistent and intense program of resistance training, a low carb paleo style diet, and proper supplementation to overcome the fattening effects of the fat cells in your body.