The Science of Losing Fat

**TJ Cline** · 10-26-2006, 08:36 PM

Your body needs energy. This is one of the defining characteristics of life itself. A living object requires energy. This energy is necessary for FAR more than allowing you to function through out your day as you would normally think (walking around, talking even the act of digestion)..... Every endogonic reaction in your body requires energy. Beleive it or not, one third of your energy is actually spent just keeping sodium outside of you cells!

How does your body get energy? From your 'food' right? True,.... but only indirectly. To say food is a big oversimplification. Your body fuels itself via. 'Metabolic Pathways'

Here are a couple

Glycolysis
Glycolysis is the breaking down of Glycogen. Glycogen is a way your body perfers to store carbohydrates (CHO's). Your body can store around 400grams of Glycogen. It is literally stored in your muscle tissue. Glycogen is stored for short term energy. You can burn your full reserve in less than 2 hours of intense activity.
DeAmination This is the process of making energy by breaking apart your actual proteins for energy. These proteins include dietary proteins (the ones you consume) and even actual muscle tissue! This is something that we don't really want...... Good news is your body doesn't really want to do this either. It only does this when it NEEDS to (survival). In this process, the Amino group is torn off of Amino acids (the molecules that build proteins.) The remainder of the molecule is basically converted into Glucose (C6H12O6).
Triglyceride Breaking Triglycerides are stored fats. (like a beer belly or Anna Nicole's thighs) This is the pathway we all would perfer. You're body really doesn't mind doing this actually. It takes MUCH less energy for your body to assemble a Fat molecule than a Muscle! Therefore, it is easier and more desired for your body to Break Fat bonds, than to go through DeAmination. The only problem.... it's much easier to build Glycogen than Fat :? Triglycerides are there for long term energy. When you are burning these.... you can feel the difference as opposed to glycogen. Fat burns slower than sugar. You will feel somewhat 'weaker' although still capable.

So, what's the key to burning fat; and why should I try to do it in the morning on an empty stomach?

In order to initiate the pathway of burning fats, you need to first burn all of your glycogen! This would require 1.5 - 2 hours of HEAVY excersize if your glycogen reserves are full. So you have a couple options to make this easier.

1. Make your last meal of the day one that has few carbohydrates (<10 Grams) While your sleeping, your body is feeding off stored glycogen. As you wake, your body will have it's reserves of these glycogens at the lowest point that they will be through-out the day. (you start replenishing it when you eat breakfast) This is an ideal point at which to do cardio because it will the easiest time to make your body initiate Triglyceride breaking.
2. Do your cardio immediately following an intense 45-60 minutes weight session. You feed off glycogen while you are lifting.... same story here.

* it takes 48 hours to completely fill glycogen reserves from "E". It would be ideal to adjust your diet and routine in such a way that you can keep these reserves in check! This will allow you to use your metabolic pathways to your own advantage.

*DeAmination of Skeletal muscle tissue occurs when you are so active that your Triglyceride breaking is not producing enough energy support your needs at that point in time. (or you have zero fats left ) This is why there is a 'target' heart rate for cardio. (an upper bound as well as the lower.) For this reason... I perfer HIIT Cardio. Once your heart rate is elevated enough, you have short INTENSE bursts followed by short lower intense intervals.

Does this make sense? These are rules for "breaking down" molecules (fat/carbs/proteins). The way we "Build" molecules is some-what similar! There are rules that also apply there. For example.... if you eat too many carbohydrates in a meal and your body has enough energy (ATP: Adenesin TriPhosphate) you will make FATS for long term storage as opposed to making more glycogen for short term storage. Similarly, if you eat more protein than your liver can process, you will break the remainder down by DeAminating it. (DeAmination of dietary protein)

**Witchblade** · 10-27-2006, 05:54 AM

I like these posts. They actually back up the things they advocate, and even better, break it down clearly.

I'm a bit sceptical about the 'fat burning zone' and the 'cardio in the morning'. This post makes sense, but I've heard many say these things are bull. I think cowpimp and pfunk actually said there is no fat burning zone and doing cardio in the morning is bull.

Could someone verify this post?

**Action-Jackson** · 10-28-2006, 01:17 AM

I thought there was no real difference in doing cardio in the morning on an empty stomach?
I've heard different views on this, one seems to say it makes a difference, the other says it doesn't.
As long as you're under your calorie limit, you'll lose fat.

**CowPimp** · 10-28-2006, 10:43 AM

I was under the impression that the metabolic pathway for beta oxidation doesn't need to be "activated." At concious rest, approximately 60% of the energy we use is derived from fat. This may be even higher in aerobically trained individuals as their ability to use fat as an efficient energy source improves as a result of said training.

Furthermore, the assertion that doing fasted cardio is the best time to burn fat because of your depleted glycogen seems like a fallacy to me. First of all, you are using very little glucose as you sleep. Your metabolism is depressed and your energy needs are lower; therefore, you are going to be oxidizing more fat for energy anyway. At no other time will you be using a greater percentage of fat for your energy needs than during sleep. This doesn't lead me to believe that your glycogen stores will be depleted upon waking. That makes no sense.

As well, there are various storage depots for fatty acids. The storage space that we want to shrink is in adipose tissue, but there is also a significant amount stored as intramuscular triglycerides. The intramuscular triglycerides are where most of the fat-based energy is being pooled from during exercise. Yes, there are no absolutes, and some is certainly going to be taken from adipose tissue, but the majority will be from intramuscular stores.

My point is that you want to be in a caloric deficit so that you are using more stored energy at rest, when adipose tissue is going to be a more significant contributor of energy. The time of day you do cardio isn't going to matter all that much when it comes to creating this deficit.

As well, doing interval training in a fasted state is a terrible idea. If you are going to do fasted cardio, and I don't think you should, then it should be fairly low intensity cardiovascular activity. If the intensity is too high then fat is not going to provide enough energy to sustain that activity. Your body is going to have to rely on the lactic acid system for a good portion of its energy. There are glucogenic amino acids out there, and your body is more likely to use this metabolic pathway to help meet its energy demands if exercising at that intensity in a fasted state.

**P-funk** · 10-28-2006, 01:56 PM

to add to pimp.....

the sole purpose of doing cardio is to help create that caloric deficit....not to burn fat! It is really hard to burn JUST fat, and if you are....then you have (a) really depeleted your glycogen stores (liver and muscle) and (b) unless you are an eliete runner (ie, olympic marathoner, ultra distance runner, etc.) and terribly efficient at using fat for fuel, your exercise performance/intensity is going to suffer (and even those guys use a ton of carbs and load up on carbs before big events....they don't even just use fat).

If exercise intensity suffers, then the amount of calories you can burn suffers (if you are doing steady state cardio) or the amount of anerobic energy you can put forth to create oxygen debt suffers (if you are doing sprints).

it should also be noted that you body needs glucose/glycogen to produce Kreb cycle intermediates. While it can produce them with fat (and less efficiently with protein), it doesn't happen quick enough to produce adequate energy (unless you are super efficient and an elite aerobic athlete). So, this is where the saying "fat burns in a carbohydrates flame" comes from. You need to carbs to produce kreb cycle intermediates to efficiently spin the krebs cycle, and burn fat for ATP.

**AKIRA** · 10-28-2006, 05:03 PM

Good thread. Poor Foreman, way to go out on a bang. I love these myth busting threads.

**P-funk** · 10-28-2006, 05:08 PM

Originally Posted by AKIRA

Good thread. Poor Foreman, way to go out on a bang. I love these myth busting threads.

he just copied and pasted it from some other forum. none of that info was written by him.

**Pirate!** · 10-28-2006, 06:58 PM

Originally Posted by P-funk

he just copied and pasted it from some other forum. none of that info was written by him.

Yep, it was copied from here, where I posted my response. Great points, CowPimp and P-Funk.

**P-funk** · 10-28-2006, 07:14 PM

Originally Posted by Pirate!

Yep, it was copied from here, where I posted my response. Great points, CowPimp and P-Funk.

Looking at what you posted, here, it was good and I would like to add that you don't ONLY burn fat when there is no glycogen left. You burn fat when the intensity is low enough and there is no insulin or Lactic acid (again, low intensity) circulating in the blood to interfere with oxidation.

this article had some decent points, the intent was good. author needs to cite some sources and look a little deeper into the material though.

**AKIRA** · 10-28-2006, 07:22 PM

Originally Posted by P-funk

he just copied and pasted it from some other forum. none of that info was written by him.

I dont think Foreman has written shit that sounds intelligent. However, what he cut and pasted is in fact a normally spoken myth.

These myths are just blankets of bullshit that cover up the never broken fact that results take hard work.

Without your points and Cow's, that article or paraphrasing can convince a lot of people that its the correct and best way to shed fat.

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