It’s been cold this winter and as I was lighting a fire in the fireplace, a thought crossed my mind.
Why is it that only one match seems to start a forest fire, but it takes the whole box to start a campfire?
So, thinking back to my Boy Scout days, I began walking through the process of what it takes to get a good warm fire going. As a Boy Scout while camping in the snow, we used to have contests to see who could, using a single match, start the fastest camp fire. (We would use our most “MacGyver-like” skills). It occurred to me that the same timeless principles that allow one to ignite a fire with a single match are the same principles necessary for “fat burning.”
Maintaining ketosis is much like starting a campfire. There are some basic principles you need to understand. First, too much fuel keeps the fire from starting and too much carbohydrate or too much protein keeps the body from shifting into ketosis. Starting a campfire with a single match requires very fine thin strands of tinder to get started. If the peices are too big, the fire is smothered and cannot get started. It is the same with ketosis. Too much carbohydrate or protein smothers ketosis. You can get a copy of my ketogenic diet through registration on my membership site, by seeing me a patient face to face in the office or through a Tele-Medicine visit.
Second, oxygen is essential. For a fire to start, the flame needs a very small piece of fuel (wood or dryer lint) and large amounts of oxygen to burn. In ketosis, you have to provide the fat. If you’ve removed the carbohydrates and moderated the protein, but not provided enough fat to ignite the ketones, the body thinks it is starving, produces stress and shifts into making it’s own form of glucose for fuel through the process of glyconeogenesis (see my articles on why chicken salad makes you fat, and why your oatmeal is killing your libido).
Third, campfires often don’t have enough heat to get started. You have to get the temperature up before the wood can catch fire. This can be done in the camp fire by making a “cabin” the tinder can sit on and then building the “cabin” around the tinder as the fire builds and the heat increases. The increased heat and oxygen from under the tinder allows the larger pieces of wood to ignite and stay lit. In a ketogenic diet, the use of real food is similar to the cabin. Providing real food sources, instead of processed shakes and bars, allows for all the natural vitamins and minerals to let the ketosis start and ramp the metabolism up. Providing the correct vitamins also allows for the metabolism to have the ability to ramp up ketosis. I designed the KetoEssentials Vitamin specifically for this reason.
So, there you have it, the Paradoxical Effect of Fire and of Fat.
Don’t use too much fuel: Start with tinder for the fire – Limit the carbohydrates and moderate your protein (see how to balance protein here) to get into ketosis
Provide for increased oxygen for a fire – Provide adequate fat for ketosis
Provide a setting where the heat can build for a fire – Provide real food and appropriate vitamin sources for optimized metabolism in a ketogenic lifestyle.
You can see today’s Periscope discussion on this topic below:
Have you been cutting your calories and reducing fat and exercising your brains out and still not seeing the needle on the scale move that much? Persistently and repetitively performing an action that doesn’t produce the desired result is insanity. Cutting calories and reducing fat while expecting weight loss is akin to pouring water in the gas tank of your car and expecting it to run smoothly. Why do we do it? Are the 53, 000, 000 people with health club and gym memberships this year really insane?
This evening on PeriScope we touch on fat phobic insanity and the limiting step that actually turns weight gain on or off. (We knew about this in the 1960’s, we just ignored it.)
You can see tonight’s PeriScope with the rolling chat-box questions here at Katch.me/docmuscles. Or, you can watch the video stream below:
The only way to successfully loose weight is to modify or turn off the mechanisms that stimulate fat storage. For years we have been told that this was just a problem of thermodynamics, meaning the more calories you eat, the more calories you store. The solution was, thereby, eat less calories or exercise more, or both. We are taught in school that a 1 gram of carbohydrate contains 4 kcal, 1 gram of protein contains 4 kcal, and 1 gram of fat contains 9 kcal.
If you ascribe to the dogma that weight gain or loss is due to thermodynamics, then it’s easy to see that cutting out fat (the largest calorie containing macro-nutrient) would be the best way limit calories. For the last 65 years, we as a society have been doing just that, cutting out fat, exercising more (with the idea of burning off more calories) and eating fewer calories.
What has this dogma done for us? It’s actually made us fatter! (1)
Some may argue that we really aren’t eating fewer calories and exercising more. But most people I have seen in my office have tried and tried and tried and failed and failed and failed to loose weight with this methodology. In fact, the majority of my patients attempt caloric restriction, exercise and dieting multiple times each year with no success. The definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”
Most of my patients are not insane, they recognize this and stop exercising and stop restricting calories . . . ’cause they realized, like I have, that it just doesn’t work!
If you’re one that is still preaching caloric restriction and cutting out fat, I refer you to the figure above and the definition of insanity . . . your straight-jacket is in the mail.
So, if reducing the calories in our diet and exercising more is not the mechanism for turning on and off the storage of fat, then what is?
Before I can explain this, it is very important that you appreciate the difference between triglycerides and free fatty acids. These are the two forms of fat found in the human body, but they have dramatically different functions. They are tied to how fat is oxidized and stored, and how carbohydrates are regulated.
Fat stored in the adipose cells (fat cells) as well as the fat that is found in our food is found in the form of triglycerides. Each triglyceride molecule is made of a “glyceride” (glycerol backbone) and three fatty acids (hence the “tri”) that look like tails. Some of the fat in our adipose cells come from the food we eat, but interestingly, the rest comes from carbohydrates
(“What! Fat comes from sugar?! How can this be?!!“)
We all know that glucose derived from sugar is taken up by the cells from the blood stream and used for fuel, however, when too much glucose is in the blood stream or the blood sugar increases above the body’s comfort zone (60-100 ng/dl), the body stores the excess. The process is called de novo lipogenesis, occurring in the liver and in the fat cells themselves, fancy Latin words for “new fat.” It occurs with up to 30% (possibly more if you just came from Krispy Kream) of the of the carbohydrates that we eat with each meal. De novo lipogenesis speeds up as we increased the carbohydrate in our meal and slows down as we decrease the carbohydrate in our meal. We’ve known this for over 50 years, since it was published by Dr. Werthemier in the 1965 edition of the Handbook of Physiology (2).
While we know that fat from our diet and fat from our food is stored as triglyceride, it has to enter and exit the fat cell in the form of fatty acids. They are called “free fatty acids” when they aren’t stuck together in a triglyceride. In their unbound state, they can be burned as fuel for the body within the cells. I like to think of the free fatty acids as the body’s “diesel fuel” and of glucose as the body’s version of “unleaded fuel.” The free fatty acids can easily slip in and out of the fat cell, but within the adipose cell, they are locked up as triglycerides and are too big to pass through the cell membranes. Lipolysis is essentially unlocking the glycerol from the free fatty acids and allowing the free fatty acids to pass out of the fat cell. Triglycerides in the blood stream must also be broken down into fatty acids before they can be taken up into the fat cells. The reconstitution of the fatty acids with glycerol is called esterification. Interestingly, the process of lipolysis and esterification is going on continuously, and a ceaseless stream of free fatty acids are flowing in and out of the fat cells. However, the flow of fatty acids in and out of the fat cells depends upon the level of glucose and insulin available. As glucose is burned for fuel (oxidized) in the liver or the fat cell, it produces glycerol phosphate. Glycerol phosphate provides the molecule necessary to bind the glycerol back to the free fatty acids. As carbohydrates are being used as fuel, it stimulates increased triglyceride formation both in the fat cell and in the liver, and the insulin produced by the pancreas stimulates the lipoprotein lipase molecule to increased uptake of the fatty acids into the fat cells (3).
So when carbohydrates increase in the diet, the flow of fat into the fat cell increases, and when carbohydrates are limited in the diet, the flow of fat out of the fat cells increases.
Summarizing the control mechanism for fat entering the fat cell:
The Triglyceride/Fatty Acid cycle is controlled by the amount of glucose present in the fat cells (conversion to glycerol phosphate) and the amount of insulin in the blood stream regulating the flow of fatty acid into the fat cell
Glucose/Fatty Acid cycle or “Randle Cycle” regulates the blood sugar at a healthy level. If the blood glucose goes down, free fatty acids increase in the blood stream, insulin decreases, and glycogen is converted to glucose in the muscle and liver.
These two mechanisms ensure that there is always unleaded (glucose) or diesel fuel (free fatty acids) available for every one of the cells in the body. This provides the flexibility to use glucose in times of plenty, like summer time, and free fatty acids in times of famine or winter when external sources of glucose are unavailable.
The regulation of fat storage, then, is hormonal, not thermodynamic. Unfortunately, we’ve know this for over 65 years and ignored it.
We’ve ignored it for political reasons, but that’s for another blog post . . .
References:
1. James, W. J Intern Med, 2008, 263(4): 336-352
2. Wertheimer, E. “Introduction: A Perspective.” Handbook of Physiology. Renold & Cahill. 1965.
3. Taubs, G. “The Carbohydrate Hypothesis, II” Good Calorie, Bad Calorie. Random House, Inc. 2007, p 376-403.
Today in the office I had the calorie conversation again . . . three times. We have an entire society with a very influential health and fitness industry built around the almighty calorie. Has it helped? Looking at our 5 year obesity outcomes. It hasn’t helped a bit. In fact, it is worse. In 1985 only 19% of U.S. adults were obese.
In 2014, 34.5% of U.S. adults were obese. The numbers this year are approaching 35.6% You can see the dramatic increase in obesity by 1-3% every year for the last 5 years in the CDC images above.
For over 50 years we have been told that caloric restriction and fat restriction is the solution. But by the numbers above, the 58 million people in the U.S. utilize a gym or health club to burn off those calories aren’t seeing the success that they should be expecting.
Why? Because the calorie is NOT king. What do I mean by that? We don’t gain weight because of the thermogenic dogma we’ve been taught for the last 50 years. Our weight gain is driven by a hormone response to food. Hear more about why the calorie is NOT king on tonight’s PeriScope. You can Katch it here with all the live stream comments and hearts at Katch.me/docmuscles.
Or you can watch the video without the comments here:
Today’s Periscope was an exciting one. Do you really need a pre- or post-workout shake or meal? How much protein do you need? What’s the difference between ketosis and ketoacidosis? Is Dr. Nally a ketogenic cheerleader? Get your answers to these and many more questions asked by some wonderful viewers this evening on today’s PeriScope.
Be sure to check out Dr. Nally’s new podcast called “KetoTalk with Jimmy and the Doc” with the veteran podcaster Jimmy Moore on KetoTalk.com. The first podcast will be available on December 31, 2015. KetoTalk with Jimmy and the Doc will be available for download for free on iTunes.
What are the three things you need to successfully weather the holidays with your ketosis lifestyle? What does a raindeer on a motorcycle look like? How does insulin resistance effect kidney stones and gout? How do you get back on track if you fall off the ketosis wagon? These and many more questions are answered by Dr. Adam Nally on tonight’s PeriScope.
You can see the video stream including the comment roll here at katch.me/docmuscles. Or you can watch the video below:
In light of the fact that exercise DOES NOT cause weight loss, exercise has a fascinating ability to enhance ketosis. No, seriously, I don’t care what your trainer told you, you won’t loose weight with exercise, no mater how hard you try. However, exercise does help you body attain a ketogenic state.
When you exercise, the muscles take up glucose and oxygen to burn as their primary fuel. Exercise has actually been shown to enhance this process and reduce the “insulin resistance” effect that the the SAD diet (Standard American Diet) has on 2/3rds of the population (whether they realize it or not). Mild to moderate exercise like a walk or even a mild jog, and resistance training like weight lifting, yoga or Pilates increased the drive of the glucose into the cells and improves the ability of the cells to use the glucose.
In a person following a carbohydrate restricted diet (Ketogenic, Low-Carb, and even Paleolithic to some degree), the body maintains a stable level of blood sugar by releasing glycogen from the liver and gluconeogenisis as needed to support the 100 grams necessary per day required by the brain (the liver makes about 240 grams per day no mater what you do). In the absence of extra glucose as fuel, the body will then use triglyceride and/or ketones as fuel. Exercise improves the sensitivity to the small amount of glucose and actually ramps up the presence of ketones placing the person into a more ketogenic state.
This enhanced ketogensis is often experienced as “second wind” or “being in the zone” or even as an ability to “hyperfocus” during exercise. But the exercise levels must be in the mild to moderate range for this to be accomplished.
But, there’s a fine balance, if the muscles are pushed too hard to fast, lactic acid builds up because of a shift to an anaerobic state and the acid creates a stress response, triggering cortisol and increased glucose formulation, causing one to shift out of ketosis.
How do you know if you exercising too hard? You should be exercising hard enough to break a sweat, but not so hard that you can’t carry on a conversation with your partner at the same time. Over time, as the body becomes more effective at using ketones, you’ll find your exercise intensity can and will improve.
See Dr. Nally try to explain all this while riding his horse Bailey in the White Tank Mountains:
Or you can Katch it here: https://katch.me/docmuscles/v/ce43292a-296f-3de4-bf6f-d19cd688fc62