The Body You Want #27 – Five Things You Don’t Know About Your Fat Cells:
What You Don’t Know CAN Make you Fat
Quote #27
“Go take a look in the mirror. There’s the man or woman—the only man or woman—who can make you happy, THIN, rich, famous, or whatever it is that you aspire to. [Josef Brandenburg] can’t make you thin, and McDonald’s doesn’t make you fat.” – Dan Kennedy
Recipe #27 – Guest Chef Dr. John Berardi
Seared Turkey and Squash with Saffron and Apple
In this issue we have a super healthy and yummy 15-minute recipe from super chef Dr. John Berardi.
This medley of ground turkey, butternut squash, and apples in a creamy saffron sauce is perfect for a cozy autumn meal. Using frozen butternut squash reduces the cooking time significantly, so this one is great for a quick, light meal for two. Click here to get cookin’.
By Dr. John M. Berardi, PhD and Dr. John K. Williams, PhD, authors of the bestselling optimal nutrition e-book, Gourmet Nutrition.
5 Things You Don’t Know About Your Fat Cell
What You don’t know can Make Fat
If you’re looking for a really “fun” way to spend your summer, try taking biochemistry at UMD. Part II just started for me, and here are a few of the things I have learned about your fat cells:
#1. You are probably making new fat cells RIGHT NOW, and it’s your fault:
Right now you have millions of pre-fat cells in your body that are just dying to become full-fledged fat cells (adipocytes if you’re nerdy) so they can make your tummy, hips, and thighs look like equal parts Jell-O and cottage cheese.
The bad news is that your lifestyle is probably responsible for making lots of new fat cells every single day. To go from a pre-fat cell to a full-fledged fat-storing fat cell requires two separate hormones, insulin and cortisol, in large amounts.
Cortisol: You get excess cortisol from lack of sleep, excessive aerobic exercise, and/or excessive stress. If you aren’t getting 7-9 hours of sleep per night, then you have one strike against you…or maybe two:
Insulin: You get this from poor food choices directly and from lack of sleep and/or excessive stress indirectly. Poor food choices would be things like cake, cookies, soda, juice, and most bread.
I have found that in people who are prone to weight gain (most people), there is a “critical stress threshold” (CST). Basically, there is a point at which life stress (always compounded by lack of sleep) reaches a critical point that completely overwhelms a person’s self-discipline. Too much stress + too little sleep = a person who literally CANNOT comply with a healthy eating plan.
This is not an excuse. This is not me saying, “Oh, you poor thing. You just can’t do it. You have too much stress and too little sleep.” This is me saying, “You need to fix your lifestyle. Your lifestyle is making it impossible for you to comply. Until you fix that you will get nowhere.
Remember that no one actually put a gun to your head and made you choose the schedule and commitments that you have chosen so far. The good news is that you made the choices that got you into this mess and you can decide to make new choices right now.
#2. Those new fat cells ain’t going anywhere EVER:
Here’s more bad news—those new fat cells that you are making with your lack of sleep and poor eating habits are not going anywhere without surgery. So you could be making your quest to lose body fat more and more difficult every day, or you can decide right now to make fat loss much easier, life more pleasant, and yourself more productive and energetic by sleeping more. It’s really just an attitude and better time management. What are your real priorities?
#3. Spending more time in the bedroom is one of THE greatest ways to get leaner:
This has nothing to do with sex directly. As I have already alluded to, lack of sleep can really help to pack on the pounds, but there are actually a LOT more reasons why you need more sleep to look better naked:
A. The perfect hormonal storm—in a nutshell, lack of sleep creates the ideal hormonal environment to make your fat cells multiply and your muscle cells (i.e., metabolism) atrophy.
The hormones that make you look better naked, such as leptin, testosterone, and growth hormone all increase with adequate sleep. Testosterone and growth hormone yield more muscle and less fat. Leptin yields a faster metabolism and less hunger
By the way, I am NOT talking about anything related to injecting testosterone or growth hormone. These are things that your body makes naturally whether you are a man or a woman. And women DO want to optimize their hormone levels for a tight, attractive, feminine body. The amount of testosterone that a woman produces given enough sleep will not turn her into a she-man; more like a hot lady who looks good in a bikini.
B. The longer you are awake the more you eat. There is even such a thing as too much healthy food, although if you’re chronically sleep deprived…
C. You will eat horribly. Chronically sleep deprived people are MUCH more likely to binge eat. And binge eating is THE worst thing for making you fat, not to mention the worst feeling on the planet.
You will also tend to eat more carbs and sugar. More carbs and sugar = more insulin. More insulin + more cortisol (from lack of sleep) = more fat cells.
#4. Life is unfair to women for several reasons:
Upper body and lower body fat are fundamentally different from each other. Generally speaking, men store upper body fat and women store lower body fat (hips and thighs). Although, recently, a lot of women are getting upper body muffin tops from consuming lots of processed carbs and lack of sleep.
Upper body fat is:
-Easier to get rid of (there are receptors to store fat and receptors to release fat, upper body fat has lots of the ones to release fat and less of the ones to store)
-Less prone to multiply (it’s is much easier to get fewer cells to shrink to very small and good-looking size than it is to get lots of cells to shrink to very small and good looking size)
-More dangerous to your health (let’s be honest: most people are much more concerned with how their fat looks, but a pot belly is far more dangerous than thunder thighs)
Lower body fat is:
-Harder to get rid of (many more receptors to store, and fewer to release the fat)
-More prone to multiply (lower body fat cells like to multiply in number vs. just getting larger. And, as you know, you can’t get rid of fat cells without surgery. A moment on the lips may very well be a lifetime on the hips.)
-Less dangerous to your health
#5. Fat cells have a welcome mat and a bouncer:
There are two hormones, lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL), that are the welcome mat and bouncer respectively. They are both controlled by insulin. When insulin is high, LPL tells the fat to “come on into the fat cell, and stay a while.” When insulin is low, HSL tells the fat, “Get the hell out of here!”
Insulin is controlled by what you eat. Eating refined carbs like bread, pasta, juice, etc. causes high insulin levels, whereas healthy fat, protein, and good carbs like fruits and veggies keep it low and steady.
The Bottom Line
1. Sleep more—you’ll feel better, look better and actually be able to get in shape
2. Eat better— duh! Avoid refined carbohydrates and other obvious crap. Get your carbs from veggies and fruit.