The Bad Guy

With the Thanksgiving Holiday fast approaching, I thought it would be a good time to offer some fitness specific information and advice on F-A-T.  Be lucky you're reading this instead of training with me today because I worked my FitLab clients biceps and triceps soooo hard today...so that EVERY single time they raised their fork to their mouth on Thanksgiving, they would think of me and be reminded of their goals.  ;-)  You're welcome very much, Client.

Back in the day, fat was just thought of as a spare tire that sits in inconvenient places on your body.  Well, to science anyway.  I still think of it as that inconvenient "issue" that many of us have somewhere unattractive.  As science has come to understand the "role of fat" in the body more, it realized that "fat" actually produces signals related to the metabolism.  I know, I know...right now you are probably thinking blah-dy, blah-dy, BLAH!  But keep reading...I promise, this is information you should know.

Did you know that Fat isn't just flub-a-dub?  It actually secretes hormones that send extremely important signals to the brain.  

So let's talk about these signals for a second.  Maybe I can help you understand some important things about weight loss, maintenance, and explain why you binge eat sometimes.  I kind of think of them as your proverbial "Devil" and "Angel" on your shoulder.  Today let's start with the Bad Guy.

Leptin - aka the "Devil" or the "Bad Guy" is not allll bad but I'm not a fan of this hormone that lives in your fat cells.  Imagine him as a little cartoon that lives where the fat lives.  When he starts seeing the fat calls decrease in size, he yells out a signal to the Brain. 

"Hey Brain, we're getting low on storage down here!"

The Brain responds, "Ok, Leptin, got your signal loud and clear..." and then the Brain sends a message to the body to eat more. 

Here's a couple ways that you can see this happen...

You know that point where you start feeling skinny and noticing changes in the body?  That point where the jeans fit and you start feeling positive about yourself...and then out of nowhere you just want to eat and eat and eat?  Well, you can thank Leptin for that.  He thinks he is helping you...and in a crisis, it's good to have him around.  But for weight loss, not so much.  To severely over-simplify it, it is one of the main reasons that those last 5-10 pounds are the hardest to lose.

Our bodies weren't created to lose weight...they were created to maintain Life.  So if you overeat and gain weight, that is one reason why it is ten times as hard to lose it as it was to gain it.  Your body has "defense mechanisms" in place to "save" you.  Conversely, if Leptin is sitting in his "spot" in your fat and starts saying, "Hey Brain, it's getting full in here..." the Brain responds by slowing production. 

Part of, ok well, MOST of our problem is our environment.  The more technologically savvy we get, the fatter we get.  Why walk to the next room to ask someone a question when you can just text message or IM them, right?  Wrong.  We are getting more fat because life has almost gotten too convenient!

Here's another reason that Leptin is the Devil. When you consume fat and fructose (fruit sugar), Leptin gets "sleepy" and takes a nap. Leptin isn't doing his job to signal to the brain what it should:

"Hey Brain, I'm full down here!"

Lower Leptin levels lead to overeating and weight gain because of overeating.  This is one reason High FRUCTOSE Corn Syrup is so bad.  If it blocks Leptin production in your Brain, you don't realize you're full until you're WAY too full.  One of the first things I tell my new clients is to cut out all foods with High Fructose Corn Syrup in the first five ingredients.  Go through your refrigerator and check out your condiments...you'll be shocked how many of those suckers have HFCS as one of the main ingredients. 

Let's see, have I said it enough?  High Fructose Corn Syrup is not your friend...no matter what those cheesy commercials tell you.  "It's just corn."  Yea, chemically altered corn!

Alright, you get the picture.  Tonight, your "homework" project - if you so choose to participate - is to go through your cabinets and fridge and do a self-diagnosis.  How many of the foods you eat have HFCS in the first five ingredients?  Big food companies will love you if you keep eating their foods with HFCS so that you'll consume more and spend more money, I promise...your body (long term), however, won't.

Tomorrow...the Good Guy.