NEWS

How Fat Is Burned

By Tarryn Thompson | In Health & Nutrition | on October 6, 2016

This is a very important topic but a big problem, because…. pretty much all the mainstream recommendations for burning fat are completely outdated.

In fact if you look at the statistics, only 2% of the population (American stats) are ever successful at achieving their weightloss goals.

The average female spends 17 years dieting.

So what does that tell you? They’re operating off incorrect information. What I’m going to share with you is based on fact, physiology and how the body works.

There’s 2 main fuel sources in the body, you have fat and you have stored sugar.

We’ll, there’s actually a third one – muscle tissue, but you have to be very sick or starving for your body to start using muscle tissue so we’ll leave that one alone. We’re just going to focus on fat and stored sugar.

The the way it works is this…..

There are certain hormones we call fat burning hormones, and based on what you eat or do, they trigger the fat to release certain enzymes to dissolve our fat. They’re hormone sensitive fat enzymes that break things down into ketones.

Ketones are the byproduct of fat metabolism and your body can run on this very efficiently, way better than sugar actually, it’s a much cleaner fuel source.

On the other side there are certain hormones we call fat making hormones. These hormones trigger the storage of sugar and the conversion of sugar into fat. 

But what the great majority of people are doing is they’re only burning sugar, they’re not burning fat.

What occurs is they’ll lose some temporary water weight and then hit a plateau, thinking that’s actual fat, but they never actually burn fat.

There is a single biggest control factor that determines whether you burn fat or sugar and that one controller is this one hormone called Insulin.

Insulin even in small amounts has the strength and the domination to prevent you from tapping into your fat reserves.

When diabetics administer themselves insulin they need to learn how much insulin is required for each quantity of carbohydrate they consume.

If you want to lose fat you need to understand how the carbohydrates you eat are affecting your insulin. Not so you can administer the insulin but so you can prevent your own insulin from spiking and stay in fat burning mode.

If insulin really is the biggest controlling factor that determines whether you burn fat or sugar then this could quite possibly be the most important information to learn when it comes to your burning fat.

The tool I use to measure carbohydrates and the insulin response is called the Glycemic Load.

There are 3 categories of Glycemic Load (GL)

(0-10) which is low GL

(11-17) which is med GL

and (18+) is high GL

Glycemic Load is calculated by taking the Glycemic Index of the food and multiplying it by the available carbohydrates in grams per serving divided by 100.

Here’s an example:

Carrots have a Glycemic Index of 47 and have 6 grams of carbs for a 1 cup serving. To calculate the GL we just go 47 x 6 / 100 = 2.8. So a 1 cup serving of carrots would have a GL of 2.8. Nice and low.

But who wants to do all that math every time you want to put a meal together?

Thats why I created a cheat sheet. I call it the Recommended Food List because it separates the carbohydrates into Most Desirable, Moderately Desirable, and Least Desirable and then into sub categories like fruits, vegetables, legumes, cereals, juices, grains, breads, pastas etc.

At the head of each subcategory there is the portion size given so you just find the GL of the carbohydrate and adjust it based on the portion size you’re eating.

Get The List Here

It’s as easy as this. On page 5 of the list in Moderately Desirable category under Grains there is Basmati rice.

You’ll see based on a 1 cup serve would be 22 GL which is high GL. This would trigger a lot of insulin.

To keep insulin to a minimum you need to make sure the total GL of your meal is between 0-10.

If you cut your portion down to ½ a cup serve that would give you a low GL 11, provided everything else on your plate was a 0 GL value carbohydrate.

As you can see it’s pretty darn easy to eat in a way that spikes your insulin. Just ½ cup of basmati rice is right on the border of Low to Medium GL.

This is the first lesson I want you to take away from using this guide. It is too easy to eat in a way that spikes your insulin and that is why most people are not able to actually burn fat.

Check out some of the Least Desirable carbs on page 7. Rice noodles at 36 for a 1 cup serve. Pad Thai Chicken anyone?

And what about Jasmine rice with a whopping 46 for 1 cup. Hello Thai takeaways!! Wow you gotta really know what you’re doing or you’ll spike your insulin all day long.

The second lesson I want you to take from this guide is that. It’s so easy to eat in a way that is Low GL and there’s so much you can eat.

Checkout page 2 of the guide and notice how many vegetables have a 0 GL. Go nuts and eat as much as you like!!!

Now I haven’t mentioned Proteins or Fats until now. That’s because proteins and fats do not contain carbohydrates so therefore do not have a GL. How awesome!! That’s why you want a serving of Protein and Fats with your meals and snacks.

But there are exceptions of course. Some foods contain more than one macronutrient. Like beans. They’re a protein and a carb

On page 3 of the guide in the Desirable Carbohydrates category under Legumes there is Black Beans – a great protein source, but they also have a GL of 5 for a 1 cup serving.  

And what about dairy, it’s a Protein, Carb and a Fat.

Page 3 shows 1 cup of yogurt with a 9 GL.

So here’s the guide for you to download. It’s printer friendly.

I suggest you stick a copy to your fridge and start tracking the GL of your meals and snacks, making sure to stay under that magic number 10 if your goal is fat loss.  

With enough repetition you’ll begin to notice something. There really are only 2 main culprits to watch out for.

If all this seems like too much hard work and you want a hard and fast rule to live by, here’s what you eventually discover.

It’s the starchy carbs and grains that’ll blow your GL out of the water. Keep them to under ½ servings and eat as many 0 GL veggies as you like and you’ll probably start to see results.

But if your weight is not coming down how you like it to then you need to be a lot more diligent with tracking your GL until you see the result you want.

I hope you got value from that. Feel free to leave a comment below and share with me your learning.

Connect with me on my Facebook page where I deliver daily live training on Weight Loss, Hormone Health and Mindset.

Click here to download the Recommended Food List.

Tarryn Thompson

Your Virtual Health Coach

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