The FAT Enigma

The Fat Enigma

The human body is the most efficient fat producing and fat burning device ever created. Whatever foods we eat in excess of the body’s needs, be they fats, carbohydrates or proteins, will be converted by the liver into fat for storage throughout the body for future usage, just as, in the pre-democratic days, South Africa hoarded its fuel supplies in storage tanks throughout the land.

So, the benighted bodybuilder or athlete who consumes vast amounts of protein, thinking that more protein means more muscle, is simply finding an expensive means of growing fatter. Only a finite quantity of protein can be used for tissue growth; the rest is converted to and stored as fat.

The major energy source for the muscles is fat and none of us runs out of fat. Even emaciated anorexics still store a certain amount of fat. The body will use its own protein, found in the muscles themselves, for fuel before depleting all the fat, so that those who finally break down and die don’t starve to death but expire because the immune-system is destroyed when muscle protein is burned and the body is thus overcome by the invading viruses and bacteria which are the killers. The heart, too, as a muscle, breaks down, with equally devastating consequences.

Fatty acid molecules are highly mobile and move at speed through the blood stream to make themselves available for use in muscle cells throughout the body. As free fatty acids they are our major fuel for all the activities vital to life. When we are at rest, these fatty acids move out of the blood stream into fat cells for storage, ready for use when called upon.

On the other hand, the potentially dangerous fat takes the form of triglycerides and cholesterol that accumulate on the inner walls of the arteries, where they contribute to the blockages that help cause strokes, heart attacks and diabetes. Only by becoming more physically active can we convert the often too great accumulation of triglycerides (fat cells that change our shape from lean to obese) into useful fatty acids that will be burned as energy for our physical activities.

The muscles burn both fat and glucose (blood sugar) for energy, but only 30% of our energy can come from the glucose stored in the muscles because it is a limited supply and soon depleted, leaving the sprinter, for example, physiologically unable to sprint 300 metres because the intensity of her/his chosen activity burns all the stored glucose energy in the leg muscles. They finally seize and cannot function further.

As in the ubiquitous braai, loved by all, the fire starters burn quickly (glucose), but it is the slower burning charcoal (fat) that finally creates the longer-burning fuel that provides the intense heat to properly cook the meat (with apologies to vegetarians for the metaphor). Incidentally, it is because many tend to consume so much saturated fat meat that they suffer from heightened triglycerides counts. All of us would be healthier if less meat was braaid and rather more of the baked potatoes, beans and side salads were consumed.   

Just as a fire burns better when fed with oxygen, so muscle burns fat more cleanly when it is functioning aerobically, supplied with sufficient oxygen to enable both fat-burning and sugar-burning enzymes to do their work. Enzymes are proteins that the body utilizes to assist in the metabolic process that breaks down fuels to create energy.

By exercising aerobically, at the correct level of intensity so that one does not exceed 80% of maximum effort, the body is never without oxygen and one encourages the growth of fat-burning enzymes (these develop only with need, unlike sugar-burning enzymes which are always present to meet emergencies of fight or flight) so that more and more fat is metabolized for energy during extended periods of more intense activity (exercise).

Stamina, or endurance, is stimulated and improved by never falling into oxygen debt, so that the muscles are continually supplied with free fatty acids that are efficiently burned for energy with the help of the oxygen-assisted fat-burning enzymes.

Extended aerobic exercise (20 minutes and more) acts, then, to train the body to utilize more of the stored fat as fuel that burns continually, feeding the muscles to enable them to perform without break over extended periods of time, or at higher levels of intensity, without exhaustion.

The less active and more sedentary one is, the fewer fat-burning enzymes one’s body will manufacture. Thus, more fat will be stored, making it more difficult to burn this fat for energy. Regular exercise and moderate aerobic  activity will stimulate the growth of more fat-burning enzymes so that when you become active you don’t rapidly deplete the small supply of sugar calories stored in the body, which results in early exhaustion in the unfit person.

 Instead, you will draw on the plentiful supply of fat calories that lie dormant, begging to be burned so that the body grows fitter and assumes the more desirable, leaner shape that enables it to perform more efficiently.

By exercising regularly and developing more lean body tissue we encourage the demand for more fuel to meet the needs of an enlarged musculature, so more fat is burned as fuel every minute of every day. Even at deepest rest, in sleep, the fitter individual requires more energy to be burned to stay alive. To keep the regular functions of the body ticking over (heart beating, other organs working and brain thinking) more energy is consumed. This raised resting metabolic rate ensures that the fitter individual will burn more calories or kilojoules, even at rest, than the unfit, overweight person. It also explains the significance of the exercise-effect that does not simply burn a finite number of calories during a workout, but raises the metabolic rate for considerable hours after the completion of the activity, so that the body machine runs more smoothly by burning more of its fat fuel.

The secret of effective fat reduction, then, is to become more active, stimulate the fat burning processes, while enjoying the benefits of a lighter, more functional and attractive body at the same time.

You cannot lose fat selectively; you cannot spot-reduce! Sadly, women will lose fat in the boobs and face, first, before other parts of the body reduce.

Pad-up, persevere; the more active you become, the better your fat-burning body will function. And don’t forget, walking is great exercise!