Concepts in Weight Management. 2. Burning fat & saving muscle.

Weight loss by any means, whether it’s by diet, or gastric balloons such as the new swallowable Elipse balloon or by surgeries like gastric sleeve surgery, creates a state of net calorie deficit. A calorie deficit is a state in which you burn more calories than you consume. For example, if you eat 1500 calories a day but you manage to use and burn 2000 calories, then you have created a deficit of 500 calories that day. The body will need to use endogenous stored energy (typically body fat) to make up for this deficit – and this is the fundamental basis of weight loss.

We can all create a calorie deficit by eating less, moving more or better still; combining both these habits.

(We discuss good food choices and exercise habits in the next series).

A calorie deficit is the first requirement for weight loss.

A calorie deficit forces the body to use stored energy; causing weight loss. To say a calorie deficit is the only requirement for weight loss would, of course, be an oversimplification. However, calorie deficit is pivotal and extremely important – without it, weight loss simply will not happen.

When the body is in a calorie deficit state, it will rely on three endogenous sources for fuel. The sources of energy are:

• Glycogen, stored in the liver.
• Fat, stored under the skin (cutaneous fat) and in the abdomen (visceral)
• Amino acids (the building blocks of protein), mostly stored in the muscle

The body tends to burn fat before muscle but only turns to burn fat after it has used up all the glucose. Glycogen is generally considered to be a source of energy that is used in emergencies – as it is very quickly depleted (usually within 24 hours) and therefore not really a reliable source of energy. At this point, the body begins burning other compounds for energy; namely fat and muscle. The body may choose to use either fat or muscle as fuel while it is in a state net calorie deficit.

Before we go further and discuss how the body’s metabolic system ‘decides’ the preference of using muscle or fat, we need to explore some mechanisms within the body.

One of the primary and essential functions of the body is to maintain the body temperature at 37 degrees. This happens with the muscles producing the heat (generator), and the fat preventing heat loss (insulation). It’s a balance between these two that maintains the body temperature at 37 degrees. At a very simplistic level, this is the dynamics that tend to maintain this very complex mechanism.

The reason why we have paused to describe the mechanism of body temperature maintenance (thermoregulation) is that BMI affects thermoregulation and subsequently affects metabolism. The body of an overweight or obese individual has a higher percentage of body fat – an insulator – which retains a warm body temperature easily. Fat prevents heat loss and so the body temperature is easily maintained without a need to expend excess energy from endogenous stores. Put simply, the body of an overweight individual needs to burn much less energy to maintain body temperature than an individual with a normal BMI. Additionally, because fat prevents heat loss, the energy stored in muscles may not need to be utilized to produce heat in overweight individuals, whilst there may be a need to utilize energy stored in muscles of individuals with a lower BMI.

A good point to remember here; is that body fat is not an enemy – unless of course, you’re carrying way more fat than you need. We need fat to function – its simply a necessity. However, it’s carrying and storing too much fat that soon makes it a burden for weight management and later overall health.

Burn the fat, keep the muscle.

As previously described, the body has three sources of endogenous stored energy. Depending upon the level and type of physical activity, the body will ‘decide’ from which source to use energy from. We all want to draw from our stored fat for energy but sometimes during our weight loss regimes, we end up losing muscle along with fat. So how can we burn the excess fat and save the muscle?

For the body to burn only fat and at the same time build muscle boils down to diet and exercise habits. Eating the right nutritious foods and exercising on a regular basis is the first step on any weight loss program. In fact weight loss programs such as the Elipse Balloon weight loss program revolves around taking advantage of the few months where your body craves less food, in order to adapt to new eating habits in the first few weeks to lose fat and new exercise habits later on in order to maintain muscle mass. Once you befriend healthy eating and exercise habits; losing weight will happen steadily and naturally. We discuss ‘good eating habits’ in an upcoming blog. For now, we will give an insight into saving muscle whilst on a diet/weight loss regime.

By now, most of us have grasped the fact that dieting doesn’t only lead to losing fat weight, but almost always is accompanied by loss of muscle mass too. However, if we combine diet with exercise, we can ’program’ our body to burn more calories without losing muscle. To do this, we need to build and maintain muscle whilst eating the right nutritious foods. Eating nutritious food is the easy part! Building muscle isn’t so easy – as building and maintaining muscle means exercise! There are certain exercise habits that can ‘direct’ our body to burn more calories from fat.

Exercise is the only healthy way to build and increase body muscle – and ultimately this is what leads to weight loss from fat loss. Most overweight individuals are advised to begin with low-intensity workouts. Exercising at lower intensities tends to utilize more energy from stored fat. Often, sports physicians recommend individuals to vary their exercise routine between low and high-intensity cardio workouts. Some will even suggest resistance and strength training workouts. A mix of cardio exercise intensities and resistance training can help stimulate all the different energy systems so you burn more fat and thus more calories. There are numerous online cardio-strength-training workout programs that you can follow without a gym membership. However, as always, it is advised you speak to your physician or sports therapist before jumping onto any immediate high-intensity exercises. In fact, Dr Faruq Badiuddin at BR Medical Suites has carefully created a detailed physical regime program that helps his patients lose the fat and build muscle whilst on the Elipse Balloon Program.

Exercise regularly to burn more fat … and lose weight.

Performing regular exercise workouts isn’t just about burning calories. Its also about the adaptations your body goes through when you workout – and over time, such adaptations increase your ability to burn more fat without trying so hard. When you exercise regularly, your body becomes more efficient at delivering oxygen and this supports cells in burning fat more efficiently. Regular exercise also improves your blood circulation, allowing fatty acids to move more efficiently in the blood and be readily available for ‘fueling’ the body. Its a no-brainer; regular exercise will help you create the calorie deficit needed for weight loss without losing muscle mass. Fat is said to be stubborn. So there’s really no way around it; if you want to burn the fat, you have to work at it. Just a 40-minute walk every day can help initiate and begin to push the body into that fat-burning mode.