“Too much of anything is good for nothing. So be around balance.” And this is very much true here with too much of fat deposit in our body.
Fat is one of the sources of energy to our body and essential to the body and mind but too much of it creates lots of health issues. Weight or Fat loss is an effort to utilise or burn fat reserve and bring it back to normal level to avoid health issues.
To learn how to bring back fat reserve to normal level we have to understand some of the basics of the human body, it’s essentially functions, factors that promote fat deposit and root causes. Why we need to understand our body and functions, simply because weight loss is the journey to improve health conditions and issues. We can’t just lose weight without improving health. Understand will help take this little seriously.
Understanding our body
Everything (living and non-living) in this universe is created from matter (atom and subatomic particles). We came into existence from nothing to something i.e. energy to matter and matter to universe and to human body. Human body is the most compact and complex cellular machine/system of the known universe, designed and created by the mother nature. Almost 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of six elements: oxygen (65%), carbon (18%), hydrogen (10%), nitrogen (3%), 3.15% are calcium, phosphorus and 0.85% are potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium. Combination of these elements form different subsystem of the machine i.e. different organs and parts of the body.
Also, the human body is a home of trillions of viruses and bacteria that plays very vital roles in health conditions.
What is Health?
The way human body is designed or coded, it must function the same way without any disturbances (diseases) i.e. free of illness.
What is Disease?
Any intervention or deviations or change inside body that makes this machine impacted or imbalance its chemical composition.
What is treatment?
Our body/machine has also been coded to correct negative impact (illness), thus has a healing mechanism to correct or to bring things into correct order or state.
Medical science is nothing but an effort to assist healing process of the body to bring it back to normal state or balance the chemical composition so that it can function the way it is designed.
Function of body is nothing but chemical reactions essentially of Carbon (C), Hydrogen (H) and Oxygen (O) in order to get energy for activity and to maintain body structure the way it is coded. Unbalancing of C, H, O together with bacteria and viruses, create a health conditions and reason for all kinds of diseases. This is the key point.
Let’s understand further on this…
Like any other machine/system it works as depicted below categorized as input, processing, storage and output and it must work the same way.
In the above diagram, red and orange box indicate the primary reason for weight(fat) gain and many health issues and conditions.
Let’s understand each category in brief
INPUT – Food, Air, Water are inputs to the body. (all are raw like crude fuel to body). All these are for keeping this machine alive. This piece of machine (the body) requires all 11 essentials elements (stated above) in order to work properly. Remember we need huge amount of oxygen inside our body in order to perform chemical reaction processes, that’s why we constantly inhale and exhale. Type and size of inputs decide the complexity of the processing pipeline.
These two conditions make things get complicated and the cause of many health conditions. When we take input in
Different amount (volume of inputs essentially food, air and water). Remember balance is the key. Extra inputs mean additional load to processing engine that might produce extra energy which body stores in fat tissues as reserve energy)
Different types (essentially type of food, air and water). Remember only compatible and acceptable inputs to body are required processing it efficiently else it put body healing process an overload to correct those to bring state of body into normal level)
PROCESSING – The body has a processing pipeline called Gastrointestinal tract (GI Tract) of 9 meters in length starting from mouth to anus. In a layman language it is a process of making finished fuel from the crude fuel ingested (food, air, water).
Below are basic functions of processing pipeline.
Ingestion of food inside our body through mouth.
Disintegration of food using internal acids and enzymes.
Extraction of micro-nutrients such as carbohydrate, fat, protein, vitamins and minerals
Convertion of carbohydrate or fat into energy, supply energy into entire cells of the body
Supply energy to trillions of body cells. Use this energy to perform thousands of internal functions such as building of new cells, repair of cells and disposal of garbage cells etc. Use energy to perform various day to day physical activities.
Essentially carbs and fat are two fuels to our body. Carbs is the primary source of energy and Fat is secondary source.
STORAGE – Remember body only stores things which are really required for the body. Un-wanted things or elements are excreted as soon as possible.Storage happens because of two situation as below
When we take high amount of inputs than the body require: Human body has a mechanism to manage extra inputs ingested into the system. Extra food is stored as extra energy into fat tissues as reserve or backup energy. Extra air we usually can’t take than the capacity of our lungs so no issues here. Extra water is thrown out through our drainage system i.e. urinal and sweating.
When we take wrong types of inputs: This gives birth to different type health conditions and issues. Wrong foods (essentially artificial or body is not designed for) such as that if fed with various chemicals, preservatives etc. impact different sub systems of the body and put extra or negative stress and make the processing systems inefficient. In biological terms, It is nothing but taking in inputs more unnecessary chemical compounds or elements that increase complex chemical reactions to the body and for the body has to work for the safety of body structure and functions. It can damage different cells, imbalance hormones and slow down metabolism etc. for which body (designated sus-system) keep itself busy to fight against it and try to repair and correct the damage.
Remember our body is designed in such a way or in other words our genome is coded that way that only knows how correctly the body should work. It never does wrong. It has all the algorithms and management for keeping this body work in a right way. No wrong way has been coded.
OUTPUT – Unprocessed, unused, toxins and garbage of the inputs we take, are excreted from the body through drainage system i.e. sweating, urinal, lungs and anus. water plays a critical role in this process.
Now let’s understand about weight gain and weight loss
What is body weight?
Body Weight = muscle mass + water + fat mass + bone + others.
Remember no matter how hard you work to lose weight, if you do not follow the correct methods, you’ll end up loosing most of your body water and muscles. You have to tap to your extra stored fat deposits without losing too much of water and muscles.
In an average fit male body composition is as below w.r.t weight bones 15%, muscles about 40 to 45%, fat about 15%. overall 72% is water in the body.The reminder of weight is a result of other matter including skin, connective tissues, tendons, Ligaments, blood plasma, organs, hairs and its related glands etc.Your muscles are about 75% water, 20% of it is proteins and rest 5% are minerals and other things, Your bones and even that ugly fat is composed of 50% water.
How do we gain weight? Finding root cause of weight gain and fix it.
The volume of inputs (food, air, water) and the type of inputs imbalance the chemical compositions of the body that create different health conditions and issues including weight gain. As explained in the above diagram, how body stores extra energy inputs as fat. When you start gaining weight above the normal range of fat i.e. 15%. Too much of it is the problem.
What promotes weight or fat gain (all because of high volume of inputs and wrong type of inputs)
Overeating/high calorie intake and less active i.e. Cabs/sugar-based diet, Alcohol, Water retention due to dehydration and salt, Due to science and technology solutions, made life easier in terms of providing comforts in life, availability of food is more so no struggle for survival process, more inclination towards comforts in life.
Wrong eating time and pattern i.e. Due to ignorance or misinformation, multi-cultured job profiles.
Use of certain medication
Hormonal imbalance
Stress, depression and anxiety
Lack of sleep
Genetics
Aging: body composition and condition changes as we get older and older. Metabolism gets slower.
What is energy?
Energy is a property of objects which can be transferred to other objects or converted into different forms but cannot be created or destroyed. Organisms use energy to survive, grow, respond to stimuli, reproduce, and for every type of biological process.
Energy to Matter & Space and to Energy.
Human gets their energy from food, air and water. Here energy is transferred to us from plants and animals we eat.
Our fuels of energy are Carbohydrates (C12 H22 O11) and Fats (C55 H104 O6 ) which we get from food.
The basic energy need of a human being is about 2000 kcal per day. This is an average value which may vary according to age, sex, physical activity etc. Our basic value is meant to be valid for no or little physical activity. Thus, for people who are physically active it may be significantly higher (30 – 50 % or more)
1 gm Carbs = 4 Calories and 1 gm Fats =9 Calories
1 gm of fat has more than twice energy than 1 gm carbs.
Where does fat deposit in our body?
If we keep taking extra volume of inputs, extra energy will be getting stored as fat across different parts of the body specifically around liver, under skin (belly, thigh, armpit), blood vessels etc. and wrong inputs will keep your body busy handing issues in order to correct the impact, hence most of your extra or sometime even right volume of inputs, will be stored as fats for later uses or expels outside the system.
Why to lose fat when it is essential to the body?
Dietary fats are essential to give your body energy and to support cell growth. They also help protect your organs and help keep your body warm. Fats help your body absorb some nutrients and produce important hormones, too. Your body needs fat. Fat is essential to our body. we can’t survive without it.
The human brain is nearly 60 percent fat. We've learned in recent years that fatty acids are among the most crucial molecules that determine your brain's integrity and ability to perform.
However, overweight may also be due to extra muscle, bone, or water. People who have obesity usually have too much body fat.
In modern times, with an overabundance of food and safe living conditions, humans are now more focused on living life in a more luxurious way and becoming less and less active but taking food more than the required and hence accumulating an excess storage of fat.
When your fat mass increases from the normal level (over 15%), then it starts creating health problems in the body such as breathing difficulties, arthritis and heart disease. The more fat the more health issues will be. Fat start getting deposited across the body depending upon the body conditions. Primarily around liver, under skin (belly, thigh, armpit), blood vessels etc. When it is impacting nerves and blood vessels then the real problem starts.
Among other medical problems fatty liver and abdominal fat are the top most reason for many diseases.
Health issues due to extra fat deposit are
Heart attacks.
Heart disease.
Type 2 diabetes.
Raised blood sugar and blood pressure.
Stroke
Breast and colorectal cancer.
Alzheimer's disease.
Backpain
Snoring
Hence to overcome health issues we need to lose weight essentially extra fat reserve and bring back to normal level (15% in men and 25% in women). This is the goal of weight loss process.
Our lifestyle is the root cause. We never take care of our own body. we keep repeating wrong inputs and make our body imbalance. This is simply the torture to the body. The body works the way it is designed but the humans are not doing the way they should be doing. Health conditions and issues like high sugar, high blood pressure, heart diseases, cancer, weight gain and various others are nothing but carelessness to our body.
So, what is the solution to overweight?
The answer is to improve health conditions or weight loss i.e. Fat utilization or burn, other words, taping stored fat to get energy.
To understand the weight loss secret, let’s understand this vital chemical reaction that happens all the time inside our body. This is why humans constantly entire life inhale and exhale. We breath in to get oxygen so that chemical reaction can happen in order to get energy from carbs or fat (food) and we breath out to get out the waste material (carbon dioxide) of the reaction from the body. Water is either reused inside the body or expelled out from body through drainage system.
A typical carbs (sugar) chemical reaction is
It means we need 6 molecules of Oxygen to start chemical reaction and release energy to body and produce 6 molecules of CO2 and H2O. Hence, we get energy from sugar very quickly as it needs less amount of oxygen to burn. The more sugar we consume the higher chances of getting it stored as fat using relatively complex chemical process.
While a typical fat chemical reaction might be
It requires 80 molecules O2 to start chemical reaction and release energy to body and 56 molecules of CO2 and 54 molecules of H2O i.e. water. Hence, the fat requires much more oxygen to burn, and consequently produces more energy.
Chemically, Fat lose is all about oxidizing process, the more you give an opportunity to oxidize the more it will burn.
Oxidizing 10 kilos of human fat requires inhaling 29 kilos of oxygen to produce 19.6 kilos of carbon dioxide and 9.4 kilos of water.
In order to lose weight or to improve health condition, you need to correct your current life-style which is the root cause of weight gain and many other health iss
As explained earlier, fat storage above normal range contributes major weight of the total body weight.
From the above it is very clear that solution to the problem is to do three things primarily all belong to input sources (food, air and water)
Control on your volume of inputs and types of inputs so that we can restrict further fat storage. In fact, we need to take right and little less volume of input (food) so that we can create some energy deficit which will be compensated by the stored fat.
Eliminate all factors listed above that promote fat gain.
Tap stored body fat and utilize it as energy to the body. Don’t try hard and lose body water and muscles tissues. Just follow correct strategy.
Controlling and correcting inputs:
Make sure you’re not consuming calories more than what you require as per your daily activity. Some of best practices are
Follow two times a day meal pattern. Intermittent fasting is the best. Take your last meal of the day before sun set.
First meal of the day (specially after long fast) must be lighter like juice, fruits etc. Second meal could be heavier.
Avoid snacking in between.
Control on your taste buds.
Avoid outside and packed food.
Your meal must include 50 to 60% live food (oxygen rich), primarily green vegetables and fruits. Add more protein in your diet.
Try to avoid direct sugar, take low glycemic index fiber rich grains food. Include good fat like ghee in your diet.
Eliminate or reduce other factors that promotes fat gain.
Make sure you need to fix your daily sleep requirements
Stay away from alcohol
Treat thyroid problem first
Manage stress
Be free from medication first
Tapping stored body fat. Idea here is expense more and more energy and for that you’ve to be very active.
Create calorie deficit in your daily meal. For example, take 1500 calorie if your daily calorie requirement is 2000.
Follow intermittent fasting. Best if you do on daily basis till you achieve your target. 16x8 pattern is ideal to start with.
Remember fat burning formula above. It needs more oxygen to burn. Therefore, breath in more and more oxygen to initiate fat burning chemical reaction process. Best is to do daily jogging or walking/running for 1 hour in early morning in the park where full greeneries are there.
Include physical muscle building exercise.
I shall talk more on the strategies and diet programs to burn stored fat or lose weight in the next blog on health “Lose weight graciously – Best practices”
What happens when we burn fat or where does fat go?
It is clear from formula above to burn fat we need more oxygen that produce high amount of energy (9 calories in 1 gm) together with water and carbon-dioxide which are expelled from our drainage system, like CO2 from breath out and H2O from urinary, sweat etc.
Conclusion
Weight loss is a process of improving and balancing your health conditions. you don’t have to work very hard or to be hopeless losing weight, instead you need to follow right strategy and best practices. The simple things is, to take little less energy inside from food and utilize or expense more energy from already stored fat. It’s all about energy conservation and expenditure. Keep things in balance.
Three things are essential in weight/fat loss
More focus on your diet correction. The primary culprit to your weight gain. Control on your volume of inputs and types of inputs. Create some energy or calorie deficit balance diet, 50% carbs, 25% protein, and 25% fat. There are many diet plans. Diet plan will be published in the next blog topic as “Choose your diet”
Be active do more exercise and walking. Build muscles for better results. Make sure you are taking more and more oxygen during exercise. This is very critical to initiate body chemical reaction to burn fat. The best exercise and activity tips and calculation, I will publish soon.
Sleep well - the most important thing once you follow step 1 and 2. This is the recovery phase of our body where most of repair and maintenance goes and opportunity to utilize fat as energy. This will utilize your fat in more efficient way and help in losing fat.
Stay tune for my next blog on health “Lose weight graciously - Best practices”
This blog post is based on my experience which applied on myself. I lost 21kg body fat using the same approach.
Conceptualised it here...
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