By now, hopefully you understand why loosing your "water weight" is important at the beginning of any weight loss goal. Now that the stored glycogen is depleted, the real task of losing actual fat can begin. One of the reasons it is important to establish a regular routine for eating and exercise is that your body uses certain types of energy depending on what chemicals are being released from various parts of the body. To burn fat stored in your fat cells, your body needs to have the right biochemical signals triggering the on switch for fat burning.
When your blood stream is carrying a lot of glucose (sugar), it is prompting insulin release. When insulin is present, your body uses the sugar in your blood stream and also the glycogen (storage easily turned into sugars) in your liver and muscles as its primary energy source. Once the sugar and glycogen stores are all used up, the body slows the release of insulin. Your brain needs glucose as its only energy source (other cells can use amino acids and fatty acids directly), your need for energy is vital to your brain continuing to run your body. As you go on without adding more food to the system for a couple of hours, the body's need for energy triggers the release of glucagon, growth hormone, ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone), epinephrine (adrenaline), and thyroid hormone. These chemicals act on a cells in the liver and muscle tissues, and also act directly on the fat cells to create the necessary energy. Lipolysis is the process of turning stored fats into energy. Glucagon, epinephrine, and growth hormone all work together in the fat cells to activate lipases which break down the stored fat into fatty acids and glycerol.
Some cells in the body can break down the fatty acids for direct energy use; others need to convert the glycerol and fatty acids to glucose for their energy source. This is a long process involving a number of different chemical and hormones automatically released by cells. The system can use either amino acids (protein building blocks from muscle) or glycerol and fatty acids (from stored fat break down). The process of breaking down fats into glucose (Gluconeogenesis) actually releases more energy than the process that breaks down glucose itself (glycolysis). While there is a high amount of glucose present in larger amounts, this biochemical pathway of gluconegenesis, which converts stored fats to energy, cannot be activated. Fresh and ready glucose acts as an off switch for fat burning, which is why it is important to have 3 to 4 hours between meals if you are aiming for fat loss.
This in NO WAY means you should overly restrict your intake of carbohydrates, fats and protein. Not taking in enough calories overall will trigger your body to plan for starvation, which will slow down your metabolism, which means your need for energy will decrease (you will feel more fatigued, you will be weaker, you will burn calories more slowly, and your body will be slower to release stored fats as its ancestral mechanisms to save you from starvation all kick in). Likewise, after glycogen stores are depleted in the first two weeks of a new eating and exercise regimen, there is no huge benefit to super reduced carbohydrate intake. Eating a balance of good carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are vital to the cycles needed by your body to effectively use both the energy from the food you eat AND the energy stored in your fat cells, meals should be space a minimum of 3 hours apart and a maximum of 6 hours to keep the body cycles working optimally. Eating around 1300-500 calories daily is a good target. If you are larger, your body has a higher baseline needing a higher target of 1600-1900 calories. Your baseline is the amount of calories your body needs to run all necessary processes. As the baseline only takes into account necessary processes, it essentially is what you need to maintain your body if you were always lying down and asleep. So if you eat at your baseline, anything you do, including being awake and walking around your house will trigger your body to use stored energy.
Without the cycle of fresh energy from food at least at baseline, followed by energy needing to be pulled from fat storage, the metabolism will slow down. It is why fad diets and crazy exercise programs fail. For your body to really lose fat from fat cells, you need to find the right balance. Eat regular meals with high quality whole foods, use your body, get enough rest (your body flushes stress chemicals from your body when you get appropriate sleep, those chemical actually interfere with energy break down and inhibit weight loss), and maintain a positive attitude, as it reduces the release of stress hormones.
Increasing your energy output is important for faster fat loss. A focused exercise time each day is good, as intensive exercise and/or weight lifting have been shown to increase your body's energy needs for one to two hours after you finish, this is the "afterburn effect". However, you can also increase your energy use(and thus fat breakdown) by doing simple things like "don't lay down when you can sit, don't sit when you can stand, don't stand when you can walk or pace", essentially move as much as your situation allows-pace while talking on the phone, stand or lean on the edge of a couch or desk while reading, look into getting a standing computer desk if your job requires you to be in front of a screen for large portions of the day . Every bit of "extra" movement you do contributes to your body's need for and use of energy.
So, in recap, to burn fat from fat cells, your body needs to: first use up glycogen stores with its associated water weight; then you need to eat regular meals with 3-4 hours between eating times (try to not go more than 6 waking hours without a meal) to allow for the cycle to switch from using the food you ate to using the stored fats; thirdly increase energy output either through exercise or just small changes to your habits to use your body more ; and fourth, get enough quality rest to flush stress hormones from your system. The body is an amazing thing, if you understand how it works, you can make the right choices to achieve your goals.
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