The EZ Route
#6 The brown fat burning season: The 3 signals
Now this story has followed a path for a reason, but if I had to explain this in order of my own priority I would have put this lesson first or second
As Northern Europeans or Americans we are on a cycle. Unlike eskimos and Africans we have more severe seasons We are built to easily burn fat in order to create heat when it's cold We are also built to eat sugars and carbs in the summer to store fat in time for the following winter This is how we survived all this time after we left Africa
How does our body know what season it is? 3 signals 1. Light 2. Temperature 3. Food
So if you're connected to your environment and you live in the U.K. In January you would be 1. In a sunlight that is low with little UV and short days 2. It will be cold 3. likely be eating a high fat diet with lots of fish and seafood (one reason why I live by the sea and eat a ketogenic diet only in the winter, more on that later)
Now when your body receives these 3 signals, bam!!! Like turning on a switch your body will start churning up the fat and turning it into heat in order to keep you warm. This is survival mode
The modern problem? Our bodies must think we live in an endless summer, because even though it's January, the signals we send to our bodies are 1. Light: Blue light (summer signal) 2. Temperature: central heating (summer signal) 3. Food: Imported foods from the equator like bananas and pineapples (never mind the junk food and refined sugars)
With these signals, We're encouraging our bodies to cling on to every bit of fat we eat. Add to that we live in a world that is only just beginning to understand that after 30 years of bad information low fat diets are not helping us burn fat or be healthy. The perpetual summer we have created for comfort is becoming more and more uncomfortable, but we're hooked on the drug that is central heating and blue lights You only need to look at the obesity and diabetic numbers to see my point. As I mentioned in #5 if we're eating 4-6 cheesecakes a night purely by having blue light alone, is our obesity and diabetes epidemic a good problem or a light and heat problem caused by our perpetual summer? Yet we still give diabetics more sugar and artificial pancreas', then close our eyes until they reach the next stage like a heart attack or stroke and hope the patient blindly believes in coincidences. There are no coincidences Find me a diabetic that isn't cold sensitive... I doubt you ever will. By the end of this series I hope you will understand why
So how do we combat all this and send our bodies the signals to burn fat? Well the simple answer is get connected Get back to nature We need to tell our bodies it's winter Ok, part of my journey included supplements, gadgets and other 'products' that fall within an industry known as 'bio-hacking' However, now I prefer to 'hack-back' to nature, I don't take any supplements other than a peppermint tablet, seafood in the winter, apple cider vinegar and full spectrum sunlight and above all, a positive mental attitude: so far, so good
Light Summer 2016 my wife and I discussed the possibility of not using artificial lights during the upcoming winter. In my heart of hearts, I never thought she would go for it, nor did I think it would be feasible even for me Then one day I came home and she had lit about 10 candles and it was perfect, we made it our ritual every night It made us calmer, it made us sleep circa 10 hours per night, it feels more romantic, and is possibly one of the best changes we ever made. This dealt with the light issue, but you can also buy blue blocking glasses, or block light at source with tints, shades and so on (I'll post more about these techniques on my page later) This took away the cheesecakes we were eating through our eyes
Temperature CT stands for cold thermogenesis. I hate this term because no one is interested in any activity which has two words, the first one means 'pain' and the second one they don't understand
So let's call it heat adaption
When your body's surface feels a drop in temperature, it starts to burn fat in order to create heat. Or at least that's what it's meant to do, given the chance
The problem we have is we never give our bodies a chance for this process to take a hold We quickly wrap up, put on clothes on, turn on the heating and don't give our own thermostats (our brown fat and thyroid) a chance to adjust to our environment naturally.
When human and animal babies are born they are covered in brown fat, this is for survival purposes. Science has known this for centuries What science didn't know is that adults have some brown fat too, and can increase it by cold exposure or decrease it with heat exposure. The knock on effect is our bodies turn white fat (energy storage blubber) into mobile brown fat that can be churned up quickly and efficiently This information has only come to light in the last few years, you'll find very little about it in science journals (not that I'm expecting you to look, I've done all that for you) So like any muscle, or any part of the body, brown fat can be trained and exercised
Now mixed with a bit of knowledge and a bit of intuition I believe that someone's ability to burn fat will be relevant to their 'fat mobility' just like someone's fitness might be somewhat related to their ability to burn fat. Fat mobility, insulin sensitivity and heat adaption are all related for me For example if I eat sweets or chocolate, I can feel the cold much more. If I drink alcohol I feel the cold even more still If I'm hung over then it's game over My cold sensitivity is more sensitive than a blood test. If I had to guess I would say if I'm eating sugar, then I'm burning sugar. If I'm burning sugar I can't burn fat If I can't burn fat I can't create the heat I need I can't create the heat I need I'm cold Or something along those lines - I'm sure it's related Placebo? Maybe, maybe not. But it's all inherently related for me, and I hope I'm Making it clear how. Please nudge me for a rethink if not
Anyway, so there are plenty of people out there now talking about ice baths. My thoughts? This is a party trick I wouldn't advise anyone to jump in an ice bath once, because it would likely be the last time. I do have a method to becoming cold adapted but I won't discuss it here and now (there is a post on my fat, light and heat adaption page on facebook) Every change you make in life should focus on making it a habit first. Ice baths is rarely going to be a habit Don't get me wrong, I find ice water easier to be submerged in than cold water, and I enjoy the winter, but that's not where I would recommend anyone start, that's because I've done the ground work first Think of the dude in the gym with all the gear and no idea, day 1 tries to lift 300kg because he sees someone else doing that - that's ice baths
The game changer for me is when you are able to wear shorts all year round - no shoes and no shirt, just shorts. I work outside on my laptop in shorts all day in the winter, I could probably never eat enough food to make me fat after that, can you imagine how much energy I must be burning to keep myself warm in -2 Celsius and not feel cold, whilst maintaining the use of my hands, fingers and toes. Truth be told I get my balls out and get uv and infrared on them too. This helps with testoerone (sex drive hormone) production which up regulates dopamine (feel good hormone) all a far cry from getting zero sun Monday - Friday October until march when I worked in an office ... would have got arrested then, anyway, I digress Energy consumption wise, Heat adaption training the equivalent of opening all the windows and putting the thermostat on 40 degrees, with no impact on joints or muscles
Being naked means you're body is not only receiving the temperature signal, but also the light signals all over your body. Double win I never travelled abroad in the winter, yet I maintained a tan and melanin levels higher than most people in the summer by being naked and barefoot constantly The best part of this 'hack-back' is that come early march, 10 degrees feels like summer, I've now sunbathed in the uk in every single month in comfort, including Boxing Day, when I was rudely interrupted from sunbathing on the balcony to eat Christmas dinner leftovers, I also got in the sea that day too.
Food The light you live in grows the food you eat... when you eat food from a different part of the world, you eat the light from that location. This confuses your body, your brain and putting food on a jet renders it 'artificial' Artificial sugars are a problem for burning fat, and It's very rare we import anything that doesn't contain sugars. I'm not saying sugars are bad, I'm saying excess, refined and foreign sugars might be causing you problems, in the form of higher blood glucose, meaning higher insulin resistance, and effecting cellular respiration
There is a growing movement based around a diet called 'the ketogenic diet' When you eat food your liver will produce two different types of fuel 1. Glucose 2. Ketones When you eat moderate proteins and high fat your liver will produce elevated levels of ketones. When you eat carbs and sugars your body will produce more glucose If you eat 100% fat one day, you will likely piss these ketones out and get a reading on a keto stick, but not in your blood (meaning the ketone just became a waste product) If you do it long enough you will become what we call 'keto-adapted' or 'fat-adapted' meaning you are able to use the ketone bodies as energy. Excellent news for marathon runners As you can probably guess I am in favour of this type of diet, but I only eat high fat/keto in the winter, when high fat is in season. I then eat natural, local sugars in the summer when they are in season
This is why I believe people in seasonal locations should eat a hybrid diet varying from summer to winter
Ketones are known to turn into energy in the presence of oxygen. (Aerobically)
Glucose is converted into energy without oxygen (anaerobically)
Without getting too sciencey, with our main aim being our desire to improve cellular respiration, for cancer prevention and performance enhancement this aerobic activity in our cells obviously represents a huge advantage The ketogenic diet is being researched into its anti-cancer effects by people that believe that cancer derives from a cellular respiration deficiency I would encourage you to read Dr Mercola or professor Dom D'agistino's work with the US navy seals for more details, but it's very interesting if you suffer from cancer
However, naturally, you can imagine how beneficial this up regulation of aerobic capacity can be for middle to long distance sports such as boxing, martial arts, running, football etc anyone that needs to breath and would like a 2nd tank of energy
A little calculation I like to lay on people that run marathons and eat gels: If you weigh 80kg and have 10% body fat this means you have 8kg of body fat stored 8kg = 8000 grams 9 calories to every gram of fat means 9*8000 you have 71000 calories sitting on your body right now The average marathon run in 4 hours burns 2600 calories So what the Fock do you need sugar gels for during a race?
What you need is to become fat adapted and use this abundance of energy you have stored and spend your life trying to burn Tap into that using the 3 signals, and you'll never look back
To put it into perspective, I sparred (boxing) with a few 'fight ready' boys a couple of years ago after zero training and it was embarrassing how much more energy I had. I'm not blowing my own trumpet, anyone can do this once they flip the fat switch, I'm not special.
Ketones do have some draw backs though. I think it's fair to highlight them before you run off eating sticks of butter This area is growing at pace and with it some misinformation. The common consensus is that to be ketogenic means to have high blood ketones. Here I disagree I can walk 5km and have ketones I can walk 5km and have none I can fast 36 hours and have 2.0mmol ketone levels and then next week have none Because I'm very efficient at using ketones, any activity could mean my readings are way different. Ketone levels mean too many things, so I wouldn't rely on that feedback alone. Instead my 'go-to' bio feedback is my morning blood glucose and my glucose 1 hour after eating. This tells me what I'm most interested in: insulin sensitivity My bodies (pancreas) ability to produce the insulin to deal with whatever I've eaten. The more insulin sensitive, the less sugar in my blood, the less sugar in my blood the less food there is for cancer to feed on floating round my blood and cells. Im effectively starving any would be cancer We need to look after both glucose and ketone levels and not get fixated on only one
I've written a cook book that goes into more detail on this subject. Although it's a couple of years old now, and my views have changed a little, it's still relevant Inbox me for a free copy and I'll send it to you