Losing Fat and Building Muscle- Understanding Hormones Part 2

First if you haven't read part 1, make sure you do so here: Building muscle and burning fat- Busting misconceptions Part 1.

I also want to preface this post by saying this:

I don't see fitness and health as a highly compartmentalized system of techniques and activities that we must perform to look sexy and lean. I look at the human body in terms of lifestyle optimization and human performance. I know..I know..it's easy to get caught up in the whole body image mindset. We have a culture that enforces a standard of "sexy-ness".

If we don't measure up to the six-pack, curves, cuts, striations, and angular physiques, a lot of us feel as though we are not good enough. On top of that, our environment is such that we have an abundance of food and a crap ton of luxuries to keep us comfortable. Not the most conducive towards looking or feeling good...atleast long-term. So why should we pursue our health, fitness, and wellness right? Does this sound familiar? : "what's the use", "it's so mainstream", "enjoy life, you only live once", "I don't feel confident when I step into a gym", " I live to eat" ...the excuses grow ever so creative and exponential lol.

So I invite you to ditch the image mindset for a few minutes. Instead, dip into the optimization of your human body so that you can FEEL energetic, strong, functional, sharp, clear, focused, and above all happy. The way you look will be your work of art. It displays what's going on internally. And that's psychological and physiological strength. That's your context. Let that precede any sort of body image goal. I don't expect everyone to adopt this view, however I do invite you to play with the idea.

So enough of the poetry and onto the HORMONES.

I left off the last post by saying that "You need to be able to optimize a favorable hormonal environment in the body for muscle gain and fat loss." You may be thinking..."well what does that even mean?!" Before I get into the how-to's, I want to get into the context of how our body works. Your internal physiology and psychology precede what people see on the outside. So here goes...

All the chemical reactions that occur in our bodies control our energy levels, fat storage, muscle building, growth/repair processes, and overall health. Collectively this is known as your metabolism. In order to not have all processes occurring in a chaotic fashion, our bodies need regulation and order. 

That's where your hormones come into play. Just as traffic cops direct the flow of traffic, your hormones direct the flow of your metabolic processes. The release of hormones are affected by lifestyle choices such as diet, activity level, exercise, sleep, rest, and stress. This is highly under our control! In essence, we can influence how these traffic regulators direct the flow of certain metabolic processes to obtain specific results. Yes genetics affect our metabolism to some extent, however it is not an excuse to relinquish all power towards it. 

But wait! It's not just calories in and calories out?!

On the most fundamental level, we know that if you want to lose body fat,  consume fewer calories than you expend. If you want to gain weight, consume more calories than you burn. However, what we may or may not know is that maintaining a calorie surplus or deficit does not guarantee the results we want. 

A calorie deficit could most certainly lead to a loss of lean muscle mass, and a calorie surplus could lead to a gain in unwanted fat instead of muscle. What is YOUR goal? How do you want to FEEL? Again, get clear on this before proceeding.

We are directed back to hormones (your traffic cops). These chemicals influence whether we are gaining fat or muscle mass and burning fat or muscle tissue. With that being said different hormones direct different types of metabolic processes in the body. There are some that are involved in directing growth and recovery, some that are involved in breakdown and energy utilization, and others that affect other hormones.  Still with me? Good. It gets clearer I promise.

Anabolic and Catabolic hormones

For the purposes of our discussion, lets talk about two primary types of hormones. Anabolic hormones drive growth and recovery, while catabolic hormones drive breakdown and energy utilization. One isn't far superior than the other, and the word breakdown doesn't mean your body is doomed. They just serve our body in different ways.

Anabolic hormones help deposit energy into the muscle tissue, liver, or fat cells, and drive activities of rebuilding, repairing, and growing. Catabolic hormones help extract energy from glycogen (stored carbohydrates), fat, or muscle (no bueno) to be utilized for various activities in the body. 

Keep in mind your body cannot perform both anabolic and catabolic processes at the same time. Sometimes we are building up and other times we are breaking down. There's always that polarity. However, understanding this concept and applying it to our goal of burning fat and building muscle allows us direct our traffic cops. 

Depending on the lifestyle choices we make, we are able to direct our hormones to drive muscle building and fat loss. 

How do we do that?!

STAY TUNED FOR THAT AND MUCH MORE IN PART 3-Lifestyle Optimization!

Much love,
                Sumair

How to burn fat AND put on muscle?-Part 1 Busting Misconceptions!

Every time I am approached by a new client, I am presented with a familiar goal. "I want to be more toned, lose weight, and have more muscle mass". Before I present you with some ideas and perspectives on how to accomplish this, I want to point out some misconceptions and pitfalls that often come about with the topic.

ESTABLISH A CLEAR GOAL

The terms used to describe most people's goals are either not clear or aren't specific enough to invoke an emotional drive. What do I mean by this? Whenever an emotion is attached to whatever we do, the amount of vigor and intention we drive into it is heightened. You can call it passion, you can call it enthusiasm.. I call it "The Get Shit Done" mentality. Try to think back to whenever you felt so driven to do something. Why did you want to do it? What did you FEEL? It is our feelings that direct our life. It's no different when it comes to your health, fitness, and wellness goals. It's another integral part of who you are and what you do.

So before you jump into changing your health, physique, and lifestyle, establish your WHY? Write it down, and put it somewhere you have daily access to. If you ever feel like you are lacking in "umph", remember why you started.

Now that we have cleared that up, lets tackle the 3 common guidelines you often hear to burn fat and put on muscle.

Calories in and Calories out dude...it's easy!

We hear it all the time. "Eat less" , "The amount of calories you consume have to be less than the calories you expend", and "Just eat salads...you'll lose weight". Weight from where? Muscle, fat, bone, water weight, or other lean tissue? The calories in and calories out model works for weight loss, but it doesn't account for where you are losing from. If you are wanting to put on precious muscle mass, using this model may just get you increasingly frustrated. Body composition goals are very much a hormone game. More on this later.

However, If you are considerably overweight and have a lot of body fat, using the calories in and calories out system can prove to be beneficial. You simply just need to drop weight. At least initially. However, it can also drive another person insane while they calculate numbers and stress out about how much or too little.

In all honesty, someone who does have a lot of fat to lose, should just focus on:

a) Walking. Just move. Aim to increase your distance each week, or even up your pace each week.
b) Eat less processed junk like sweets, candy, boxed items etc.
c) Stick to eating foods that are found in nature. eg. vegetables, proteins, and fruits.
d) Just eat less. You don't need a massive amount of calories or meals. You simply just need to eat less than you expend.

If you want to put on a lot of muscle, JUST EAT A BUNCH OF FOOD!

Yes, in order to put on a lot of muscle you need to be in a caloric surplus. However, it isn't just mindless foods. Being aware of where your macronutrients and micronutrients come from are crucial! It's not like you go to town on buffets and junk food every day...and voila! Striations, cuts, and definition!

The amount of sweeteners, artificial ingredients, preservatives, and processing will only make it harder for your digestive system to handle the food. Not only this, you will just end up with Puffy Muscle Syndrome (P.M.S for short).

Picking foods that are nutrient dense (AKA packed with vitamins and minerals), will allow you to digest, absorb, assimilate, and eliminate your food efficiently. You want the nutrients to go where it is needed. We don't need excessive stored energy in the form of fat.

Just do a bunch of cardio!

Cardiovascular training is a great modality of training to elevate the heart rate, increase your metabolism, and release good-feeling chemicals in your body (endorphins). It also helps lower our risk of heart disease and high blood pressure. It's a great way to burn fat and calories, however you can also lose muscle. Especially, if this is your dominant form of exercise.

With too much cardio, our body begins to think "oh snap, all of our fuel reserves are being burned up...I won't have anymore to sustain normal bodily function... I need this precious fuel...I'm going to have to appoint you muscles to be sacrificed, so I can maintain the fuel reserves in my body!" It doesn't know what you are wanting to accomplish. It is only responding to the stimuli you provide it. If muscles had a consciousness...lol. 

So yes, you can burn a good amount of fat with cardio, but to truly gain the "tone definition, and muscularity", you are looking for, it can't be your only way to train.

To the right are both examples of high intensity/resistance training and low intensity/long distance cardio . The difference lies in the types of muscles trained. The long distance runner trains primarily slow-twitch endurance fibers, and the sprinter trains fast-twitch explosive muscle fibers. These are two extremes. However it paints a good of picture of what kind of training style you want to lean towards, in order to achieve the results you are wanting.

Now that we have covered three common misconceptions, you should be ready to explore this a little further.

So what do you do?!?

You need to be able to optimize a favorable hormonal environment in the body for muscle gain and fat loss.

What does that even mean?!

Stay tuned for part 2 to find out more about hormones!

In health,

           Sumair