To kick off the New Year, I am doing a series called Fat Loss Basics! This is the first episode of the series and I’ll be covering all the basic information about calories, hormones, fat loss foods & fitness.
Today we will establish when calories matter and why a calorie deficit is not sufficient for fat loss.
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Fat Loss Basics – Calories & Hormones
In this first episode of the Fat Loss Basics series, we go into detail on a few fat loss truths. Definitely listen to the entire episode to understand them in their entirety and be sure to listen to the whole series as it becomes available!
- A calorie deficit is required for fat loss
- A calorie deficit does not ensure fat loss
- Fat burning is turned on & off by your hormones
- The two primary hormones in control of fat loss are glucagon & insulin
- We can control both insulin & glucagon with our food choices
Insulin is an important & necessary storage hormone. Insulin is responsible for delivery fuel to our cells & ushering excess fuel to storage sites within the body (this can be muscle storage or fat storage).
Without insulin, our cells would starve & we would die.
The presence of insulin informs the body that there there is ample fuel in the body and therefore fat burning is not required.
Glucagon works opposite of insulin.
Glucagon responds when there is no fuel available from food. The presence of glucagon allows fat to be released from storage and burned to provide energy to the body.
A calorie deficit alone is not enough to instruct glucagon to do it’s job.
You need a calorie deficit & control of insulin/glucagon.
Here are a few ways you can control insulin & glucagon to maximize your fat burning potential:
- Follow the Golden Rules of carbs & fat loss
- Avoid overfeeding
- Minimize stress
- Avoid chronic cardiovascular/endurance exercise
Resources
The Golden Rules of Carbs & Fat Loss
Why Calorie Counting is Misleading