HOW TO SWITCH TO RUNNING ON & THEREFORE BURNING FAT
Tags: Health, Weight Loss, Fasting, Nutrition, Ketogenic Diet

BASICS OF EATING, DIGESTING, FASTING, USING FAT OR CARBS AS FUEL & THE KETOGENIC DIET

DEFINE FASTING

People associate and mean different things by fasting. The commonality: no food. But does no food also include no drinks? Or does it mean no calories at all? Or also no water?

In general, strict fasting could be defined as: a water fast with no calories. At least, that’s, what most people probably see as fasting. But: what about vitamins? One pill of my vitamins has 7 calories. Does that break my fast? Well, depends on how breaking a fast is defined.

BREAKING A FAS

Can be either done by just consuming calories, which would be a logical definition, or the biological one, meaning, a food intake, that throws you out of the fasting state. How about we call a meal breaking a fast exactly that? Like breakfast.

MY HISTORY OF FASTING

Back as a child, well, I sometimes found food boring af. Therefore I sometimes barely ate anything. Which I only recently discovered is probably the healthiest state you could be in. Because most of the time, the biological machine that is our body influences our behavior such that we tend to eat as much food as we need and also the food we need.

EVER SEEN FAT WILD ANIMALS?

Nope? You only see them, once they have contact with the food we developed or processed in recent history. Cause to make it short: The more food you sell in general means: more profit for the ones selling the food. Hence: there is an incentive to market food. Also to make it as delicious and addicting as possible. Ever scrolled down a screen, although you didn’t plan on doing it in the first place? This process of making something as addictive as possible in order to increase profit is also done with food.

HENCE, OUR FOOD ADDICTION

More people nowadays suffer from being overweight than from being malnourished. This is neither a good nor bad thing because it is just a relation between two numbers, not necessarily leading to simple conclusions, but still, it’s the case. Which either says something about the decline of hunger worldwide or the rise of obesity. Or both. Or both decreasing or increasing at different rates.

40% OF PEOPLE WORLDWIDE ARE OVERWEIGHT OR OBESE

Which, to shorten it down is just not an optimal state for many reasons. Like shortened lives for example. Or the simple fact an overweight person cannot really run. Or shouldn’t because they basically are destroying their joints.

THEN, THERE IS DIET ADVICE

Sometimes appearing to cover all of over magazines [back when they were still a thing]. Why? Because very many people struggle with weight. Which doesn’t really say something about topics like fat-shaming, and blah-blah. But rather: It is just a thing that bothers us. Something we want, and not only that, but also something we know would be better, but: many of us can’t reach it.

HOW THEN TO GET THERE

Right now, much of this is kind of so-called “Bro Science” [seemingly working methods not scientifically backed up], and studies are only recently catching up or much more diving deeper into the science behind fasting. But still, there seem’s to be some things, which are results of studies, namely

WELL,

wanted to list more, but I cannot really state these as facts, but rather as commonalities or overlap, which is just a different category from the upper, here they are

Not eating at all for certain periods appears to be easier and healthier than eating significantly less

Our ancestors probably had to go days without food

Not eating seems therefore to be a very natural state

The body mostly switches between two sources for energy usage

Not only that but also between two different types of energy sources

Here is

HOW WE EAT

Food is made up of macronutrients, micronutrients, vitamins and minerals.

Macronutrients are the nutrients providing use with energy, the others are supplementary stuff we need to function. If you get your macronutrients but forget to supply your body with the proper micronutrients to go alongside a certain unit of energy, you are essentially running off of

“EMPTY CALORIES”

If you compare yourself to a car, it looks like this. You get the energy meaning the fuel, yes. But it’s just the fuel itself. It’s like an offer “get as much free fuel as you want”, but pay for maintenance yourself. So you take the offer, as many would. And you drive and drive, refill, drive. The problem: you’re driving your car to the ground. It for sure will run for some time. But at a certain point, seemingly out of nowhere, all the small things that would have needed maintenance during your “happy driving on empty calories” — time suddenly accumulate and you cannot get your car running unless you pay several thousand in maintenance. The tires got no profile. You lost some screws along the way because you never bothered to tighten them. Stuff like that. And then suddenly

YOU LOSE A TIRE DURING DRIVING

and since you are used to driving at 100km/h, losing a tire at this speed turns out to be: very fatal. You crash. And that’s,

WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR BODY WITHOUT MICRONUTRIENTS, VITAMINS & MINERALS

For every liter of fuel or amount of energy measured in kcal you also need the proper amount of “maintenance” to go along with the unit of energy. And if you skip these, you crash. Which results in: many people living happy lives eating fast food, burger, lot’s of refined carbohydrates and then suddenly “crashing down”. But

BACK TO FASTING

What happens when we eat is this: the food gets used and the rest gets stored in short-term and long-term storage. When food gets digested, the nutrients get into your bloodstream. From there all cells just take whatever they need. Whenever you eat: insulin gets released. Which allows the cells to take what they need. Because it opens up the cells and lets the nutrients flood in. Like a gatekeeper that regulates: the flow of the nutrients in your flood.

THEN: WHEN YOUR CELLS ARE FULL

The rest is just useless. Provided the steady stream of nutrients from your digestive system is bigger than your energy consumption. And if that is the case, the left nutrients are stored for long-term usage. In your freezer. This means it takes longer to get to the freezer and also longer to “defreeze” the nutrients again. And this

FREEZER IS FAT: LITERALLY

But chances are, you don’t eat all the time. Therefore there isn’t always a stream of nutrients from your digestive system. And the body has to have an alternative for that. Otherwise: it wouldn’t have the energy to run anymore. Your average energy need is indeed pretty constant. Of course, it peaks during times when you perform physical activity and is the lowest when you don’t do anything but sleeping, but still: on average, your energy consumption is indeed

PRETTY AVERAGE

Now, the digestive tract is empty. Not that it’s empty, it’s just that the nutrients have already been “harvested” and therefore the food moves on to bigger adventures. The main form of energy your body uses and therefore is in your blood all the time is:

SUGAR: OR A MORE COMPLEX VERSION OF SUGAR

Basically, you could call all carbohydrates sugar, the difference is just, how hard it is for the body to break these molecules into the small units it actually can use. But there are also the other macronutrients: protein and fat. So, when there is sugar [or carbohdydrates] in the food, they go right into your blood. The other two are also, but the big difference is: carbs can be used right out of the bloodstream. Your brain for example runs on a minimum 30% glycogen all the time. Glycogen is the form of carbs your body uses to short-term store the carbs it got from the digestive system. And is the “main unit” of energy in your body.

BUT, YOU CAN ALSO USE THE OTHER TWO MICRONUTRIENTS

for energy consumption. Protein has about the same energy density as carbohydrates, fat has double the energy/ weight, meaning it is double as energy-dense as the other two. Protein is needed to build stuff, therefore your body only burns them for fuel, whenever it has too much. And since protein cannot really be stored, it then uses the leftover protein. But

WITH FAT AND CARBS, IT’S DIFFERENT

Both can be stored in their original form. Carbs get stored in the muscles and liver as glycogen. The amount depends on your fitness level [the fitter you are, the bigger your muscle’s space for glycogen is] and also simply the size of your body. But: the storage for glycogen is limited. According to studies, the average Joe can store about 15g of glycogen per kg of body mass. Let’s say you weigh in at 70kg, that’s: 70x15g = 1050g, or almost exactly 1kg of glycogen stored in your muscles and liver. If you then wanted to

USE THAT AGAIN

for general purposes, you can only access the glycogen in your muscles via using the muscles. They don’t see the point in giving away their valuable glycogen to other cells in the body. Why? Because glycogen is very easy to use, can be broken up into energy very fast [compared to protein and fat] and therefore is the “way to go” whenever you need to restore your bodies ATP and KTP, with both being the “ultimate energy cash”, or in the metaphor of freezer and fridge, ATP and KTP are the food that’s already prepared and cooked. You can eat it right away.

SO, YOUR BODY NEEDS ENERGY

What happens? It first uses the glycogen in your bloodstream. But that’s not much. And when that’s empty, your blood sugar gets low. And since many cells need to run on glycogen or at least to a certain amount on glycogen, there will always be a need for a constant supply of glycogen.

FAT CAN ALSO BE BROKEN INTO GLYCOGEN

but that’s very slow. Therefore, when you are low in blood sugar, your body is like: “What about food”? And: you get hungry. Your body could also use the glycogen in the liver, and indeed it does. But that’s not very much. Compared to the 1kg of overall glycogen, the liver glycogen is about 100g-200g for an average person, with 70kg maybe 150g.

HOW MUCH IS THAT?

Glycogen has an energy density of about 4kcal/ g. Fat 9kcal/ g and protein nearly the same as carbs or glycogen. In short: your liver glycogen only lasts about 150g x 4kcal = 600kcal. An average male probably needs around 2000kcal/ day, females due to their smaller bodies: less.

WE TAKE 2000/ DAY

and simplify it again: that’s about 100kcal/hour or energy consumption. 2000 for a 70kg male doing some activity is probably more on the lower side, therefore 100kcal/hour should be more or less a good estimate.

NOW, YOU RUN ON YOUR 600KCAL OF LIVER GLYCOGEN

for maybe 6 hours max. But: your body cannot live without a steady stream of glycogen as already discussed, so: you get hungry.

BUT WHY IS SUGAR NOT GOOD?

Because: the less complex food is, the faster it gets broken down. The more nutrients/time get released into your blood, therefore insulin rises much faster your body “wants to store” all the food in your cells. Even if it could use the glycogen in a few hours. It just cannot store the shier amount of food and the cells cannot do anything against that, since the gatekeeper insulin just “commands” them to take everything out in the bloodstream. That also means

WHAT IS TO MUCH GETS STORED AS FAT

at least that’s more likely. So in short, the more complex food is, the longer it takes to break it down and get to its nutrients. Therefore the stream of nutrients from your digestive system into your blood is steadier, which leads to less insulin and effectively: to your digestive system acting as an active energy provider as long as it delivers. In comparison: it doesn’t if the less complex food, aka refined sugar results in a huge energy spike, therefore an “explosion in blood sugar” and therefore also an insulin spike, since very high blood sugar levels are basically toxic for your body, damaging cells and blood vessels. So, what we want is

FOOD AS COMPLEX AS POSSIBLE

it stabilizes the whole process of food intake. You don’t want the big spikes in blood sugar and blood insulin. And if you can avoid them: you are not: completely high on sugar, then followed by a hangry phase, leading to yo eating again. Resulting in high blood sugar and insulin, then a sugar high, then a drop in blood sugar, and the cycle repeats itself.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE FAT?

Well, your body does indeed also use its fat stores. Aka, the freezer. But since it’s “frozen” stuff and the freezer is often in the basement and not next to the kitchen table, it just takes longer to get the energy out of there. Imagine bringing up a few things you got from the freezer, then waiting for them thawing for ages. And you can only get so much on one “haul” to the freezer. And also: it’s nice to always have something in the freezer.

YOU NEVER KNOW, WHEN BAD TIMES AWAIT YOU

And out of all of these reasons: getting energy from fat is not the “go-to” thing for your body whenever your blood sugar drops. But more of a backup option that doesn’t provide as much energy/ time, take long to finally get up running and this results in the basic paradox of fat storage and also more and more of us:

BEING HUNGRY & FAT SIMULTANEOUSLY

But what, if you somehow could get the utilization of far more efficient? What you could “train your body” to use fat faster and better? Well, turns out

YOU CAN EXACTLY DO THAT

Basically, you can move your freezer closer to the kitchen. And maybe get a microwave to fasten up the process of retrieving energy from frozen stuff aka fat. There are two main ways to fasten up this process: fasting and the

KETO DIET

is a way to avoid almost everything that spikes your insulin. Fat doesn’t spike insulin. Carbs do. Very simple carbs like white sugar quite drastically. Protein also does, but not as much, and also: there is no way around the insulin spikes resulting from protein intake because we need protein. Just as fat and

CARBS?

Turns out, since the body can make carbs or glycogen from fat and protein, there is no actual need of eating carbs, to begin with. And just like that, you avoid: most crappy foods nowadays, the big insulin spikes, and also: the big hunger afterward. Essentially, the keto diet is a way to do just that:

REDUCING CARBS TO A MINIMUM

and using all the benefits of that. What your food intake mainly consists of: fat and protein. And since your body doesn’t get carbs by you eating them, it has to get them from fat and protein all the time. Therefore, when your insulin and blood sugar drop after a meal: your freezer is right there in the kitchen, ready to take over again, and also: there is a microwave to do that real

FASTING

works basically the same. You force your body into using fat as an energy source but instead of eating only fat- and protein-rich foods, you just don’t eat entirely. Therefore: you get much quicker results since on the process to a body highly capable of running on fat as the main energy source, skipping all the meals and energy spikes is just the best way to

“FAT ADAPTING” YOUR BODY

And that’s almost everything you need to know right now. What about the brain and other organs needing glycogen? Well, turns out, the brain can run on up to 70% of ketone-bodies, a byproduct of Gluconeogenesis, the name for the process of making glycogen out of fat. And the rest? Is just glucogen made from fat. Your glycogen stores in muscles and liver just get refilled with “glycogen from fat” and this also means, your peak performance when doing physical activity is not actually limited by the maximum energy/ time you get from breaking up fats, but: since you still got the glycogen as a buffer, it’s just the same as compared to you “running on carbs”. The only thing that’s missing, when fasting: the nutrient stream from your digestive system. But on the other end: whenever your body needs

“TO SWITCH”

from breaking down glycogen into breaking down fat, since it is now more adapted to that, the “switch” happens much faster, since the freezer and the microwave are

READY TO RUMBLE

and you are now to. This means, you now finally have everything you need to know for the next part: which is how to fast and breaking down how I did fast for 5 days straight, how it actually worked, and if it was

AS HARD AS IT SOUNDS

Till then, here is another summary:

the more complex your food, the better

the smaller the insulin spike, the better

the smaller your blood sugar variations, the better

your body uses the macronutrients carbs, protein, and fat for energy

you do need micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals along with every unit of macronutrients, otherwise, your “car” aka your body suffers long-term

switching to retrieving energy from fat is more stable since blood sugar and insulin are more stable

you can up the efficiency of “running on fat” by either the keto-diet or fasting. Or less extreme, by simply reducing very “simple foods” and eating more complex sources of energy

THINKERSTREAM