The Evolved 12 week ultimate evolution challenge kicks off June 1st. A big part of this challenge is educating our clients on understanding what is going on inside their body and what they can do to influence it to get their desired results.
A common goal we have out our all female gym is to decrease body fat (weight) and increase lean muscle (Tone up) this can be a challenging task as most people (coaches and trainers included) don’t actually have the knowledge or understanding of how this works and more importantly how to make it happen.
Lets start with how Fat influences the physiology of our body.
As a lot of us are painfully aware fat is something that we have this amazing ability to produce unlimited amounts of. 100’s of thousands of years of Evolving to survive without food for long periods of time has made this one of the best adaptions humans could have. But now we have unlimited food its extremely difficult to override 100’s of thousands of years of perfecting a system to keep you alive and for a lot of people this is a massive struggle.
We have 3 molecules that have a big affect on our ability to control this and they are produced by body fat.
Molecule 1 : We have two main molecules that control our hunger. Ghrelin and Leptin. Ghrelin tells us we are hungry and leptin tells us we are full. These two molecules play on a seesaw and are constantly trying to keep you balanced so you dont eat too much or too little. Body fat produces leptin and the more body fat we have the more Leptin we produce, This should be telling people with excess body fat that they are constantly full so why do people who have extra body fat constantly feel hungry and over eat? The over production of leptin over sensitises the Leptin receptors this is like someone who starts off drinking one cup of coffee and then a few months later needs two cups to get the same affect before you know it they have drunk 5 cups of coffee per day and still feel tired. This is what happens when we have excess body fat. Our Leptin receptors are constantly triggered and they become desensitised to the signal our body is trying to give us.
Molecule 2: is and enzyme called aromatase this molecule is also elevated with higher levels of body fat. This molecule is responsible for converting the sex hormone testosterone into oestrogen. When we have too much oestrogen it can throw our bodies balance out of whack and into metabolic dysfunction and increasing excess fat storage. As you have read this means more production of the molecules which continues the spiral. Excess oestrogen can also have impacts on female fertility. That is another topic for another blog.
Molecule 3: is Cytokines. Cytokines a complex group of signalling enzymes produced by different cells in the body. There is growing research that points to the conclusion that body fat produces and cytokine to increases inflammation in the body. The research suggests that this inhibits the bodies ability to not only mobilise and metabolise body fat but may also be a key contributor to insulin sensitivity which is a precursor to type 2 diabetes.
As you can see having higher levels of body fat can have a huge impact on the way our internal systems of our body can work against when trying to lose fat. This is why getting these under control is essential and once you have the tools in place to offset this it can be a lot simpler to manage.
Before we go any further lets make the note that body fat is not evil it also keeps you alive and if you have excess body fat it is probably due to having an extremely efficient metabolism that has been developed through generations and generations and generations of giving your genetics the best chance of survival on this planet. So don’t beat yourself about it. Accept that if it wasn’t for this system you wouldn’t be here to even worry about having to control body fat. So give yourself some slack and then we can work on building the skills needed.
Now what do we need to learn and develop to help offset this?
We need to get your hunger receptors, Hormone balance and inflammation down.
Our system we give our clients is our 21 day health reset. This program helps to address these issues by helping your body get all of these under control.
We use food guidelines that help you feel fuller, get the essential nutrients into your body to help the body works its natural processes and also include good sources of foods that help to reduce inflammation and get your body moving in the right direction. This reset program also includes morning, night and daily rituals that will help this process. These rituals and programs are also very easy to implement but will take a little adjusting of your current routines.
Our second and greatest ally in this process is strength training. Strength training over time will build lean muscle. An increase in lean muscle is going to give you the benefits of increasing your metabolism, giving you better insulin sensitivity due to greater storage of glycogen in the muscle and the ability to burn more energy and fat when training and long after.
Our approach to getting body fat to a healthy level which is 20-25% for women is fairly simple. We get your body in the right internal environment to start to mobilise and metabolise body fat and then when increase your ability to burn and maintain a leaner healthier body with strength training.
One final note. Everyone is an individual this is why every person that walks in our door is treated as such. We don’t chuck you in a room of 20-30 people and be a cheer leader we keep our group personal training to smaller levels so we can work closely with you to work out exactly what works for you. This also requires commitment from you. We are not here to be your cheerleader we are here to guide you and show you what you are not seeing so you can get to your desired goal. Commitment and consistency works every time all you have to do is be patient enough and keep working on our recommendations to crack your individual code.
If this sounds like a missing piece to your healthy lifestyle puzzle our 12 week challenge will give you all the tools you need to finally crack the code to fat loss.
Register for our free information night on the link below or give us a call on 0466873964 and to give you the solution to your needs.
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