Fat Loss for Good

This is episode 213 of the Empowered Team podcast. The Zenith is back. The most amazing retreat that really dives in to getting you to your next level. Physically, mentally, spiritually. We have leased out a five acre oceanfront gorgeous spot in Sayulita, Mexico and it is time for you to dive in and change your, your life. And I don't mean there's anything wrong with your life. I mean up level, expand, make it what you really want. The Zenith is coming end of February this year. We'll tell you more. We just want you to know ahead of time, save the dates. Welcome to the Empowered Team podcast where we explore how to optimize your performance in career, sport and life. And now your host, executive coach and life strategist, Kari Schneider. Okay, welcome. Welcome to Performance Power. And just a reminder to everyone, we only do this monthly. It's a special topic each month that I dive into the research for so that we can pass on the goods to you. And this month's topic is all about fat burning. How to fern bat. How to burn fat sustainably. We all want to fern bat, you know what that's like, how to burn fat sustainably for the long haul and what this takes. So we're diving into the five minute facts before we get started. Pop some questions that you have in the chat so that we can refer to them and if they're especially, especially to do with fat burning. So here we go. We're going to go with the number one fact and this is shown over and over again in research. And actually, sorry, before I go into that fact, I'm going to remind everyone here what typically happens because I'm sure it's happened to us all. At some point somebody gains a little bit of weight, maybe it's been the holidays, maybe it's been summer festivities, summer barbecue, whatever it is. And inevitably somebody says, I want to lose weight. And I hear this a lot and I often will end up correcting on this realm. Is it that you want to really lose weight or is it that you want to change body composition, as in lose some fat and maybe increase a little bit of muscle mass? When that specificity comes to the forefront, people typically answer, well, no, I don't just want to lose weight. I want to shift my body composition such that I have increased my muscle mass and decreased my fat mass. So most of the time people are not looking to lose weight, they are looking to change body composition, increasing muscle mass and decreasing fat mass. That is what I typically will hear. So let's dive into the five minute facts and then open it up for questions that are specific to you and what you really want in terms of changing your body composition or increasing your fat burning. So number one, resistance training. So many people who are trying to change that fat burning mechanism in their body, this fat burning machine, are avoiding resistance training for the fear of bulking up. So this includes men, women, but especially women. So here's where some of the research goes in resistance training. One of the studies I looked at, they looked at three different groups. Resistance training only, diet only, and then resistance training plus diet. And you could see linearly that yes, resistance training decreased fat mass. So did diet. It decreased fat mass a little more than resistance training alone. But you put the two of them together and that trumps both of them. So adding a, a diet plan or a change in eating that really supports fat loss as well as resistance training is better than either of them alone. But the beauty about resistance training is it's building hungry metabolic tissue that will work for you not only functionally, but it'll keep your metabolism revved up throughout the day. So a lot of you might have known that, but may not be actively practicing that. So that's a really powerful one. That's fact number one. Fact number two, and this is one that a lot of people who are in the weightlifting world are aware of and those who are not often don't bring this into play. And fact number two is protein consumption. Increasing protein consumption, but possibly not for the reasons that you're thinking. It's not the reason of increasing muscle mass, although it will support that, but it's for the reason of what it does to us. What hormonally, when it comes to our satiety or our satiation, if you will, feeling satiated or feeling full and satisfied. And protein does the best job of that. Not fat, not carbohydrates, but protein. And it has to do with the amino acids in the protein. And there are some profound amino acids that really help us when it comes to feeling full, but also metabolizing, supporting our muscle mass and supporting our fat burning overall. So there were some very interesting studies. I looked at meta analyses, looked at all kinds of really cool studies, even when they took studies like giving people a tofu burger with the same amount of protein as a burger with cheese, that still had the effect of producing some of the hormones that are associated with greater fullness and greater actual metabolic production and fat burning. So, so this increased satiety and improved any of the markers for metabolic syndrome. And this is looked at across hundreds of studies that protein consumption was really key for fat burning and fat loss. So that might be a surprising one for a lot of people because we don't think of necessarily protein consumption as a key to fat loss, but it really, really is. Protein consumption is going to be one of those number three. So our fact number three for fat burning, this one I think we all know. But I'm going to remind you because we've done some extensive performance power episodes on sleep. Sleep is key for fat burning. I bet if I asked anyone in here, well, what do you feel like when you're down two hours sleep, you got two hours less sleep than normal? What do you tend to crave when you sleep two hours less? Most of us are probably going to say sugar, carbs, coffee, all of these things, something along those lines. Well, it's true that when we get enough sleep, it affects, or not enough sleep. It affects our growth hormone production. It affects our hypothalamic, our pituitary glands. It also affects our cortisol. Really boosting our cortisol too much instead of having it be at the times and the amount that we really want to have that cortisol. Cortisol, although we think of it as a stress hormone, isn't a bad thing. It's part of our metabolic processes. It's just the timing of it that's key. And sleep will affect that massively. So sleep will affect, as I said, that fullness, feeling, the satiation, growth hormone, pituitary adrenaline, cortisol, also increase our appetite. If we haven't had enough sleep, it'll affect our genes as well, which influence our circadian clock. And that's going to also influence how we metabolize when we're hungry and our overall fat burning as well. So that's a very, very powerful one. Fact number four for fat burning. Here we go into exercise intensity. So I'd like to have somebody pop A1 in the chat if aerobic exercise is the most important for fat burning. And pop a 2 in the chat if anaerobic exercise is most important for fat burning. And pop a three in the chat if you don't know the difference between the two. And that's okay, and we welcome that. So a 1 if it's aerobic, a 2 if it's anaerobic, and a 3 if you don't know the difference and you don't, you're not sure. Okay, so people are popping in. Okay, this is kind of a trick question. So here we go. As you probably saw at some point in your life on a Stairmaster or a treadmill, if you popped in the fat burning zone on your treadmill or your StairMaster, it used to be a low intensity one. That's what they would do. Because it's true, at low intensity work we are burning fat at that time. However, those that put in twos have been either educated in some form or another. That's fantastic. Because the anaerobic work, which is your more intense work, that anaerobic work is building a more of a metabolic machine. So this is how it works. If I go and do something really intense, sprint, repeats intervals, heavier weight training first thing in the morning during that bout of exercise, I am burning carbohydrates, not fat. Everybody follow. However, I revved that engine so hard that for the rest of the day it is metabolically primed and, and it's more likely to burn fat throughout the rest of the day. Everybody follow. So even though your anaerobic work, so some of you put that number two there, that anaerobic work is not burning fat at the time. Typically it is not burning any fat at the time. It's burning primarily carbohydrates. However, it sets the stage to burn more fat later on after you've done the intense exercise. To be clear, with this, you are burning the most fat when you're sleeping, assuming you haven't eaten a big meal right before bed. Why? Because it's one of our lowest metabolic states and that's when we burn fat. But the reason that anaerobic exercise is so important is because it revs the engine to be able to burn more fat throughout the day and in sleeping later. So I hope everybody follows that. Now, that doesn't mean that aerobic exercise isn't important. This is where your walks come in, this is where your gardening comes in. This is where the low level activity is critical. So in fact, number four, yes, the intense exercise is key for burning fat throughout the rest of the time and aerobic activity throughout the day. The low intensity, staying active throughout the day is also important. So what this looks like practically just to really understand this, practically, this means that you want to do some intense work, maybe anywhere from two times to maybe four times throughout the week. Some intense bout, lifting intense intervals two times, probably not more than three or four times in the week. But you also want lots of bouts of aerobic activity, getting up from your desk, walking around, gardening, other bouts of low level activity as well, especially broken up throughout the day. It is shown over and over in research that One big bout of exercise in the day is not optimal. One bout of exercise is great. So supplemented with other small bouts of activity as often as possible, that's ideal. So that's number four and number five, I had to bring this in there because it comes up so frequently, powerfully in the research. And that's intermittent fasting. And we're looking at about. Most of the research for this is looking at about a moderate intermittent fast, which is a 16 and 8. So 16 hours of non eating, 8 hours of eating. And what this shows, even if the caloric intake was the same, same, even if people aren't changing so much, but they just have gone this time restriction, they end up burning more fat. And likely the theories are that there's this break metabolically and our systems are working hormonally better and metabolically better. And then when we have a shorter feeding window, that's where that comes from. So this is specifically talking about an 8 and 16. Okay, so next one as a bonus, then we have some. There's all kinds of other things. I could give you things like an apple an hour before your dinner. How about water drinking, how about breath work, how about prebiotics and probiotics. All of these support fat burning and metabolism. So to recap that really quickly, the number one was the resistance training. Yes, that has to be there for optimal fat burning. Number two is protein. Protein consumption does all sorts of great things hormonally and also for our satiation. Feeling that satisfied full feeling, that's our hormone leptin, that helps us feel full. Number three is making sure we get those seven to nine hours sleep or whatever is optimal for you. That's going to affect us hormonally and metabolically. And number four, exercise intensity. Yes, you've got the intense sleep stuff and you've got also the lower intense work mixed in as well. And lastly, intermittent fasting. These are key. However, I want to make sure that I give you some of the optimal tips based on your specific life and your specific questions. So pop in the chat. Where is it that you have a specific question? So we have got a question here. Does the walk need to be a power walk? No. No it doesn't. It could be a leisurely walk, it could be a 15 minute walk. One of the things that helped my husband and I the most for our mental and overall physical health was our dog walks. And what this looked like is he walks the dog in the morning or I do, I get a 10 minute walk in the morning and then we walk the dog, I walk the dog in the afternoon for about 10 minutes and then we walk the dog together. So that's three dog walks. And some of them are a little bit brisk and some of them are more leisurely while we're chatting. But adding those three up, that's going to be anywhere between 30 minutes and 50 or 60 minutes of aerobic activity in different points of the day that are dog walking. And if it's quick, maybe it's as little as 20 to 25 minutes total throughout the day. But those intermittent bursts also contribute to our mental and our metabolic fat burning health as well. And then there was a question on the ones and twos that we put in. The ones were the guesses for the aerobic, which is better, which is the more fat burning activity, the aerobic activity, activity number one or number two, the anaerobic activity. And so that's what we were referring to with the aerobic and anaerobic activity. So the walk doesn't need to be a power walk. It can absolutely be a leisurely walk and it will contribute to that fat burning overall. Other questions that are specific to your life, pop it in the chat or unmute yourself. And once you pop those in, then I'm going to pop another one in that's come up. Oh, number one tip is resistance training. Yes, resistance training. And number two is protein consumption. Increasing proteins consumption. It does not have to be meat protein, although the branch chain amino acids that are in meat cause some of the positive effects when it comes to fullness in our leptin hormone and our growth hormones. And it also is a complete protein. So we've got our branched amino acids. But some of the same effects can happen with plant based proteins as well. So those are really powerful as well. Another question that's come in is about fat spot reducing. So this question came in and it was around the person had lost a fair bit of fat, they'd lost a fair bit of weight overall and there was fat on their body that was around the midsection that was like this last frontier. They were having a hard time getting rid of this fat in this one spot. Here's the response to this and this is what happens with everyone. In fact, the first place you are where you're genetically predisposed to put your fat. So if any one of us is to gain weight, we know where it's probably going to go because we've seen it always go to that spot. So for a lot of women it might be boobs, it might be butt, it might Be belly. For a lot of men, it might be right around the belly. For some people it's thighs. But if you gain your weight, you know where the fat is probably going to go because that's your genetic predisposition. So when you lose weight, that genetic spot where your fat tends to go, that's the first place it comes off and the last place it comes off as well, because that's where your body wants to put its stores. So it's this kind of blessing and curse in the sense that, oh, it's starting to go right on that side spot, right where my spot tends to go. And at the same time, oh, it's the last place to go as well, because that's where you genetically, your parents gifted you with your storage of fat. Thank you, parents. Now, there was another one that people had. Someone had asked me recently, and this has come up with multiple people as well, is it better to have more time before bed of not eating to burn fat, or is it better to not eat in the morning and have that time in the morning? Really, it's up to you and your lifestyle. I typically try to advise most people to not eat about two hours before bed, but often I'm advising that for overall health reasons. When it comes to getting into the greatest sleep states and being able to get into that deep sleep state sooner, say that fast five times. So if you can get into that sleep state, there's going to be all kinds of health benefits, not only for brain recovery, but also metabolically as well. So that's why I'm usually advising people to have a buffer of time of not eating before they go to bed, of at least two hours. However, it's got this added effect with fat burning that if you're not eating two hours before you go to bed, you've likely, especially if you've gone for a leisurely walk, you've likely metabolized your meal, your last meal. And if you've metabolized your last meal, then you're doing what I call dining in all night long. That means your body is using its own fat stores. You're dining in. So all night long you're going to be burning fat, but you're going to be burning fat from your fat stores because of when you decided to eat last and have that burned off before you go to sleep. Now, conversely, let's say you ate at 9 o' clock at night and you went to bed at 10 o' clock at night and then you got up in the morning and you're about to eat at 7 in the morning, your body really never had a chance to have a break from digestion and to be able to tap into your fat stores to really start to burn fat. So here is the thing, what we'd like to do, and I've done this even with high performance athletes. What we'd like to do is train our bodies to burn fat, to be optimized at fat burning. And that is an amazing thing that then you don't have to be constantly struggling and trying to be in ketosis all of the time, but you've really done more of a organic version of teaching your body how to burn fat. Now, there's nothing wrong with ketosis. It has massive health benefits and it's very useful for a lot of people. However, most people have a hard time staying on a ketonic diet for a long sustainable period. So if we can learn how to become fat burning machines, then we don't have to rely on more of a regimented kind of scenario with certain foods. So I'll go with a TMI here in just a second. So what that means and what this looks like is that we can get up in the morning and not eat anything and then go for a walk or even do a workout, even an intense workout. And you're teaching your body that you've used up your stored glycogen in your muscles, or your stored glycogen in your liver, and you've used up the blood glucose in your blood, and now I have to use what I have to use the stored fat. But in the beginning, if your body is trained to tap into the carbohydrates all of the time, then you're going to feel bloody awful the first few times you try to do that. But you do it for about a week, maybe even a little less, maybe a little more. And then your body goes, oh, I get it. I've got thousands and thousands of calories right here available to me. And it starts to shift to tap into that instead of the last meal you ate. So that's the beauty about having either a workout or activity fasted in some form, which might just be your breakfast. It's the first thing in the morning, maybe you haven't had breakfast yet. The other thing you can do is that, say you've done something like you slept all night, you haven't eaten for about anywhere from nine to 12 hours. You go and do the walk in the morning, or you do your workout, maybe it's lifting, whatever it is, and then you go and eat Something, but it's largely fat and protein. Then your body has a second lesson. Oh my goodness, I had nothing to eat. I have to tap into my fat stores. And then you only feed it a little bit of protein and fat and your body goes, oh my goodness, all you're giving me is protein and fat. I better learn how to be efficient with this. I better learn how to do this. And that's what your body will start to tell you. And the other main way of doing this is making sure that you're not overeating on meals because then that that go into it, but it just tops up your sugar stores and then has an effect on your insulin. And then you're just not as likely to tap into your fat zone. But fat burning scenarios for you metabolically. So there's another question here. I tend to get up to pee a lot, sometimes four times. Does the fat process burning get interrupted as well? So I'm not quite clear on exactly what the question is, but. So for instance, here's one of the things I find and I've seen this with number of people and it's happened for me myself as well. So if I've eaten a meal, that's a heavier meal and I have not gone out for a little evening walk, I've actually been sitting a long time, maybe socializing, but I've drinking my same amount of water. I'm equally hydrated as normal, but I didn't go for my walk. What I find then is that in the night I will be up using the bathroom to go pee because my body did not get to metabolize and flush and work its way through not only the meal, but the water as well. And then it's doing it when I'm sleeping. Now, it doesn't mean you're not going to get up for a pee in the night, but when you're getting up for that many, my guess is that your body didn't get a chance to do what it wants to do because it wasn't maybe as mobile as it needs to be sometime in the later half of the day or evening. So that would be my guess on that one. Okay, one last question. If there's one last question specific to you on sustainable fat burning, pop it out there, let me know what you got. You can unmute yourself or you can pop it. In the chat, I found out that I have bad knees, meaning that I have very little cartilage behind the kneecap. And so any exercise that could impact my knees, like deep squats and all of that is prohibited. Is there any way around that? Because I still would love to work out my legs. I do. Yes. Yes. But I don't want to have an injury. Yes. Okay, so you don't want, A, you want to work out, you want to be healthy and B, you don't want to damage your knees further. Fantastic question. Okay, so there are lots of things that you do here. Here's the primary thing. It's going to be look for the non impact activity. So you still want to make sure that you're in a rhythm of. Let's say it's walking, stationary biking. I don't know if you rollerblade. That might cause more injuries if you don't rollerblade. But so it might be even paddling, kayaking, so getting a little more upper body work in there, rowing on a rower, but those types of things, walking, biking, stationary biking, rowing, get that metabolic work, that blood flushing, the breathing, all of those things keep those going and that will make a big differ. And the beautiful thing about your knees specifically is that the blood flow will increase. A thing called synovial fluid. And synovial fluid is that joint lubrication that really isn't released until you get your body to a warmer temperature. And all the signaling happens to the rest of your body to say, hey, guess what everybody, we're moving. Send some lube to the joints so that they can move really well. And what that will do, it'll bring more blood flow to the joint. It can actually foster some healing. Even though cartilage is something that typically doesn't grow back and the damage it sustains tends to last and stay there. If you've got cartilage worn down, it often can be almost like a bone on bone scenario. And that can be very painful. You want as much joint lube and as much off non impact activity as possible. Try and keep those zones and the pain free and that your joints are nice and warm and that will help a lot. Thank you so much. No problem. Okay. And lastly here, fat burning also causes excess water, which can lead to more peeing at night. Fast consists of carbon. Yes. The H2O. Right. H2 and O fat consists of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. So even in water itself, we've got two hydrogens and one oxygen. Right. But our fat, we've got our carbon, our hydrogen and our oxygen. And the way the body burns fat is to convert it into carbon dioxide and water. So what, what Mike is pointing to is we're eliminating some of the fat when we pee. So if any of us have done a cleanse, you probably notice that your pee might be a different color, smell different, or peeing more. And that's part of what we're cleansing out. That's why there's so much water intake that's necessary on things like a cleanse, because we need the opportunity to cleanse out. So the water is important. So when there's fat loss going on, supporting it with breathwork, supporting it with extra hydration is really key. And you may see those peas happening in the night, but as I'm suggesting here is that a lot of those processes, we want that to happen a little bit earlier so that you're not having to get up as many as four, five, six times in the night. If you get up once or twice in the night, that would be far better for your overall recovery for your brain and your body with your sleep cycles, than having to get up 4, 5, 6 times in the night. So that is where in that fat burning zone get that walk. Even if you ended up having a social event that you sat for several hours and you were hydrating really well, you weren't drinking alcohol, you're hydrating really well, you sat for several hours, then before you go to bed or before you go back to your hotel room, or before you return home, go for a walk, go for as little as five to 15 minutes. It makes a huge difference in letting your body flush that out earlier instead of having to do it in the middle of the night. So really beautiful. Wonderful questions, everyone. I hope that serves you. It may spawn more questions. By all means, message me and we'll bring them on to another performance power. Remember, these guys are monthly and we'll bring the topics and what the research says around the topics you care about for your optimal performance in your health that will serve your best life. Have a beautiful rest of your day, everyone. Live big. If you enjoy listening to the Empowered Team Podcast, you'll love being on the Empowered Team. The Empowered Team runs year round. It is our group coaching and accountability program where we take mindset and physical performance concepts and break them down to usable action steps that optimize results. To learn more about our Empowered Leadership coaching for business, our custom online physical training plans, and of course, the Empowered Team group coaching. Head to www.theempowered.caempowered. learn more. That's www.theempowered.ca empoweredlearn.