Lipid metabolism

A friend of mine sent me an email this morning with some simple concerns of his overall fitness goals. He is following the metabolic diet which is like the zone/paleo regime only very cyclic and changing from day to day, but was not crossfit training. This is all besides the point. He was taking a popular fat-burning supplement that was said to strip body fat at an alarming rate, yet he was not experiencing that result.

I looked into the studies coordinating with this wonder drug, and they all quoted an enhanced level of lipolysis (fat breakdown) from supplementation of this compound. So what gives? If more fat is being broken down, shouldn't my friend being losing more body fat. NOT EXACTLY!

In our bodies fat is stored in the form of adipose tissue which is a clustering of triglycerides. Now a triglyceride is a glycerol molecule linked to three fatty acids via ester bonds (o-c=o). During lipolysis lipases coming in and cleave the ester linkage resulting in free fatty acids (FFA). Unfortunately this is only half of the picture, as the FFA's must be utilized by B-oxidation in order to be turned into ATP energy. If there is no demand for the utilization of FFA's for energy then guess what, the FFA's aren't used and eventually return back into triglycerides.

The take home message here is that you need both halves of the fat-burning equation in order to drop body fat. Unfortunately, supplements can increase lipolysis be cannot increase the rate of B-oxidation. A great way to increase B-oxidation or fat utilization, would be to increase your oxygen intake which is a result of greater mitochondrial density, which is a result of a training adaptation. And guess what, you can do all this with the CROSSFIT training regime.

So please, save that 50 dollars a month you would have spent on the latest fat-loss supplement and spend that money on quality foods to fuel your quality crossfit training.


Hildie

BTW: I commend those who has taken the time and effort to call me and ask questions. It shows me that you care about yourself and your training and that you trust me in my diagnosis.


Again you can reach me 24 hours a day at 915-694-7132 or on this blog.