Copyright 2006 Donovan Baldwin I write a lot about weight loss and fat loss and how these contribute to health. You have got to remember, however, that fat is not a villain. It is an important nutrient for the health of your body and should not be ignored or disdained. The six dietary components necessary to the health of your body are protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water. Of these, protein, fats, and minerals are used to help build the various components and systems of your body. Protein, carbohydrates, and fat are the sources of energy for your body. FAT AS A STORED ENERGY SOURCE One of the first functions you normally are aware of is that fat is a major source of energy stored in the body. While carbohydrates and protein are also sources of energy, they are not as efficient as fat. While fat provides approximately nine calories per gram, protein and carbohydrates only provide approximately 4 calories per gram. Carbohydrates are normally stored in the body as glycogen, a form of glucose found in the liver and muscles. While some glycogen is stored to provide quick energy, about four pounds of water are required to support one pound of glycogen making it not very desirable or efficient as a stored energy source. GLYCOGEN VS FAT FOR THOSE IN EXERCISE PROGRAMS FOR WEIGHT LOSS While sustained physical activity is great for weight loss, many people put the pedal to the metal and try to go as fast as they can whether running, swimming, walking, or doing aerobics. Unfortunately, activities such as these when done at high intensity levels tend to deplete the body’s stores of glycogen first. Since the activity cannot normally be sustained, most of the energy used up comes from the glycogen stores. A slower version of the same exercise, done over a longer period of time (a 45 minute walk versus a 10 minute run, for example) will not trigger the release of the body’s glycogen stores, but, as energy is needed, will cause the breakdown of fat for use as an energy source. While protein is also a potential source of energy, your body cannot store protein per se. The protein “stored” in your body is in use in the form of muscle or other tissue. In fact, protein is even used to make hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the part of red blood cells that carries oxygen to every part of your body. If the body needs protein for energy, it has to begin breaking down an existing structure, such as a muscle. Hmm! The heart and diaphragm are muscles aren’t they? WEIGHT LOSS AND PROTEIN LOSS If you want to lose weight, one of the most important items in your arsenal can be a good structure of lean muscle mass. Muscle tends to burn more calories than fat. Also, if you have built good muscles with lots of lean muscle mass, you are more likely to be active, burning even more calories. If, however, you restrict your intake of fat to extremely low levels, your body may begin breaking down existing muscle tissue to supply its energy needs. This means less lean muscle mass, fewer calories burned at rest, and less strength and willingness or ability to participate in calorie burning activities. The bottom line is that, as stored energy, your body cannot find anything better than fat. OTHER BENEFITS OF FAT In addition to this energy service, fat also has a few other benefits for your body. In addition to being a source of energy, some forms of fat, called fatty acids, are one of the building blocks of the cell membranes which surround every cell in the body. The manner in which the cell responds to hormones, participates in the supply of nutrients and disposal of waste is dependent upon the health and integrity of these cell membranes. Fat helps to keep your skin essentially watertight and appropriately moist, and is very important to your nerves, assisting them in the speedy transmission of signals. Fat is also important for certain hormones, known as eicosanoids. These are critical for various functions regulating events such as inflammation, blood pressure and clotting, and labor. A little known fact is that an animal which is lacking appropriate levels of fat cannot go into labor. FAT AND VITAMINS Without going into a major discussion of vitamins, you should be aware that some vitamins, such as vitamin A and vitamin E, require fat for proper absorption and use by your body. FAT AND CHOLESTEROL While fat was generally touted for many years as a contributing factor in high cholesterol, studies have been emerging showing that there are good forms of cholesterol (HDL) and bad forms of cholesterol (LDL). Some forms of fat (polyunsaturated fats) actually improve the levels of these good forms of cholesterol, some increase the bad cholesterol and good cholesterol (saturated fats), and some (monounsaturated fats) have a relatively neutral effect. EXAMPLES OF TYPES OF FATS Saturated Fats: These tend to be solid at room temperature. Found mostly in meat and dairy products, some vegetable oils, such as coconut and palm oils (tropical oils) and butter (as opposed to margarine). Polyunsaturated Fats: These are mostly from plant sources such as: safflower, sunflower, soybean, corn, and cottonseed. Monounsaturated Fats: These fats come from both plant and animal products, such as olive oil, canola oil, and peanut oil. Some plants, such as avocados, may also be sources of monounsaturated fats. Let’s remember this about fats in general. Like almost everything in life, too much is bad and too little is bad. Take in too much fat and you may have problems with heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. Take in too little, and you may have problems with dry skin, immune system problems and decreased disease resistance, menstrual difficulties, loss of muscle mass, and retardation of childrens’ growth.
Tag-Archive for ◊ health ◊
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recently released Pastillas para la diabetes tipo 2, a consumer guide aimed at the estimated one in eight Hispanics who take prescription drugs for diabetes. The guide provides information on how to control one’s condition and offers comparisons of various oral medications for their illness. “This guide offers critically important information to help Hispanics who have diabetes control their disease and avoid side effects,” AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy said in a prepared statement. By providing information in Spanish, she said she hopes this will help Hispanic patients become more involved in their own health care and help level the racial and ethnic disparities in health care. The guide describes the workings and effects, good and bad, of 10 generic and 13 brand-name diabetes medications. It also warns patients of potential medication-related problems such as hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), provides simple cost comparisons between each generic and brand-name diabetes medications, and lists appropriate dosages for medications being taken in combination. The Spanish guide is based on the recent AHRQ-funded report, Comparative Effectiveness and Safety of Oral Diabetes Medications for Adults With Type 2 Diabetes, which is based on scientific evidence found in 216 published studies.
Related posts
You may think you know when you look in the mirror, or you may be too busy trying to cover up unshapely areas to really see yourself as you are. Do you know how much fat you’re carrying, compared to how much muscle? Do you know where you tend to gain weight–upper body, lower body or around the middle? Until you know the answers to these questions, you are not ready to make your personal plan for losing weight and keeping it off. Understanding your body is the first step to reaching your best personal shape. As someone who teaches both doctors and the public about obesity, I believe weight loss has been overemphasized and body shape underemphasized. You have probably read about the Body-Mass Index (BMI), which is a weight-to-height ratio. If your BMI is greater than 25, you are considered overweight in the U.S., and if it is greater than 30 you are obese. This ratio has been a powerful way for scientists to document the obesity epidemic in this country and its effects on health and disease. However, when it comes to you as an individual, it can be misleading. A football player can be considered overweight on the BMI scale, but if the extra weight being carried is muscle, he is not really fat. A thin woman can have a normal BMI, yet still be over-fat. So shape counts. Shapes are personal and go beyond the usual apple and pear. Women can have three typical body shapes–upper body fat, lower body fat and both upper and lower body fat. Men usually only get upper body fat. The upper body stores fat in times of stress and some people can lose and gain weight rapidly in the upper body. The lower body fat in women responds to female hormones such as estrogen and progesterone and stores fat for breastfeeding a newborn baby. Women who have both upper and lower body fat will lose their upper body fat first. Women with more upper body fat tend to have more muscle than women with lower body fat and will need more protein in their diet to help control their hunger. Losing weight is harder if you have lower body fat rather than upper body fat, but the medical benefits of losing your upper body fat are greater. Losing weight around your neck, face, chest and waist usually goes along with losing fat on the inside as well. So as you look better, you are also improving your health tremendously. Finally, there are two more body shapes to consider: The shape you can change and the shape you can’t change. It is important to know the difference and work on the shape you can change, while adjusting your wardrobe and attitudes to the shape you cannot change. Due to low metabolism, many women with lower body fat can’t lose weight just by cutting calories. These lower body-fat cells are resistant to both exercise and diet. Only a personalized program can help make sure you get enough protein to control cravings and build or maintain lean muscle.