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 Are You Still Fat?
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By Dr. Phil Maffetone

 You work out several days a week, or more, but have too much body fat. Your diet is high carbohydrate and low fat but you aren't getting the results you expected. Your performance is also off, and you're still looking for an answer. Perhaps you're eating too many carbohydrates and not enough fat!

It's long been known that eating a high carbohydrate diet can result in stored fat and poor performance.

Most of your performance energy comes from both dietary fats and carbohydrates. For too many athletes, the predominant energy source is carbohydrate when it should be fats. Up to 80% of your energy can be obtained from fat, and when this happens, you'll store less and have more endurance. The amount of fat and carbohydrate you use for energy is determined to a large extent by both the diet and through training. Eating large amounts of carbohydrates -above a certain threshold - can prevent your body from using fats for energy, leaving you tired and more fat. One reason for this has to do with your levels of insulin.

Insulin is a hormone released by your pancreas following carbohydrate ingestion and the associated rise in blood sugar (glucose). Insulin triggers three important events: 1) it brings some blood sugar into the muscles where it's used to energy, 2) it converts some blood sugar to glycogen (the stored form of sugar) and 3) insulin not only stores some blood sugar as fat, but it prevents existing fat from coming out of storage for use as energy.

High levels of insulin compels your body to burn more carbohydrates as fuel, less fat for fuel, and helps maintain fat storage. In order to use more fats for energy, the insulin levels must be minimized. High carbohydrate diets, especially refined carbohydrates, will result in more insulin being released and the continual inhibition of fat utilization This vicious cycle keeps your body using sugar rather than fat as the predominant fuel.

One problem with relying on sugar rather than fat as a dominant energy source is that your supply of sugar is very limited. For example, a lean male runner has about 100,000 kcal of energy in fat stores for use during training or racing —enough for a 1,000 mile race. In contrast, the same athlete has only about 2,000 kcal of sugar in the form of glycogen, not enough for a two hour race.

Another symptom high insulin levels may cause is excess hunger. By sending blood sugar into the muscles and fat deposits, low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia, results. This triggers hunger, often only a couple of hours (or less) after your meal. Cravings, usually for sweets, are also a typical part of this cycle, leaving you hungry and snacking on more carbohydrates.

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"Minimize the insulin response by limiting your intake of refined sugars and carbohydrates..."
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If you want to utilize more fats, the best advice is to minimize the insulin response by limiting your intake of refined sugars and carbohydrates, which includes all sweets, non 100% whole grain breads, cereals and pasta; keeping all your carbohydrate intake to about 40% of the diet. Even certain natural foods, such as dried fruit, potatoes, honey and fruit juices are very high in carbohydrates. Keeping carbohydrates to 40% will help keep your blood sugar more stable, give you more energy and less cravings. More importantly, you will lose body fat.

Insulin responses can vary greatly from person to person. But generally, refined carbohydrates evoke a stronger and/or more rapid insulin reaction since they are higher in sugar and because they are void of their natural fiber. Psyllium and other natural fiber, when consumed with carbohydrates, can reduce the extreme blood sugar and insulin reactions often associated with carbohydrate intake.

The glycemic index (GI) is a measure of a foods ability to invoke an insulin response. High GI foods, those that produce larger amounts of insulin, include sugar and refined flour products like most pasta, bagels and non-100% whole grain breads, and especially potatoes. Not only will high GI foods restrict endurance but they can also raise blood lactate levels during strenuous exercise and lower blood glucose and fats during critical periods of exercise.

Remember, the more carbohydrates you eat, especial refined sugars, the higher your insulin, the lower the blot sugar, and the more cravings you'll have for more sweet Less carbohydrates, about 40% of the diet, can result in less insulin and more fat burning. This will not only give you more endurance, but help "spare" your glycogen during longer training sessions and races, preventing the common "honking" or "hitting the wall."

Some individuals exhibit a difficulty in tolerating dietary carbohydrates, even natural ones. There are two conditions -  one is called "Carbohydrate-Induced" or Type I' Hyperlipoproteinemia (Type IV HLD), and another Borderline Carbohydrate-Lipid Metabolism Disturbance (BCLMD). People with these problems are often unaware of them, but have an abnormal response to dietary carbohydrates by producing too much insulin usually followed by an abnormally low blood sugar. This results excess body fat, fatigue and poor performance. Long term problems include high blood fats (cholesterol and triglycerides) with fat deposit in the blood vessels, a condition called atherosclerosis. The best recommendations for these individuals is more natural fats to the diet. For some, this may mean lowering carbohydrate intake to below 40%, sometimes even as low as 20%. The results for these individuals will be less stored body fat, more energy and improved performance. Also, the blood fats decrease as doe the risk of atherosclerosis despite the dietary fat increases.

Eating enough dietary fats is also an important consideration for anyone wanting to burn more fat and spare sugar. The only real "bad" fats in the diet are the artificial ones, like margarine and other hydrogenated fats, and fried or over-heated fats. All natural fats are good for your body as long as you consume them in moderation and you have a healthy metabolism.

For most people, this means about 30% of the diet can be fats. But there should be a balance of omega-6, omega-3 and, if you eat them, animal fats. Omega-6 fats are found in vegetables and most vegetable oils such as extra virgin olive and safflower. Omega-3 fats can be found in fish, beans and linseed (flaxseed) oil. If you don't eat animal foods, some omega-3 or -6 fats will convert to arachidonic acid, the fat found in animal products. Good dietary sources of animal fats include butter, egg yolks, cheese and all meats, including beef. A balance of these three fat groups will provide you with enough fats for a healthy lean body.

In addition, dietary fats are one of the best ways to stimulate your metabolism, which is what you want to do if your goal is to increase fat burning. A fast metabolism converts fat to energy quicker.

Protein is another very important component of the diet. It plays a major role in the recovery and repair of your muscles following a workout or competition. Protein can provide you with about 10% of your energy needs, especially if carbohydrates and fats are not maintaining sufficient energy. When protein is used for energy, however, it is first converted to sugar.

The recommended daily allowance for protein has been revised at least 10 times since 1943 and continues to be a topic for debate. Today, many expellers feel the RDA value E 0.8/kg body weight is too low, with some suggesting amount three to four times the RDA. People involved in activities, which build muscle and endurance, and are subjected recurring trauma may need larger protein intakes. Addition to muscle and other tissue growth and repair, protein is used for energy. Aerobic (endurance) exercise may increase the need for protein even more than anaerobic muscle-building exercise.

A diet of 40% carbohydrate and 30% fat and 30% protein, is an excellent balance for many people who seek not only good health but quality training and competition as well occasionally, this ratio needs modification since individual needs may vary.

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"Rather than loading up on carbohydrates, fat utilization is the key..."
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The use of fats as a dominant energy source is a missing link in exercise and diet. The trend away from high carbohydrates has already begun. We now know that carbohydrates can easily prevent what we want most; body fat loss, improved performance and total health. Rather the loading up on carbohydrates, fat utilization is the key to this healthy state.