By Dayne Hudson
When it comes to fat loss - there's no tricks, although the following possibly as close to that as you can get.
There's no magic bullets or products, just good advice combined with hard work and discipline.
However, there are ways in which you can make things a little easier mentally for you and your body to start burning fat; the idea of saving calories as a way to reduce the number you consume everday.
CALORIES: HOW TO SAVE THEM FOR FAT LOSS AND GET THE SHREDDED SIX PACK
Try skipping breakfast in the morning, regardless of when you train.
Breakfast is essentially breaking your fast (overnight fast) hence the name - so it doesn't matter when you break it.
You technically can't skip breakfast - but you get my point. I mean eating some 0-45 minutes after you wake.
This is a tactic I stuck by recently to allow more calories to be consumed for the rest of the day - following my workout. I found this is when I got hungrier.
I lost 11 kilograms in 9 weeks and was happy with how it went.
Now let's get this straight - you don't HAVE to skip breakfast.
I just found it easier and thus I'm sharing it with you.
We've been told for years that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Of course, those studies are backed by major cereal companies who need an "reputable" claim to grab your dollar - just like the low and high GI topic that I've told you about before.
However, there's scientific evidence behind my claims too.
WHY AM I HUNGRY AFTER BREAKFAST?
There's a term for waking up after you sleep in endocrinology called the cortisol awakening response, otherwise referred to as CAR.
For a little on what the endocrine system is, see below.
Getting out of bed in the morning produces a hormone that is secreted from the pituitary gland in response to biological stress. This then paves the way for cortisol secretion in your adrenal glands (1).
This rapid spike in cortisol after awakening is known as the cortisol awakening response (CAR) as mentioned above.
This is all important beause CAR has a large effect on the amount of insulin you secrete.
I know I used to have breakfast around 20 minutes after awakening.
Research shows that in 77% of healthy adults, there's a large 38-75% (average of 50%) increase in the blood level of cortisol after waking (2).
Compare this to midnight for some context, where your levels of cortisol are much lower (3).
So what does this have to do with insulin and getting hungrier?
The insulin response to your breakfast (which contains protein and carbohydrates which both spike insulin) is HIGHER in the morning than in the afternoon, which can be put partly down to the higher levels of cortisol in the morning (4).
The researchers from the above citation suggest that the higher level of insulin secretion "might be, at least in part, responsible for this finding."
Insulin sensitivity refers to how sensitive you are to carbohydrate intake.
A regular healthy gym goer would consume carbohydrates, their blood glucose levels would increase, and their pancreas would respond quickly and efficiently with a large spike to send the nutrients to the liver and muscle (5).
This is the case of being insulin sensitive.
Then, your levels of insulin are lower in your postmeal state.
Can you see where this is going?
When the healthy gym goer combines a insulin spiking breakfast with already high levels of cortisol in your cortisol awakening response - insulin secretion is bolsted, which means blood glucose drops quickly.
Your insulin is most likely higher here than at any other point in the day.
So with super high insulin levels resulting in a sharp drop of blood glucose for the fit gym goer - hunger then kicks in (6).
And that is most likely why breakfast makes you hungry.
And I noticed on my latest weight loss journey that the leaner I got, the more insulin sensitive I became - which also rings true in the pages of scientific literature (7).
So you might like to start off dieting with breakfast, but cut it out as you go on.
FAT LOSS: GET THE SIX PACK BY SAVING CALORIES
So it's obvious what to do from here - try skipping breakfast to save the calories, and prevent the further hunger that can make sticking to your allocated daily macronutrients even harder.
Of course, I'd recommend some BCAAS before training to prevent the nitrogen losses that occur. We don't want to be using muscle for energy, but whether or not that does occur remains to be 100% seen.
But, there is enough evidence for me to recommend BCAAS before weight training in the morning until further notice.
Although they do spike insulin too, the spike won't be like a traditional breakfast.
GETTING THE SHREDDED SIX PACK - THE DIET APPROACH
If you train first thing in the morning - do the above.
If you're aiming to get lean - try training first thing in the morning if you can, using this principle.
And if you're training in the afternoon, an intermittent fasting style approach might be for you.
As I explained above, cortisol is higher in the morning than the afternoon, so breaking your fast in the afternoon following your workout won't lead to the same insulin spike as the morning would, based on the above citations and their content.
FAT LOSS: HOW TO GET A SIX PACK BY SAVING CALORIES
Obviously by consuming less calories up until after training, you're preventing any chance of over eating and going over your allocated macronutrient numbers.
And when you're burning MORE calories than you're consuming, all of sudden you'll be introduced to your abs.
All six of them!
GET SHREDDED
So, what are you waiting for?!
Throw out the breakfast cereal - it's time to get lean and mean.
"Stay Fit, Stay Flexed!"
***For a fool-proof anti bro-science diet plan that'll bring you the results you know you can achieve - ask me about it via [email protected]***
REFERENCES
(1) Shin, I.Y., Ahn, R.S., Chun, S.I., Lee, Y.J., Kim, M.-S., Lee, C.-K., & Sung, S. (2011). Cortisol Awakening Response and Nighttime Salivary Cortisol Levels in Healthy Working Korean Subjects. Yonsei Medical Journal, 52(3), 435. doi:10.3349/ymj.2011.52.3.435.
(2) Wüst S, Wolf J, Hellhammer DH, Federenko I, Schommer N, Kirschbaum C. (2000). The cortisol awakening response - normal values and confounds. Noise Health. 2(7):79-88. PMID 12689474.
(3) Biochemistry Reference Ranges at Good Hope Hospital. Retrieved 8 November 2009.
(4) Vila, G., Krebs, M., Riedl, M., Baumgartner-Parzer, S. M., Clodi, M., Maier, C., Pacini, G., et al. (2010). Acute effects of hydrocortisone on the metabolic response to a glucose load: increase in the first-phase insulin secretion. European journal of endocrinology / European Federation of Endocrine Societies, 163(2), 225–231. doi:10.1530/EJE-10-0282.
(5) Knowler, WC; Barrett-Connor, E; Fowler, SE; Hamman, RF; Lachin, JM; Walker, EA; Nathan, DM (2002). Reduction in the incidence of type 2 diabetes with lifestyle intervention or metformin. New England Journal of Medicine (Diabetes Prevention Program Research Group) 346 (6): 393–403.
(6) Campfield, L. A., & Smith, F. J. (2003). Blood glucose dynamics and control of meal initiation: a pattern detection and recognition theory. Physiological Reviews, 83(1), 25–58. doi:10.1152/physrev.00019.2002.
(7) Buemann B et al. Lower-body fat mass as an independent marker of insulin sensitivity--the role of adiponectin. Int J Obes (Lond). 2005 Jun;29(6):624-31.
