016: The Mechanism of Fat Loss and The Art of Not Overthinking Nutrition

In today's episode, I reflect on Dr. Andy Galpin's lecture on the physiology of fat loss and how it shifted my fitness protocol for the better. Dr. Galpin's explanation of fat loss was a game changer for me and I firmly believe that anybody who is serious about their fitness goals needs to hear it. It's just that amazing and it's crazy that it took me so long to discover this wealth of knowledge. In addition, I expand on my nutritional game plan as I enter Q2 of my fitness protocol where I'll be focusing on reducing my fat stores and cutting weight. This time around, I've got science in my back pocket and I'm looking forward to troubleshooting the process and witnessing the feedback in realtime. Due to the dense nature of my fitness protocol, I will be reserving my approach to exercise and recovery for next week's episode.

Focus on foundation, gain experience through education, and achieve your goals by applying knowledge through intentional work.

Reference:
Dr. Andy Galpin's The Physiology of Fat Loss: 5 Min Phys & The Physiology of Fat Loss: 55 Min Phys

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Transcript

Work is relative and can be deceiving.
 An effort for some can be unforgiving.
Yet only the individual knows the truth.
If work moves forward like growth through proof. 

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How's it everyone? My name is Mike Cabuco, and welcome to another episode of the Love Notes for Life podcast, your creative space for amplifying greatness through gratitude.

Rice. I grew up on it.

In fact, here's a funny little story since Easter is just around the corner. So, when you picture a traditional Easter meal here in the United States, you probably associate it with ham, sometimes roast chicken or turkey, baked goods, vegetable side dishes, roast potatoes, and so forth. However, when I picture an Easter meal during my childhood, I envision lechon, which is crackling roast pork, lumpia, aka. Egg rolls.

And the number one item that I can bet you a million dollars you will find in a Filipino American household. Rice. Yes, rice. The starch that has kept generations of Filipino Americans alive. It is the grain that saved an entire nation from going to war with one another, allegedly.

And you know that saying, Break bread? Well, in the Philippines, it's actually break rice. Nonetheless, for countless Filipinos, many immediately associate rice as the crux of weight gain. In fact, I bet you a million dollars again that somewhere in the world, at this very instant moment, there's one Filipino dude or Filipino gal that gave up rice for lent. It may sound preposterous, but the consumption of white rice is no joking matter.

So there existed a stigma against rice, especially from my aunties and uncles that were trying to, let's say, quote, unquote, control their weight gain by reducing or even eliminating rice from their diet. Because that's how simple weight loss is, right? Just eliminate carbs from your diet, then click, you'll be set. I mean, that's the advice that I grew up with before bro-science became a thing.

I got my advice from “relative” science. Eat less carbs, eat more protein, and do cardio like your life depends on it. Get that sweat on and burn that fat off. Target those abs! Attack that bench press! And hit those bicep curls! You'll look like Jason Momoa in no time.

Sounds familiar? Well, that's the overwhelming business of generic nutritional and fitness advice that neglects the science. You see, the good intentions were there, but unfortunately, the vagueness, lack of knowledge, and the pursuit of selling “attraction”, rather than focusing on providing useful information requires work. Work that some individuals would neglect because they found an efficient way to monetize their platform.

Sell the buzz words:

Top five exercises to get rock solid abs. Best routines to look shredded for summer. And how about this one? And how to be the biggest “bro” in the gym!?

So what's the truth? I hear you, Mike. You ranted for the past few minutes, and I'm slowly buying into your program. So, what's your secret? Well, for one, it has nothing to do with cutting out rice. All right, let's get that one out of the way.

So let me ask you all this one question. How do we lose fat? Any takers?

How about do more cardio? Okay, well, sure, when you do cardio, yeah, you're losing fat. But what is the process of losing fat?

Breathing. Yes, breathing. Breathing. You lose fat through respiration. Oxygen in, carbon dioxide out.

Fat leaves the body through respiration.

And if this is the first time you're hearing this, it may sound too good to be true. Rest assured; this will all make sense shortly.

So, I came across this fundamental idea, backed by science, from Dr. Andy Galpin's lecture on the physiology of fat loss.

So that's it! That's the answer to life. Breathe more. Now before you start to hyperventilate on me on your way to looking like Jason Momoa. Hold on for one sec. Let's dig deeper into the topic.

Now, we all understand the Circle of Life. No, I'm not referring to Rafiki raising up Simba on Pride Rock  in The Lion King, but I'm talking about the Carbon Circle of Life. We consume carbon from the foods we eat, indirectly through animals and directly through plants. It can appear in the form of carbohydrates, fats, and protein. And just like my aunties and uncles know best, rice as a carbohydrate can be utilized for energy as glucose, aka sugar, as a six-carbon chain in the bloodstream.

Furthermore, if glucose is not needed at the moment, then it is stored in the muscle and liver as glycogen. More on that later. So, when we need energy, our body undergoes glycolysis, a metabolic process that converts glucose into energy, which results in carbon, water and ATP, aka energy. Now, that floating carbon is a no-no in the eyes of your body. It doesn't like it. So, you know when I said that breathing part? Oxygen in. That O2 that you consume during breathing gets paired up with the carbon, resulting in carbon dioxide, which then leaves your body.

Fat loss is the process of consuming less carbon and removing more carbon through breathing.
 
 So remember glycogen? Yeah, that sugar stored in your muscles and liver. In the event that we consume too much carbon and our glycogen stores are all filled up, then that excess storage results in fat.

Fat is our backup source.

 Think of it like currency in your rainy-day savings account. You wouldn't necessarily use it unless you really needed to. The same goes for fat. The body isn't necessarily lazy, but let's just say it doesn't like working overtime unless it really had to. So how do we get the body to tap into the fat reserves?

 Simple. Deplete your glycogen stores. For example. Let's say you're sprinting. Eventually, once the body utilizes all the glucose and glycogen for energy, you will need to replenish those stores by tapping into the body's emergency fund: your fat stores. And once again, your body has the necessary ingredients for glycolysis and you probably guessed it, to breathe out the excess carbon in the form of carbon dioxide, aka fat loss.

 So, this brings us to two vital ingredients for fat loss: nutrition and exercise. I admit, in the past I was a bit harsh in how I weighted nutrition against exercise. But I feel more confident in stating that weight loss is a balance between nutrition and exercise. Sure, you can lose weight by merely cutting calories, but I like Dr. Galpin's description of the importance of muscular development.

 Your muscles are the factory, and your brain is the director of operations. Sure, a subpar factory can get the job done, hit the minimum requirements, but the product may not pass QA inspection routinely. However, a flourishing factory will be able to develop products with better quality and at a faster rate. The same goes for your body. Well-maintained, muscles means happier employees, and your brain doesn't have to work too hard to create better products.

 Lean on fitness to ensure predictable models of long-term success.

 Now, just because your factory is in tip top shape and your employees are tremendously happy, we can't forget about nutrition. Calories in, calories out and macros take priority. Macronutrients such as protein, fat and carbohydrates are the working conditions of your body's factory. The right blend will create a sustainable environment for your muscles to develop better products. Bad macros is like inviting OSHA into the workplace because of dangerous health conditions. Don't be that type of factory. Create a workplace where people can get along and work towards a unified goal.

 So, remember, fat loss isn't necessarily about cutting out a certain food or walking 2 hours on a treadmill. It's about understanding that fat loss occurs through respiration, how we can utilize exercise to improve our body's factory, and lastly, manipulate nutrition to achieve our desired results. And before you think I'm some whiz kid, I'd like to take the opportunity to say thanks again to Dr. Andy Galpin for the informative discussion on the physiology of fat loss. So, for more information, please be sure to check out Dr. Galpin's YouTube channel on more videos focused on the science of fitness.

 So, to wrap up today's podcast episode, I'd like to review my fitness protocol for fat loss while maintaining strength. We are currently in the first week of April, which means I've entered quarter two of my training protocol, consisting of a three-month intentional cut. I'll be in a hypocaloric state or a low-calorie state, and nutrition will be critical for success. During the twelve weeks, my intention will be primarily focused on decreasing my fat stores, so I'll be biasing my nutrition and training routine to match my needs. In today's episode, I'll be focusing more on my approach to nutrition, and next week we'll move into my thought process behind training modifications for fat loss and strength.

 Also, one quick note my advice is just advice or if you want to be fancy about it, words of encouragement. It's not a hard and fast rule, but it's been built upon many life lessons that I've learned through trial and error. Love Notes for Life is about providing you all a starting point and through experience, over time, you can eventually develop a much more refined process that fits your personality.

 All right, so back to nutrition.

 So, I'm currently 159 pounds at 58 at approximately 17% body fat. So, if we back calculate, my lean body mass is 132 pounds, ideally, I'd like to shoot for 0.5 to one pounds of weight loss per week. So, at the end of my twelve-week cut, with two weeks reserved for going back on maintenance calories for de-load training, I believe I can hit 150 pounds, give, or take. At 150 pounds, that should get me to the 14% body fat mark, and I should be able to ride it out through quarter three, where I go back to maintenance calories. During my cut, my daily calories will be around 2054, and macronutrient spread will consist of 161 grams of protein, 50 grams of fat, and 240 grams of carbs.

 In terms of percentages, that means my macro spread will be divided into 36% of protein, 11% of fat and 53% of carbohydrates. Now, all these numbers may either inspire you or give you a downright headache, but it's crucial for predictability. 

 So let's make things easier. For nutrition tracking, I use an app called Lose It! I've been using it for years, and it's been my go to for monitoring my calories and macronutrients. It's a free app to use, but I highly recommend at least upgrading the app to unlock future meal planning. Basically, every day you have the option of recording your weight, the foods you consume throughout the day, and for the highly detailed users, you can also track sleep, glucose levels, and blood pressure. I mainly use the app for nutrition and weight tracking, and that should be enough data to monitor progress. The app utilizes a cloud style food database, but you also have the option to log custom foods through the recipe feature or add one-off foods that the database couldn't account for. It's a fairly simple app, but I'm definitely interested in trying Dr. Layne Norton's nutrition app called Carbon, which I mentioned in the previous podcast episode. I'd love to run some tests using Carbon against the Lose It! app, so be sure to stay tuned for that soon.

 Now, here's the fun part. If there's one piece of advice that I like to sprinkle on extra encouragement, it is that nutrition should be fun. Eating at a caloric deficit shouldn't make you feel miserable. Eat the foods that you like to eat, but make sure you hit your target macronutrients for the day. And as Dr. Andy Galpin would say, “Adherence is key.”

 For example, here is one of my daily meal plans. So last Monday for breakfast, I ate oatmeal, milk, and a bagel with a spread of honey butter and cinnamon sugar. So that accounted for 548 calories. For lunch, I ate 3oz of chicken breasts made into a sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes, and that came about to 370 calories. For dinner, I kept it simple and ate 4.8oz of chicken breast with one cup of white rice. Gasp. Oh, no, he ate rice.

 Dangerous. Yeah, I like to live on the edge. And yeah, you heard it right. One cup of rice. But it's all good, right?

 And don't forget, I love my snacks and drinks. For drinks, I had my mandatory coffee topped with creamer and stevia, plus one energy drink. I know, I know, I'm addicted to caffeine. No need to state it - Captain Obvious. Come on, take it easy.

 For snacks and supplements, I had fish oil, one protein shake, one protein bar, vanilla Greek yogurt with mixed berries and granola. So, all that food resulted in 658 calories. Overall, my macronutrient spread was 168 grams of protein, 253 grams of carbohydrates, and 45 grams of fat. So, 32% of protein, 49% of carbohydrates, and 19% of fat at 2051 calories. And just for comparison, my maintenance calories are set at 2611. So that's 560 calories less, or approximately a little under 80% of my maintenance calories. It seems drastic, but when you look at the amount of food I consumed, it doesn't seem like it.

 Remember, stick with the nutrition plan that fits your goals and your personality. Don't do something that you can't stick with. Mind over matter is great and all, but don't make life harder than it needs to be.

 Learn to lean into the process, not against it.

 So I hope today's episode provided you all with a better understanding of fat loss and the importance of nutrition working alongside fitness. Life is all about balance and learning when to push and when to pull.

 Focus on foundation, gain experience through education, and achieve your goals by applying knowledge through intentional work.

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 Thanks y'all for tuning in to another episode of the Love Notes for Life podcasts. I look forward to continuing this conversation of awareness and amplifying greatness through gratitude. My book Love Notes for Life is now available on Barnes and Noble with the direct link in the show Notes below. If you're enjoying the Love Notes for Life podcasts, please subscribe and leave a five-star rating on Spotify, Apple and other major podcast platforms and we are T-minus one week before the new Love Notes for Life website and online store opens.

 It's definitely been a handful and a journey with plenty of overtime, but I'm really happy how it all turned out and I can't wait for you all to start rocking the mindset. So, for a preview of the Chapter One lookbook, be sure to follow me @mikecabuco on Instagram or Twitter. Thanks y'all, for the support and always remember, there is beauty in knowing that there is only one of you. Take care.