You can only burn fat in a carbohydrate flame

The human body is such a complicated thing that just about everything you learn about it is full of contradictions. Take losing weight, the thing so many struggle with. It can be confusing to think that the act of losing weight could make it harder for you to lose weight in the future, but this can be true if you try to lose weight without understanding how your body works.

You see, there are literally hundreds of ways to lose weight, and each will work in its own way, but each approach has its limitations and complications, which means each time you achieve something positive, you will also achieve something negative. That is the conundrum of life and also a reminder that the basic laws of life will always apply

For every action there will always be an equal and opposite reaction

In the case of losing weight, there is a basic law of metabolism that you can only burn fat with a carbohydrate flame, which in real terms means that your body finds it easier to burn carbohydrate (sugar) than fat. The specific reason is down to the metabolic process where all life turns basic foods into energy, which is known as the Krebs or (citric acid) cycle. If you want to know more, please ask, but I prefer to share little bits of science because the depth is overwhelming and dull for most. However, it is important to appreciate just how much is known about the human body and how useful it is to understand even the slightest amount of it.

The basic premise is that their is a very tightly controlled and limited supply of sugar in the body (generally around 500g in the form of glycogen) but pretty much limitless supplies of fat. Yet the ability to utilise fat depends on your ability to utilise carbohydrate. This fact was made very clear in the module of my degree titled Physiology of maximum intensity exercise” or something equally intense.

I have explained the implications of this elsewhere in advice on preventing diabetes and insulin resistance. For now, I wanted to make it plain that there are very important biological reasons that losing weight requires you to do what is necessary for your body to handle sugar well, which will help it handle fat well.

Your excess weight is really energy in the form of fat, so to enable your body to get rid of fat, it needs to be good at using sugar. Getting fit does a lot to improve your ability to use sugar, and over time, your body gets better at using fat to preserve the sugar it has stored. This is simply because there is a limited supply of sugar the body can use but a large, effectively unlimited stores of fat.

Understanding this fact of basic cell biology will hopefully help you commit to getting fit and preserve if you struggle. If you want ideas on getting fit then get in touch through social media and check out the self-development section for ideas.