How does our body store fat? What is the most optimal way to shed said fat from the body and how is metabolism related to this?
In: 8
Your body takes in food calories and the cells burn calories. Much of what is left over (you ate it, but the cells didn’t burn it) is stored in the body, let’s say for later use, as fat. The fat builds up all over the place – torso, arms, legs, face, etc. Many Americans day to day have leftover calories which get added up as excess fat and can cause lots of health problems. The way to access that fat to burn it off is to either burn more or to take in less, or a combination of both.
Burning more than what you take in is sometimes called a calorie deficit. Eat more vegetables, and less carbohydrates for sure. Protein and certain kinds of fats are usually fine in not too large amounts. But the sugars and carbs – pasta and pizza and soda for example, can really put people over the top.
So eat less and exercise more. There are phrases like you can’t outrun a bad diet, which are true. The body will sense less coming in and will start to access the stored fat and burn that for fuel.
This lifestyle that we have – excess food and little need to move around, is not something the human body is accustomed to doing and a brand new phenomenon en masse in human existence. The body is more accustomed to storing the excess “not knowing when we’ll eat again” and keeping a reserve around for times of want. Food is fuel, the body is a machine. The purpose of a machine is to move around and/or do work. The purpose of a machine is not to consume the fuel. We sometimes forget that and get mad that our bodies are more efficient. We call a high metabolism a good thing while it’s really like a car that gets 3 miles to the gallon.
Latest Answers