The law of fat loss & gain you can't escape
Good morning turtle meth heads, how are we doing? So today's topic important. I've spoken with a few people last night and I think we can get confused when it comes to fat loss and energy and stuff like that I can get confused by your own. You would have heard that there is something called the law of thermodynamics in physics. The law of thermodynamics basically says energy can't be created or destroyed only converted from one form to another.
Speaker 1:That's the law of the universe. So the energy at the start of the universe will be the same energy at the end of the universe and it will weave its way through different forms of energy, you've got heat, you've got kinetic, you've got different forms of energy but it's always working within a system. And what it says and how this applies to our bodies and we a lot of people think it doesn't apply the body's so complex, the universe is so complex, but it still abides with this law. So how you need to think about it is if there's a steam engine and you're putting in fuel and that generates heat and that heat will push, that heat will cause the engine to move. It's not a direct 100% conversion, it's not that you put in you know 100 you know whatever you use coal and it converts to 100% of energy to move the steam engine.
Speaker 1:It's not that 100% efficient. So there is a tax on the energy produced. Scientists obviously wanting to have clean energy 100% so the work you put in you get 100% energy out efficiency because that would help. But there is always a tax essentially to a conversion. So it doesn't mean that the energy has been created or nothing.
Speaker 1:Some energy goes into actually the work they call it, into pushing the steam engines forward. The other energy goes into heat which is then expelled out through the chimneys because you can't keep on and get too hot and some will go and escape in other ways right. So the energy from the coal is generated and it leaks, there's a cost to creating it. So when it comes to our bodies, this body is so complicated, way, there's no way it is as simple as energy in versus energy out. Now think of our bodies in a sense like adding coal to a steam engine.
Speaker 1:So you put coal in food and there is a tax on digesting this coal and creating energy from it, which is the thermic effect of food. Know there's a tax on the digestion process, so not all the nutrients and calories you consume will convert into actual usage of energy. Right, because when it comes to protein there's a big attack on protein to digest than carbs. For example, if you consume a 100 calories, a 100 calories of energy, right, from protein it'll take about 20 calories of that 100 to digest it and get it in the body, so it's got a tax of 20%. You still need to consume the 100 calories of protein right and you get the 80 calories net, the 20 calories as the tax and carbs and fat have less tax to pay for digestion.
Speaker 1:So if you eat fats and carbs it's nearly a 100% it's like 98 or 97% whatever it so you consume 100 calories of carbs the body digests it quite well and like in 98% of it will be used in some form. So some of that energy you've created will go into other processes to create proteins. Proteins are amino acids, there's energy, think of workers putting together blocks of amino acids to create a big block of protein. That requires energy. It requires we need to eat the food for it to build right.
Speaker 1:And then you've got carbs and they turn and they become forms of energy you can use in the body and fats and it's not a 100% in and out right, but you still have to consume. You still have to put the energy in. You have to assume it's not a 100% because it never is, but it is you know we can we can't know for sure exactly how much. But we will find out if we are over consuming energy or not because if you're over consuming you're gonna store fat. So basically the body's had all the energy needs for its processes and it's gone out.
Speaker 1:There's more here, we can't destroy this energy because it goes against the law of the universe. We can't destroy it, it's got to be stored. So this energy that's not used in the body is stored in the fat stores. So this system you're basically giving too much energy, so you're storing it. And I know people are oh it's this simple but it is this simple, this is how it works.
Speaker 1:There's lords of millions of trillions of processes that happen in the body that we can't comprehend. Like everything you do uses NGN, there's conversions, everything but that is the basic fact of it. Like the steam engine, like your car, know exactly how a car works it's quite simple when it's explained but in your head like how's this how's this work so I put a fuel in and then they're doing all this and my car's moving. Yeah so you know that if you put £50 of fuel and you get 20 liters of fuel and you get roughly x mileage from it. It's not going to be exact right because if you drive it faster, depends on the tires and how much energy is wasted through bad tires and turning corners and you're going straight, you're staying on the same miles per hour, all of this will improve the energy utilisation from fuel but it won't be 100%.
Speaker 1:So we consume too much is stored. If you don't give a system enough energy it needs to find the energy for it to function. So if you are not consuming enough energy which is a deficit which is how you lose fat, the body will go oh shit, we need energy, there's things that need to happen, Get in. We need the energy. Come on.
Speaker 1:Come on. Let's do it. And it'll go to your fat stores for energy. Then in if you don't consume enough protein to protect the muscle mass, it will start taking energy from your muscle as well. So that's why we need to break down muscle.
Speaker 1:It's not ideal because muscle is expensive to build, but we need energy so we break down muscle as well. So we're going to refrain from breaking muscle down, we're to only use the fat storage and that's why high protein is important so we stop the body, it doesn't need to do it. So it sounds so simple right, it sounds like it can't be that simple but is, that's all we need to know about it. Like I don't need to know every million process in my body and second guess everything. I don't need to know the entire process.
Speaker 1:Example people take creatine, ATP right this is a molecule that's basically essential for energy, and you go oh would you need to know everything about this or do I just need to know Energy in energy out and I can track this, I can track calories in. I can't necessarily know exactly how much calories out I'm doing because it's not that accurate calorie out burn, calorie burn from exercise, but steps is a good indication because a thousand steps for me is a thousand steps really. You know? So we track and the way we understand if the system is overdone or underdone is our body fat. That is the outcome we look at.
Speaker 1:We go right my body fat's going up, I must be consuming too much energy, end of. There's no other thing happening. You might say my hormones impact my calories. Calories. So for example if your maintenance is 2,000 calories a day and that's based off your weight, your height, your activity, the steps you do, your job.
Speaker 1:If you are a hormonal imbalance or low thyroid or whatever that might cause your maintenance to drop a bit so your maintenance might not be predicted it might not be 2,000 it might be 1,900. So this doesn't mean that calories in calories out doesn't work it just means your maintenance is slightly below what you thought it was and if you are gaining fat you are still eating too much over time. If you are gaining fat over time you're eating too much no matter if you think well it's my hormones your hormones might have made your maintenance a bit smaller, a bit lower, making fat gain easier but it's not the fault if that makes sense. So this is where people can be able to solve hormones. Hormones don't overpower the energy violence situation, it just doesn't.
Speaker 1:Like if you look at experiments, you look at war camps and all this stuff like all these people have they get starved, become skin and bones, they literally become nothing, their bodies have gone down, they've got nothing left, no muscle, no fat right. There's no amount of hormones you could put in them to stop that happening. Like if you said well my hormones stop me losing weight, go well do you think if we got those prisoners or these people starving and just pumped them with some hormones you think are causing you not to lose fat that would stop them losing fat? Of course it's not, the hormones don't have energy. They can influence energy usage and your hunger levels which has caused you to eat more, eat less but they're not energy themselves.
Speaker 1:So the body needs energy. Hormones are a part of the system. Don't know if this is like for more so people with turtle probably think yeah well I know this and all that but it's not that simple. I think what we need to really do is we need to cut out as much stuff as we don't need to focus on. Right, I don't need to know if brown bread's got more nutrients than white bread, I don't care.
Speaker 1:I'll eat the one I like and I'll make energy balance my macros are on point. I don't care if there is a supplement out there that is proven to get help this and that. Right, oh I'll magically take this supplement it's gonna change my life. No, it's not, it's not gonna do it. There's a lot of other things that improve symptoms and all that but like I'm not gonna, if I have my lifestyle in control, if I reduce my stress, if I go for my steps, I train two three times a week, know, I'm focusing on my mindset and I'm moving every day and I'm eating within my, I'm not over consuming energy and I'm good eating a good ratio of macros, things fall into place.
Speaker 1:I don't need to overthink things. We don't need to overdo this thing, that is the main thing you need to do. If you want to then use your time and think about adding supplements to help that's fine, but don't think that's actually the cause of any change, that's not the root thing. You need to sort the root out, you can play with the leaves later on and change and play your amount of supplements blah blah blah. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:And if any of you really care about any of this stuff and you want to read a book about the laws of thermodynamics and its full entirety and history of it, there's a book, there's a really good book series called Oxford, a short introduction series. And there's a book called The Laws of Theonodynamics by Peter Atkins and he's just gonna overview all of this and you know I read all the nutrition stuff but I read that as well and even in that book he's like even our bodies, even our bodies have to obey this and he talks a few bits about food and ATP and all that stuff and how it works and how the processes work and how processes have a certain tax and it gives off heat and all this stuff, know. So heat is like a byproduct of the work done. You know when your muscles are used in exercise and you need an energy to move the muscles that is attached to that which is heat. There's heat, the energy is causing heat and you sweat, right?
Speaker 1:That's a byproduct of the work of the muscles, know? That's what's happening and there's loads of these things going on, loads of these reactions going on all across the body for millions trillions. So don't fall into the trap of thinking the people who say it's not calories and calories are that's bullshit, it's not that simple. Overall it is that simple, it is because it's just proven time after time. Does that mean you've got a healthy diet?
Speaker 1:No. It doesn't mean you've got the most nutrient dense diet, I must say there's two different things, there's energy balance and then there's nutrient quality of your diet. Ideally we get to a stage we've got both under control. However, there's studies to show that controlling your calorie intake with a good macro nutrient split from a variety of foods, good, bad, whatever you want to label, just any food you like, is actually superior to a strict healthy clean, you know, quote unquote healthy meat and veg diet. It's very limiting, you got a certain food group but the other one you're free to eat whatever you want and you've got a more variety.
Speaker 1:So the argument of calories in, calcium doesn't work, it does, it is the law, but you can go as complex as you want and typically the people that don't really understand these things they tend to go down three or four steps into the process. They'll read something about, how insulin stops fat loss and they go well if carbs cause insulin to increase then if you eat carbs you can't lose fat and they'll stick, they'll be in that small little viewpoint of the world. When actually obviously acutely insulin spike is called the storage hormone but that's just looking at one process and you're looking at the entire system. If the entire system doesn't have enough energy, even if the insulin spikes are happening, there's not enough energy to be stored so the fat loss can't happen, fat gain can't happen, Overall fat gain can happen and if you're eating less than your maintenance but you're eating sugary stuff from carbs and you have insulin spikes, yeah there'll be storage and there'll be fat loss storage, fat loss throughout the day different times but overall the net is there's more fat loss, there's more fat used as energy than energy being stored.
Speaker 1:So overall you lose fat. I hope that, is a fifteen minute breakdown of just the basics. I thought I would share because I was just, know, going over my notes and that book again and I think it's, I think and and I'm just seeing people argue online about this. I just think, like, it it needs to be said again, and doctor p will talk about this on next week's podcast. I'll I'll I'll have his viewpoint on it and stuff that, but really stick to the basics.
Speaker 1:Like there's even there's a brilliant video I'll share about, you know, what you minimal training you need to do to get maximum results. Two to three sets a week per muscle group, right, so three sets 10 reps going heavy as you can on like legs and glutes and stuff will generate about 60 to 70% of your muscle growth results. Okay, in the research thirty to sixty minutes of exercise a week generates majority of the health benefits for people. So when you talk, I'm really going into this, my father needs to minimal, maximal right then think about that's amazing, we don't have to do much guys, we have to do much exercise wise and training wise to really get them more gains. We're just gonna be consistent, get your steps in, train one or two maybe three times a week, get a few sets in per body part, do push the weight to make sure you are actually doing some intensity and if you did that for months and months and years all the health benefits, you're gonna get the majority of the health benefits without living in a gym for two hours and over obsessing over white rice, brown rice, white bread, all our shit.
Speaker 1:It's just the basic simple stuff, trust, you just have trust that. The research backs it all up. So let's do that and live our lives. You know, I'm not here to live in the gym, I'm not here to over obsess with nutrient quality and stuff like that, I'll do the basics to get what's done, I'm gonna live my life, wanna do cool stuff in my life, don't wanna obsess with that stuff. And I use the word obsess because it's used negatively but in a sense what I mean by that is let things take over the mind so much they cause anxiety and fear and second guessing.
Speaker 1:We don't want that stuff do we? Like we don't go to the gym to be a slave to the gym, we don't eat well to be slave to food, we don't go to work to be slave to the work, we're only slaves these things they are things that we use and we do the bare, we do the minimum for maximum in each of the areas so we have enough free time in the mind to really focus on what we really want to do in our lives. I can answer that question for you but if you're a slave to food, fighting food every day, you're a slave to your work, you're a slave to training and you can't you could only train two hours and you've got to do an hour cardio, at the end of the day you're knackered, no thinking about what you want to do, the relationships you have. What kind of life do you think you're gonna lead? It's basically a machine, you're basically like a monotonous machine following your emotions of slavery.
Speaker 1:Well there we are, have a good day guys. Enjoy yourselves and, live one day at a time of course and I'll see you all soon.
