Steve, I admire your passion and your commitment to helping people. I think it's wonderful that you have as much time to spend here on the site as you do, and I'm sure that everyone is really grateful for your dedication. As you can see, I am new to the forum, and still learning my way around it, but I too would like to help people -- especially the ones that are "stuck." I'm not sure how often I will be able to check here -- as with everyone else, it will be as my schedule permits.
Yes, I'm a doctor. It appears that you are a
body builder. Would you agree that the hormone testosterone is linked to aggression,
or must I cite peer reviewed studies that confirm this?
It appears that the language I used in my reply was less precise than it should have been -- my apologies:
Quote:
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It isn't how many calories you consume -- it's what kind of calories you consume.
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What I should have said is that it isn't ONLY how many
calories one consumes . . . because there are other factors involved. Of course consuming 33,000
calories per day, for example, will cause one to be over-weight. Yes -- overeating will make one
fat. That said, there are individuals who are consuming 1200
calories per day, exercising every day, and still are stuck, and can't lose weight. Why? Usually, it is because the hormone communication system in the
body is not functioning optimally.
The idea that one simply needs to restrict
calories and exercise more to lose weight was the predominant thinking 20 years ago. That is no longer the case. It is now becoming clear that hormones have a significant influence not only on one's weight, but what types of food they crave, and in what areas of the
body they tend to store
fat.
Of the well over 500 hormones in the
body, three of them are responsible, directly or indirectly for storing
fat: cortisol, insulin and estrogen (and 6 of them are responsible for
burning fat -- anyone who wants to know what they are and how they are optimized, respond here, and I will post the data -- sources properly cited, of course!).
"Excess cortisol leads to . . . abnormal
fat distribution without a marked gain in weight, characterized by the establishment of a moon face, a pendulous abdomen, and
fat pads supraclavicularly and over the 7th vertebra (known as a
buffalo hump)." Netter,
CIBA Collection of Medical Illustrations, Vol. 4, 85.
"Persons with excess cortisol secretion frequently develop a peculiar type of obesity, with excess deposition of
fat in the chest and head regions of the
body, giving a buffalo-like torso and a rounded face called a 'moon face.' " Guyton,
Textbook of Medical Physiology, 916.
"Whenever a greater quantity of carbohydrates enters the
body than can be used immediately for
energy or stored in the form of glycogen, the excess is rapidly converted into triglicerides and then stored in this form in the adipose tissue. . . Lack of availability of carbohydrates automatically increases the rate of removal of fatty acids from adipose tissues. . . When carbohydrates are not utilized for
energy, almost all the
energy of the
body must come from metabolism of fats." Guyton,
Textbook of Medical Physiology, 822.
"In place of
fat utilization, the carbohydrates are used preferentially. Thus, an excess of carbohydrates in the
diet not only acts as a
fat-sparer, but also increases the
fat in the
fat stores." Guyton,
Textbook of Medical Physiology, 823.
"The over-all catabolic errect of excess cortisol brings about marked muscle wasting, especially in the quadriceps femoris group, with early inability to mount stairs." Netter,
CIBA Collection of Medical Illustrations, Vol. 4, 85.
" . . . estrogen inhibits thyroid action in the cells, probably interfering with the binding of thyroid to its receptor. Both hormones have phenol rings at a corner of their molecule. Estrogen may compete with thyroid hormone at the site of its receptor. In so doing, the thyroid hormone may never complete its mission, creating the hypothryroid symptoms, despite normal serum levels of thyroid hormone." Lee,
What Your Doctor May not Tell you About Menopause, 147.
"It's known that the thyroid contains receptors for estrogen, and that estrogen imbalances can inhibit proper thyroid hormone secretion . . . The symptoms of estrogen dominance are very similar to side effects and symptoms of hypothyroidism, and, in fact, hypothyroidism is sometimes considered a symptom of estrogen dominance." Shomon,
Living Well with Hypothyroidism, 268.
"When considering hormones such as estradiol, the most potent estrogen, forget parts per million or parts per billion. The concentrations are typically parts per trillion, one thousand times lover than parts per billion. One can begin to imagine a quantity so infinitesimally small by thinking of a drop of gin in a train of tank cars full of tonic. One drop in 660 tank cars would be one part in a trillion; such a train would be six miles long." Colborn, Dumanoski, and Myers,
Our Stolen Future, 40.
"Insulin has several different effects that lead to
fat storage in adipose tissue. One is the simple fact that insulin increases the utilization of glucose by most of the
body's tissues, which automatically decreases the utilization of
fat, thus functioning as a 'fat sparer.' However, insulin also promotes fatty acid synthesis." Guyton,
Textbook of Medical Physiology, 926.
"Therefore, one of the most important functional roles of insulin in the
body is to control which of these two foods [carbohydrates or
fat] from moment to moment will be utilized by the cells for
energy." Guyton,
Textbook of Medical Physiology, 930.
"Triglycerides are synthesized mainly from carbohydrates in the liver and are transported to the adipose tissue and other peripheral tissues in the very low density lipoproteins." Guyton,
Textbook of Medical Physiology, 819.
"Whenever a greater quantity of carbohydrates enters the
body than can be used immediately for
energy or stored in the form of glycogen, the excess is rapidly converted into triglycerides and then stored in the form in the adipose tissue. Guyton,
Textbook of Medical Physiology, 822.
"All aspects of
fat metabolism are greatly enhanced in the absence of insulin." Guyton,
Textbook of Medical Physiology, 927.
"But also important are several hormonal changes that take place to promote rapid fatty acid mobilization from adipose tissue. Among the most important of these is a marked decrease in insulin secretion caused by the absence of carbohydrates. This not only reduces the rate of glucose utilization by the tissues, but also decreases
fat synthesis, which further shifts the equilibrium in favor of
fat utilization in place of carbohydrates." Guyton,
Textbook of Medical Physiology, 824.
"Lack of availability of carbohydrates automatically increases the rate of removal of fatty acids from adipose tissues." Guyton,
Textbook of Medical Physiology, 822.
Therefore, when insulin is not available to promote glucose entry into the
fat cells,
fat storage is totally blocked." Guyton,
Textbook of Medical Physiology, 927.
"When the glucose concentration is low, insulin secretion is suppressed and
fat is utilized almost exclusively for
energy everywhere except in the brain." Guyton,
Textbook of Medical Physiology, 930.
In the absence of insulin, all the effects of insulin noted above causing the storage of
fat are reversed." Guyton,
Texbook of Medical Physiology, 927.
"Low sugar and high
fat intake favor
fat utilization, with resultant ketonemia: [ketones in the blood stream]." Netter,
CIBA Collection of Medical Illustrations, Vol.3, 37.
"After 3 to 49 days on a high-
fat, low-carbohydrate
diet,
fat oxidation usually increased compared with a control
diet." Achten and Jeukendrup, "Optimizing
Fat Oxidation" 723.
Estrogen is responsible for the female characteristics, menstrual cycle, and changes of the uterus and breasts. It provides the
fat layer around a female
body, especially around the hips, buttocks, and outer thighs.
Cortisol is an important hormone produced by the adrenal glands, which acts to counter
stress responses. It is anti-inflammatory and releases sugar from the liver and muscles into the blood as an instant fuel source for stressful events. Cortisol is classified as a
fat burner, however, it indirectly takes
body-muscle proteins and turns them into
fat around the abdomen by forcing insulin to deal with excess sugar in the bloodstream.
Insulin is made by the pancreas. Its job is to lower blood sugar after meals or a
stress response. It will cause cells to absorb sugar as fuel and convert the rest to
fat and cholesterol. In the presence of insulin, you will not be able to burn
fat. (see above references to medical textbooks) Sugar and refined carbohydrates trigger insulin.
Steve, I hope this is helpful for you. Since based on your other posts, I thought it best to respond to you with direct quotes from what amount to some of the "bibles" of medical school like Guyton and Netter -- unassailable sources -- if you need any explanation or clarification of these concepts in lay terms, I'll be happy to provide that when I have time.
Also, if you let me know to which "facts out there that really can't be disputed that [I] have glossed over," you are referring, I will be happy to give them my utmost attention as my schedule permits. Also, since you didn't specify what you consider to be "misinformation" I took a broad approach. If you have any remaining issues that I didn't cover with this post, do feel free . . .
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