Bodyfat Is An Endocrine Tissue, Not Just Stored Energy

Bodyfat, adipose tissue, subcutaneous fat, brown fat, white fat, healthy fat sick fat, belly fat, visceral fat, gut fat, butt fat, arm fat, back fat, thigh fat, cellulite…just plain ol’ FAT!

There is more than just fat in a fat cell

As you might have guessed this podcast is about bodyfat. Specifically, we’re going to talk about what it is and how it’s regulated. In the past, bodyfat was thought to simply be a storage tissue for excess energy. It was assumed to be relatively inert and simply sit there holding energy in the form of fat for future use when calorie intake isn’t sufficient.

Over the past 20 years, this view has changed and now researchers know that bodyfat is a dynamic and metabolically active tissue that plays multiple roles in our daily functioning.

Your bodyfat is capable of producing various hormones, and converting hormones into different forms. It also produces inflammatory cytokines and other messenger molecules that act as signals to the rest of your body. The total amount of bodyfat you have will change how it communicates and acts on the rest of your body.

All of these recent discoveries have led researchers to re-categorize bodyfat as an endocrine tissue.

An endocrine tissue is a tissue in your body that secretes hormones as messengers to signal function for the rest of the body. And it’s now clear that bodyfat is more than just stored energy, it’s in fact an endocrine tissue.

Understanding bodyfat from the perspective of endocrine tissue as well as energy storage will give you more insight into it’s purpose and it’s regulation.

In this podcast, you’ll learn how and why things change in your body depending on how much fat you are carrying and what this means from a diet and nutrition standpoint.

John

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How to Get Rid of Loose Skin

This is a question we’ve been seeing a fair bit so I figured I’d catch up with my buddy and plastic surgery resident Bryan Chung to try and answer it.

In order to figure out how to ‘get rid of’ loose skin we first have to determine what it is and how you might end up getting it in the first place.

Venus Index Reports how to get rid of loose skin

Is it loose skin, or just a bit more fat?!

This however is harder to determine than you might think as many factors come into play including:

1) Genetics – some people are just predisposed to getting loose skin easier than others

2) Age – as we age our skin becomes less ‘elastic’ and we become more susceptible to getting loose skin

3) Weight loss – if you lose a massive amount of weight you may have stretched your skin far enough that it won’t ‘snap’ back

4) Is it Just More Fat – Many people mistakenly think they have ‘loose skin’ when in reality they just have a bit more fat to lose.

In today’s podcast Bryan and I get to the bottom of the ‘loose skin’ issue and what can be done about it (if you determine that you really do have loose skin).

John

P.S. The audio is a bit rough on this one cuz I forgot my headset, it’ll be back to normal next week!

READ:

You can download the transcript here: How to Get Rid of Loose Skin

LISTEN:

How to Get Rid of Cellulite

One of the first questions that came up in the Venus Index forums was about “Cellulite”…specifically, how do you get rid of it?!

To answer a question like this I need to recruit the aid of a good friend Bryan Chung. He is a a plastic surgery resident and has his Phd in Sports Medicine and a very informative blog at: Evidence Based Fitness

In today’s podcast Bryan and I get to the bottom of what Cellulite is and what you can do to get rid of it.

For starters ‘Cellulite’ is a slang term that has no scientific meaning, but physicians and researchers will know what you’re talking about when you refer to ‘cellulite’.

The reason women get it but men don’t is because there is a genetic difference in the basic structure of fat cells in women vs men.

Various options exist for dealing with cellulite including liposuction, fat injections (yes one of the treatments is to just cover the cellulite with more fat!) and the one I tend to favor; losing weight.

If you don’t have time to listen to the audio you can download and read the transcript here:

READ: How to Get Rid of Cellulite

John

Cardio or Diet For Weight Loss

Is this really going to help with weight loss?

It seems that many people believe that cardiovascular (“cardio” for short) exercise is necessary for weight loss. The reality is that you can lose weight without doing a second of cardio if you want to.

I’m not saying that you should avoid cardio, but as far as weight loss is concerned it’s not a requirement.

There are many other health benefits to doing regular cardiovascular activity but physiologically and psychologically. Activity and movement is good for your overall sense of well being and there are innumerable benefits that can’t be listed here…unfortunately weight loss isn’t one of them.

Losing weight is dependent upon creating a caloric deficit. In other words, burning more calories than you consume.

With that said it’s obvious that exercising and ‘cardio’ can help you burn a few more calories…BUT, and this is a big BUT…it’s much easier to overeat far more calories than you can ever exercise off.

For example, it might take you or I a solid 90 minutes of ‘cardio’ to burn off 300-400 extra calories…but it would only take us about 2 minutes to eat an extra muffin today that has about 350 calories…

So what is the better option? Find a way to avoid the muffin, or commit to a 90 minute cardio workout?

The point is cardio can help with burning a few more calories, as long as you don’t overcompensate by eating more food. And this is the catch 22 with doing more and more exercise…it stimulates hunger (not to mention it makes you more tired and lethargic at other times of the day)

In other words, you can’t just fix more with more. You cannot simply decide you want to overeat 1000 calories today and try to exercise off 1500 calories. It’s simply not possible.

It’s a much better proposition to shoot for a calorie deficit below BMR (basal metabolic rate) by eating less calories…and then consider any extra calorie loss you get form exercise as a ‘bonus’.

At least this way you allow some wiggle room for the inevitable cookie attack or ice cream meltdown that tends to happen throughout a busy stressful work week.

In todays first ever Venus Index podcast we tackle this question and try to determine how you can use cardio to help compliment your weight loss efforts.

If you can’t listen to the audio you can download the transcript:

Download Transcript –> Cardio or Diet for Weight Loss

John

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