Glucagon Fat-Burning Aging -Breakfast How Not To Start The Day Part III
A question from one of our readers:
Dr. Mericle,
With respect to burning "fat" energy in the mornings before
eating, what if you are not a long distance runner? The average
person is not, particularly someone who is overweight. A typical
run for me in my current condition is 2-3 miles. Would I still
be burning fat with a 25-30 min. jog?
JoLee
Answer: Yes, you would still be burning fat as long as you
stay in a glucagon state.
This is a very good question since most people today don't run
at all -much less even 2-3 miles a day. This touches on one of
the most important aspects of the MericleDiet and exercise
as it relates to weight loss. Exercise for your immune system,
but don't rely on exercise to lose weight and or keep weight
off. Even running seven miles a day is not enough to burn
any significant calories.
Back to the glucagon state of energy utilization
In the last newsletter I discussed the importance of entering
a glucagon state for some part of every day. For me,
running helps as it is a real distraction, something I do
every day and I have my own rule of never eating before I run.
The reason for not eating is that it is a lot easier to run in a
state of energy utilization (glucagon) , not energy storage
(insulin). Usually in hot weather I will run first thing in
the morning. This actually shortens my glucagon phase as
compared to running in the late afternoon. Usually if it is
hot and I run early, I will try not to eat when I get back
from the run until noon at the earliest. This gives me at
least four or five hours in a glucagon state -higher energy
levels and I get a lot more done. If you are going to eat
early in the day, it is best to eat low on the glycemic index.
Organic fruit, carrot or celery sticks and fresh organic
salads are good choices.
You don't need to exercise to enter a glucagon state
Exercise can help to get you into a glucagon phase but is not
necessary. All you really have to do is not go into an insulin
state by eating. Most of us are going to eat something during
most days but it is optimal if you can limit the time of food
ingestion to the mid-day hours, noon to 6:pm or so. You
will have a good glucagon phase in the morning and not go
to bed on a large load of insulin in the evening. As mentioned
previously, hyperinsulinism is implicated in many of our
serious lifestyle illnesses.
Dr. Roy Walford and caloric restriction
It may seem hard to believe, but during periods of starvation
during WWII, those who had their caloric intake reduced,
had improvement in diseases such as heart disease and cancer.
It was also noted that they did not age as much. This has
been studied by the late Dr. Roy Walford, who was part of the
Biosphere. There is no question that calorically restricted
mice age much more slowly than those who are allowed to eat
what they want. Dr. Walford also made the point that the
calories that are eaten must be "nutritionally dense." This
is also one of the premises of the MericleDiet. I don't
want to suggest that one live a life of caloric restriction,
but there is no doubt that reducing your caloric intake and
not eating as often or as much will improve your health and
slow your aging.
Insulin Glucagon Aging
Somewhere in the basic premise of caloric restriction and
retarded aging is the yin and yang of human energy
management -Glucagon and Insulin. Too much of either is
not good and as noted previously, most people in America
have way too much insulin. If you want to feel better and
look better while you age more slowly, think glucagon,
not insulin. Try to achieve "balance" between them.
If you spend four hours a day in an insulin state,
try to spend at least as much time in a glucagon state.
Conclusion
Understanding how glucagon and insulin affect your health
and your weight is one of the most important concepts one
can learn. Not only will you be able to work better, feel
better and control your weight more easily, there now is
impressive evidence that restricting your insulin secretion
by reducing your frequency and quantity of feedings will
retard aging.
Reference:
Dr. Walford and Caloric Restriction
http://www.walford.com
Stryer Biochemistry Fourth Edition
Thanks for your time.
Copyright © John Mericle M.D. All Rights Reserved
Breakfast -How Not To Start The Day Part II
The Order of Energy Utilization
Back to our table of stored energy in an average 70 kg man.
Organ ************** Available energy (kcal)
************ glucose/glycogen ***** fat ****** protein
blood *********** 60 ************** 45 ******* 0
liver *********** 400 ************* 450 ****** 400
brain *********** 8 *************** 0 ******** 0
muscle ********** 1200 ************ 450 ****** 24000
adipose(fat) **** 80 ************** 135,000 ** 40
from Stryer Biochemistry 4th Edition page 771
Glucose and Glycogen 1600 kcal of available energy
As you can see from the table above, there are three categories
of energy. Glucose and glycogen (a polymer of glucose) is the
first category and the most readily available. This is the
energy that most of us utilize most of the day. The human
body needs plentiful supplies of glucose, especially since it
is basically the only molecule that the brain can metabolize.
Good sources of real complex unprocessed carbohydrates are
grains, potatoes and rice.
Protein 24000+ kcal
The human body can process protein to make glucose via a
pathway called gluconeogenesis. During periods of starvation
the protein / lean body mass of the body can be catabolized
to provide glucose for the brain. This is not a good way
however, to lose weight as you are losing what you don't
want to lose -lean body mass. As you can see from the chart
most of the protein available for energy utilization comes
from muscle.
Fat 135,000 kcal available stored energy
By far the most stored energy the human has is in fat.
However, it is also the last energy source the body will
turn to unless the requisite enzyme systems are already in
place to process the fat. One of the advantages of the
fat burning system is that you don't have to be starving
to have it supply glucose for your brain or your muscles.
You do, however, have to have trained your metabolism
sufficiently so that when you call on this "fat burning"
system, it will be able to proceed at a rate fast enough
(have enough enzymes present) to supply enough glucose to
be significant.
Running and learning to burn fat
Long distance running has long been an area of "fat burning."
As mentioned previously, most humans can store about 20 miles
of energy from glycogen / glucose sources. After about twenty
miles most humans will switch to fat burning. What has to be
understood here is that the rate of your fat burning will be
dependent on how much you trained in a glucagon / fat burning
/ energy utilization state. Even if you have trained a lot
this way you may still slow down when you switch but the
slow down will not be as severe as if you have not trained
your metabolism at all. If you haven't trained your metabolism
at all, you will probably be walking the last six miles.
How to learn to burn fat ...
In order for your body to be able to burn fat, you have to
enter a glucagon state -period. There is no other way. You
cannot be eating six, seven or eight meals a day. If fact,
it is very hard to learn to burn fat if the first thing you
do every day is eat a big breakfast. You wake up ready to
go glucagon for a while and the first thing you do is ... eat
breakfast. Up goes your insulin, down goes your glucagon.
Your stomach empties in usually about thirty minutes and then
you are hungry again. You wait till about ten in the morning
have a snack and just about the time your insulin levels are
starting to come down -up they go again. The cycle repeats
itself all day.
Timing and hunger ...
The stomach usually empties in thirty minutes. Usually it
takes two to three hours for the blood sugar to return to normal
and the insulin levels to begin to return to fasting levels.
This is one of the real problems with the human body. The
biochemistry of energy metabolism is at least 100,000 years
old with power of hunger -also 100,000 years old. However,
100,000 years ago there was no way to eat every time we
got hungry. Today we eat at the slightest twinge of hunger,
often eating heavily processed sugar packed foods with no
nutritional value.
The incomplete food hunger cycle
Because there is no nutritional value in most if not all
of the foods in your average local "super"market, the food
does not turn off your hunger. As soon as your stomach
empties, you are eating something else, always trying to
satisfy the hunger. Since the hunger can never be satisfied,
you keep eating and eating. Soon you are completely encased
in fat, feel terrible and your risk of serious disease just skyrockets.
What you can do ...
Never eat before you expend some energy is some form in the
morning. I accomplish this by running usually seven miles.
When I first quit eating anything before I ran, the first few
runs were a bit weak. I didn't feel good at about forty-five
minutes into the run and would even feel a bit light-headed
and hypoglycemic. I persisted and in about two weeks these
feelings were completely gone and I could cruise an easy two
hours with no additional fuels. The point here is that you
have to enter into a glucagon state, start training your
metabolism / enzyme systems and soon they will be able to
supply the necessary energy for your run and you will be
burning fat.
Don't fill your tanks before you have emptied them and
then some ...
At some point in every day -spend some time in a glucagon
state. That is the human biochemistry. To use the car
analogy again think of filling your tank with gas, every
day -the same amount. Each day you fill your gas tank with
fifteen gallons of fuel. Some days you drive to Phoenix and
back and use all this gas, but most days you just drive
to the grocery and back. The next day you go for your
fifteen gallons and you can only get five gallons in your tank.
You put the other ten in two five gallon containers and put them
in the trunk.
Your car is full of gas -and you can't drive around the block
The next day you drive to the cleaners and then stop to
fill up again. Another fifteen gallons and this time
you have to put twelve of them into separate containers.
Now the trunk is full of gas containers and weighting down
your car. Soon the back seat if full, the front seat is full
and there is barely any room for you, the driver. If you
don't expend the ingested energy, insulin will store it for
you -somewhere and everywhere in and on your body. Learn to
go a little beyond your ingested energy and keep those fat
burning pathways open. You will feel better, work better
and really reduce your risk of disease.
Thanks for your attention.
Copyright © John Mericle M.D. 2005 All Right Reserved
Breakfast -How Not To Start The Day Part 1
Axiom Number Four
To have a great selling diet plan encourage people to do what they want to do anyway, even if they won't lose weight and may become morbidly obese, get cancer and have a very poor quality of life.
Question from one of our readers ...
Just read your letter "Energy That Is Stored -Must Be Utilized" Won't fasting slow your metabolic rate? Doesn't your body think you're starving when you fast and slow down to conserve energy? If not, why are so many of the latest diets centered around several small meals a day instead of 3 square meals?
Unknown reader since they did not leave their email address.
A very important question however!
Just this week in my email I got another article about eating as many as eight meals a day as a way to become thin, in shape and lose weight.
Concept one from this article ...
Fasting causes your body to "think" that it is starving which makes your body store fat and slows your metabolism.
Fasting in no way forces the body to "store fat."
To begin we need to clarify that the body "does not think anything." It is a series of biochemical reactions, much the same as the brain is, although the brain is rumored to "think" in some cases. At this junction I am going to discuss some "elementary biochemistry" with an occasional quote from Stryer's Fourth Edition Biochemistry. I will leave the math to you -the reader.
fuel reserves in a typical 70-kg man
Organ ************** Available energy (kcal)
************ glucose/glycogen ***** fat ****** protein
blood *********** 60 ************** 45 ******* 0
liver *********** 400 ************* 450 ****** 400
brain *********** 8 *************** 0 ******** 0
muscle ********** 1200 ************ 450 ****** 24000
adipose(fat) **** 80 ************** 135,000 ** 40
from Stryer Biochemistry 4th Edition page 771
The biochemistry of starvation
"A typical well-nourished 70-kg man has fuel reserves of some 1600 kcal in glycogen, 24,000 kcal in mobilizable protein and 135,000 kcal in triacylglycerols. (see above table) The energy need for a 24-hour period ranges from about 1600 kcal in the basal state to 6000 kcal, depending on the extent of activity. Thus, stored fuels suffice to meet caloric needs in starvation for one to three months." page 775,776 Stryer Biochemistry.
As is apparent from the above quote, the body does not even start to "starve" for the first 24 hours since the metabolic needs of the body (especially the brain) can be easily met by the stored fuels. Not eating breakfast, eating your main meal at noon and then skipping dinner -is not starvation, either for you or your body.
Glucagon
Glucagon levels rise only when insulin levels drop. It takes at least two to three hours for the insulin levels to drop sufficiently for the glucagon levels to rise. Six meals a day plus snacks does not equal "flat abs and sexy muscles." It equals morbid obesity and hyperinsulinism and all the associated lifestyle diseases.
What glucagon does
Glucagon is secreted by the alpha cells of the pancreas in response to a "low" blood sugar in the fasting state. It inhibits glycogen synthesis and fatty acid synthesis, just the opposite of insulin which stimulates glycogen synthesis and fatty acid synthesis. In case you don't understand what this means, it means that you are utilizing / burning fat, with high glucagon (fasting state) levels and you are storing energy (as fat) with high insulin levels (fed) state.
Epinephrine and Nor-Epinephrine (Adrenaline)
High levels of glucagon (fasting state) stimulate increased secretion of adrenalin (epinephrine and nor-epinephrine). Adrenalin in turn mobilizes fatty acids and glycogen. The main difference between glucagon and adrenalin is that the effect of adrenalin is more pronounced in muscle than the liver, where the effect of glucagon is more prominent. Epinephrine also inhibits use of glucose by muscles and facilitates the use of fatty acids by muscle. Thus the old adage about having to burn fat in the marathon. Most people can store enough energy from non-fat sources for about 20 miles, but then you have to switch to fat burning to get through the last six. This is where if you have not trained your metabolism to burn fat (trained in the fasting state), you will not be able to run well. The metabolic pathways will not be there.
Three more "multiple feedings" concepts ...
Eating too much food results in high insulin levels which in turn causes a low blood sugar which in turn forces the body to store fat.
A little truth here -overeating does produce high insulin levels. Anyone here feel that seven meals a day is not overeating, I can't help you. High insulin levels create low blood sugar only when the food ingested is partial, processed or sugar. Eating whole foods has yet to produce low blood sugar in anyone. Low blood sugar forces the body to store fat? Only in her mind, but not according to any human biochemistry I've ever read. As discussed above, low blood sugar stimulates glucagon secretion which in turn mobilizes fat / burns fat /utilizes fat!
Concept 2... Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Sorry, but the "myth" of breakfast is just that -a myth. The only thing I can say for sure about breakfast is that you will never be able to burn fat, if you eat breakfast every day. You are virtually guaranteed of NEVER entering a glucagon state. You will end up with fuel storage tanks all over your body and no way to ever get the energy from the tank to your body since you have never established the metabolic pathways to do so.
Concept 3... After breakfast you can start eating the remaining six or seven meals for the day followed by a bedtime snack.
When you get done concentrating on the other 6-7 meals for the day, then you can figure out which doctor you are going to see for your obesity, hypertension and cancer. My ex-father-in-law was really excited about the Zone diet because it allowed him to eat as much meat as he wanted. He did lose a few pounds, put it back on soon, and within a year was diagnosed with cancer of the prostate. Don't mortgage your health just to lose a few pounds.
The rules of health and biochemistry
I didn't write the rules of health / biochemistry of the human species. Lubert Stryer explains them and The China Study by T. Colin Campbell shows the linear relationship between animal protein and the big three lifestyle diseases here -cancer, heart disease and stroke. We may not always like the rules but they are what we have and any attempt to alter them most often ends with serious compromise of our health.
Please stay tuned for part two of this discussion and a very important point -The Order of Fuel Utilization in the Human.
Reference:
Stryer Biochemistry Fourth Edition
The MericleDiet
The best quality of life insurance plan there is. It makes the transition away from sugar, meat and dairy as easy as it can be. Improve your health and exercise ability while you enjoy great tasting vegan meals. Don't mortgage your health for short-term weight loss.
A final quote:
"Our distant ancestors, whose bodies we inherited ate and weighed a good deal less, than we do. They had to “earn” their subsistence by every day scouring the countryside for their scarce food. This checked their appetite and kept them lean, hungry and healthy. Adapted over hundred thousands of years and thereby setting the standards for living normally and healthily, they bequeathed their genes to us. We, not so healthy relative overweights, easily load up our shopping carts once a week at the corner supermarket and simply eat too much for our ~100,000-year-old body design."
Re-adaptation hypothesis: explaining health benefits of caloric restriction Hans Dehmelt* Department of Physics, P.O. Box 351560, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1560, USA
Thanks for your attention.
Axiom Number Three -It's Hard to Lose Weight in an Insulin State
Axiom Number Three
Insulin and Glucagon
These are the two major hormones that control energy metabolism in the human. They are much like yin and yang, hot and cold or happy and sad. In order to really enjoy the good days, we all have bad days. Extremes of either too hot or too cold and soon everyone complains about the weather. Too much yin or too much yang and according to traditional Chinese Medicine, you are sick. Too much insulin and you are sick, hypertension, overweight, cancer, heart disease and stroke. Too much glucagon and you are too thin, emaciated and weak.
As we have mentioned previously, when man evolved there would be times of famine, between times of feast. The biochemistry of this evolution allowed man to survive the periods of famine by using insulin to "store" energy.
Organ ************** Available energy (kcal)
************ glucose/glycogen ***** fat ****** protein
blood *********** 60 ************** 45 ******* 0
liver *********** 400 ************* 450 ****** 400
brain *********** 8 *************** 0 ******** 0
muscle ********** 1200 ************ 450 ****** 24000
adipose(fat) **** 80 ************** 135,000 ** 40
from Stryer Biochemistry 4th Edition page 771
Look at the chart and find the biggest number. The largest amount of available energy in an average 70 kilogram human is overwhelmingly stored in -fat. For the purpose of this discussion let's think of each of these numbers above as fuel tanks, for our energy needs. When we fill up our cars with gasoline (our old Mercedes B100 biodiesel) we have to have a fuel hose to get the fuel into our gas tank. In order to use that fuel in our gas tanks, we have to have a fuel line leading from the gas tank to the motor in our car. Without these fuel lines, we could not utilize our engine / car.
Enzymatic Induction
Human biochemistry is composed of many different enzyme systems. One such enzyme is phosphofructokinase that catalyzes the reaction of fructose 6-phosphate to fructose 1,6-bisphosphate. As with any biochemical reaction that is dependant on an enzyme system, the more it is used, the more developed it becomes. If there is no need for an enzyme, then the levels in the body will be very low. If there is much demand for an enzyme, then the body will synthesize more of it to meet the demands.
Filling your tank with gas
The fuel line for the human body to fill its energy storage tanks, especially the largest energy storage tank fat, is insulin. Insulin is the hose that energy (gasoline, biodiesel) flows from the storage tank (breakdown products of your recently ingested meals) into your gas tank for future use. Without this fuel line insulin, you will eventually go into a coma (hyperosmolar) that if not treated, can result in less than optimal outcomes.
Using the gas in your tank
When we drive our cars, we use the energy stored in the fuel tanks. In order for us to use that fuel, it must get from the storage tank to the motor. In the human, that fuel line is glucagon. Remember, insulin stores energy, glucagon utilizes that stored energy. Just as insulin stimulates energy storage and the necessary enzyme systems, glucagon stimulates energy utilization and the necessary enzyme systems required to accomplish this.
Life in the Fed State
The problem today is that we have evolved from creatures that did not have consistent daily feedings to our "modern" fast food insanity and the notion that now we need three "square" meals a day plus snacks. What happens to our energy metabolism when we start out putting insulin stimulating foods in our stomach three times a day? When we eat, our biochemistry reacts by secreting insulin, so that we can store all this energy for future needs -most of it going into fat. Long before we have used any of this energy, we are having another meal -lunch. More gas in our tanks, -none used yet. Then comes dinner -more gas into our tank. Snacks -more gas in. We spend our whole day and most of the night in a "fed" or insulin state.
Huge fuel tanks full of fat -everywhere
Because we never allow our body's insulin level to drop enough so that the glucagon level will rise, we never get into a "glucagon" state. Our whole car is now filled mostly with gas. There is hardly any room for a driver in the front seat. Huge fuel tanks full of fat are everywhere we look. Your car is loaded with gas, but you can't drive around the block because you haven't developed the enzymes of energy utilization to establish a fuel line between all these gas tanks full of fat and our motor, which is now also encased in fat. While insulin is the fuel line to fill our energy stores, glucagon is the fuel line to use this stored energy. Without proper stimulation of the glucagon system, our tanks just keep filling up with fat. We never develop the necessary enzymes to use all this energy. You don't have to travel too far to see people totally encased in their stored energy.
Livin' la vida de glucagon
To break this cycle, we need to stop eating for at least a portion of the day, or at least every other day. I don't know how many of you have ever fasted for 24 hours or more, but the feeling is incredible. You get a lot more work done, you don't get lethargic after eating and you start to actually feel thin. I don't recommend fasting more than 24 hours and I am not actually recommending a 24 hour fast. What I am recommending is that during some portion of every day or at least every other day, you refrain from eating anything so that you can get into a glucagon state and begin to induce the necessary enzymes to use all the energy the human body can store.
Summary
Like it or not, three meals a day plus snacks is just not healthy.
Copyright © John Mericle M.D. 2005 All Rights Reserved
