In this post, I will discuss about muscle gain and fat loss at the cellular level. It will sound a bit more technical in some explanations and terms, but I will do the best I can to put it as laymen as I can. So, bear with me, as this post is fairly important for people who is interested in knowing the science behind muscle gain and fat loss.
To gain muscle and lose fat effectively, you need to understand the basic principles of growth and fat burning. The most basic, self contained unit of life in your body is the cell, where every life action begins. Both growth and fat burning depend on the body's ability to activate certain compounds called cellular factors, which promote protein synthesis or fat breakdown. Endless number of cellular and systemic events are required for the repair, synthesis, and build up of muscle tissues, as well as the breakdown of adipose(fat) tissues, thereby turning fat into energy.
Now, I'm sure some of you have heard or seen some so called 'miracle pill or supplement' which can stimulates the body to build muscle and burn fat. You might think it sounds too good to be true. What happen if you learn that your body already has this 'miracle pill' built in your body?
Your body is preprogrammed with an inner mechanism that, once activated, can stimulate growth potential while simultaneously burning fat. This mechanism works in a way that may contradict much of the information you get from fitness and muscle magazines, as this truth is 'anti-industry'. For fitness and muscle magazines, advertisements always, always comes first. If you notice, all muscle and fitness magazines are covered with mainly advertisements and why is that so? You do the math here.
When you fast, exercise or undergo intense stress, you activate an inner cellular process that induces the synthesis of growth stimulating hormones while forcing the body to dig into its storage cells and turn glycogen and fat into energy. This same process also simultaneously inhibit fat gain as well. The mechanism that stimulates these actions is triggered by a cellular factor, called cAMP.
Cyclic AMP's growth-stimulating impact isn't a simple feature. Now, let's examine how cAMP generates its anabolic stimulating and fat burning actions. When activated, cAMP catalyzes a chain of cellular events that triggers enzymes responsible for protein synthesis and energy production. This cellular factor, also promotes events associated with growth functions, in particular, the release of hormones that stimulate the synthesis of anabolic hormones such as human growth hormones and steroid male hormones.
There is a biological correlation between hunger, stress and survival. It is now known that hunger, danger and physical stress trigger a survival mechanism in which cellular leves of cAMP increase, thereby increasing energy production and overall endurance, all of which are critical for sustaining life. Simply said, cAMP helps support human survival during times of extreme conditions involving physical and nutritional stress. A threshold time is needed for activation of this cellular process, and the time depends on variables such as nutritional state and intensity of stress applied (undereating or exercise).
Undereating combined with exercise likely shortens the threshold time needed to turn cAMP into a dominating factor in the cell. Cyclic AMP is promoted by the stress and fat burning hormones adrenaline and glucagon. The adrenal hormones stimulate an enzyme to synthesis cAMP from the energy molecule ATP. I'm sure all fitness or personal trainers know what is ATP. Undereating or exercising that often induces a feeling of hunger and stress puts the body in fight or flight mode. In this survival mode, the adrenal and glucagon hormones activate compounds called G proteins, which increase cellular levels of cAMP.
G proteins are involved in critical life processes. They mediate numerous life functions such as sensations of taste and smell, light detection and growth of nerves. Humans and other animals have an inherent increased capacity to sense things when hungry. This enchanced ability to sense the environment most likely helped species to hunt, fight or flee if needed, thus enhancing survival. And the mechanism that triggers this sensual wiring is regulated by G proteins and their related cAMP.
cAMP helps improve overall survival capabilities through wiring the senses, increasing alertness, stimulating tissues repair and improving energy utilization by turning glycogen and fat storage into energy. Eating full meals inhibit cAMP. Evidently, most modern diets do not sufficiently stimulate the production of cAMP. This fat burning, growth-stimulating agent is all but suppressed in our modern lifestyle, chronically inhibited by poor eating habits that typically involve consuming too many meals or ingesting too many carbohydrates during the day. Inhibited cAMP could be very well be a major reason for the current epidemic of obesity, weight gain, stubborn fat gain, diabetes and diseases related to premature aging.
Question? Can you gain muscle without gaining fat? Well, keep reading. Whether or not a person can gain muscle mass without gaining fat is a controversial question. The prospect of gaining muscle mass without gaining fat seems to good to be true. Professional athletes such as boxers, bodybuilders, martial artists, often fluctuate between 20-50 pounds of weight between on and off season. During off season, they desperately try to gain weight, which includes muscles and fat, while during on season, they try to shed off body fat in order to achieve lean muscle gains. However, there are downside of this method.
First of all, gaining fat in off season, may cause the formation of stubborn fat tissues. Thus, it may become increasingly difficult in future seasons, to lose fat and reach maximum definition. Secondly, the on season, which consists of about four to six months of reduced calories, low carb diet, may adversely affect the thyroid hormone functions and slow down the metabolism(BMR). Now, as I did explained before, when your metabolism goes south, this is not a good thing, and we do not want that to happen to our metabolism. The goal is to alter or stimulate our metabolism and how we express our genes, when it comes to specific type of exercise and diet.
If anyone would to tell you that exercise is about burning calories, that is the biggest joke I've ever heard! Imagine if you eat a Big Mac and a large french fries, you are requires to do mountain biking for more then 8 hours? Who is going to do that type of exercise? Thats insane yet stupid! It doesn't make sense at all. By the way, I've met some fitness trainers who told me that exercise is about burning calories, shocking!
Your body is preprogrammed with an inner mechanism that, once activated, can stimulate growth potential while simultaneously burning fat. This mechanism works in a way that may contradict much of the information you get from fitness and muscle magazines, as this truth is 'anti-industry'. For fitness and muscle magazines, advertisements always, always comes first. If you notice, all muscle and fitness magazines are covered with mainly advertisements and why is that so? You do the math here.
When you fast, exercise or undergo intense stress, you activate an inner cellular process that induces the synthesis of growth stimulating hormones while forcing the body to dig into its storage cells and turn glycogen and fat into energy. This same process also simultaneously inhibit fat gain as well. The mechanism that stimulates these actions is triggered by a cellular factor, called cAMP.
Cyclic AMP's growth-stimulating impact isn't a simple feature. Now, let's examine how cAMP generates its anabolic stimulating and fat burning actions. When activated, cAMP catalyzes a chain of cellular events that triggers enzymes responsible for protein synthesis and energy production. This cellular factor, also promotes events associated with growth functions, in particular, the release of hormones that stimulate the synthesis of anabolic hormones such as human growth hormones and steroid male hormones.
There is a biological correlation between hunger, stress and survival. It is now known that hunger, danger and physical stress trigger a survival mechanism in which cellular leves of cAMP increase, thereby increasing energy production and overall endurance, all of which are critical for sustaining life. Simply said, cAMP helps support human survival during times of extreme conditions involving physical and nutritional stress. A threshold time is needed for activation of this cellular process, and the time depends on variables such as nutritional state and intensity of stress applied (undereating or exercise).
Undereating combined with exercise likely shortens the threshold time needed to turn cAMP into a dominating factor in the cell. Cyclic AMP is promoted by the stress and fat burning hormones adrenaline and glucagon. The adrenal hormones stimulate an enzyme to synthesis cAMP from the energy molecule ATP. I'm sure all fitness or personal trainers know what is ATP. Undereating or exercising that often induces a feeling of hunger and stress puts the body in fight or flight mode. In this survival mode, the adrenal and glucagon hormones activate compounds called G proteins, which increase cellular levels of cAMP.
G proteins are involved in critical life processes. They mediate numerous life functions such as sensations of taste and smell, light detection and growth of nerves. Humans and other animals have an inherent increased capacity to sense things when hungry. This enchanced ability to sense the environment most likely helped species to hunt, fight or flee if needed, thus enhancing survival. And the mechanism that triggers this sensual wiring is regulated by G proteins and their related cAMP.
cAMP helps improve overall survival capabilities through wiring the senses, increasing alertness, stimulating tissues repair and improving energy utilization by turning glycogen and fat storage into energy. Eating full meals inhibit cAMP. Evidently, most modern diets do not sufficiently stimulate the production of cAMP. This fat burning, growth-stimulating agent is all but suppressed in our modern lifestyle, chronically inhibited by poor eating habits that typically involve consuming too many meals or ingesting too many carbohydrates during the day. Inhibited cAMP could be very well be a major reason for the current epidemic of obesity, weight gain, stubborn fat gain, diabetes and diseases related to premature aging.
Question? Can you gain muscle without gaining fat? Well, keep reading. Whether or not a person can gain muscle mass without gaining fat is a controversial question. The prospect of gaining muscle mass without gaining fat seems to good to be true. Professional athletes such as boxers, bodybuilders, martial artists, often fluctuate between 20-50 pounds of weight between on and off season. During off season, they desperately try to gain weight, which includes muscles and fat, while during on season, they try to shed off body fat in order to achieve lean muscle gains. However, there are downside of this method.
First of all, gaining fat in off season, may cause the formation of stubborn fat tissues. Thus, it may become increasingly difficult in future seasons, to lose fat and reach maximum definition. Secondly, the on season, which consists of about four to six months of reduced calories, low carb diet, may adversely affect the thyroid hormone functions and slow down the metabolism(BMR). Now, as I did explained before, when your metabolism goes south, this is not a good thing, and we do not want that to happen to our metabolism. The goal is to alter or stimulate our metabolism and how we express our genes, when it comes to specific type of exercise and diet.
If anyone would to tell you that exercise is about burning calories, that is the biggest joke I've ever heard! Imagine if you eat a Big Mac and a large french fries, you are requires to do mountain biking for more then 8 hours? Who is going to do that type of exercise? Thats insane yet stupid! It doesn't make sense at all. By the way, I've met some fitness trainers who told me that exercise is about burning calories, shocking!
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