What is Hormonal Fat Loss?

By Jade Teta ND, CSCS

The first thing people ask about the Metabolic Effect, is how is it different from other types of weight loss programs? The answer is that Metabolic Effect (ME), is a fat loss program not a weight loss program. Despite what many believe, weight loss does not equal fat loss.In fact, the things most people do to lose weight are the exact opposite behaviors involved in losing fat. You may be burning calories and losing weight, but that weight and those calories may or may not be fat. Most often, the weight lost is muscle which leads to an inefficient metabolism in the long run.

Where weight loss is about calories, fat loss is about hormones. Every time you eat or exercise you have the opportunity to burn fat or store fat. Exercising and eating in a way that balances out your fat burning hormones can create a fat calorie "after-burn". This is a state where calorie use is pushed more towards fat use rather than sugar. In the case of diet, this effect can last for 2-4 hours. And with proper exercise it can last hours long or even up to 2 days!!

This comes from research published in March 2002 in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. In this study, a 31 minute workout utilizing a quick moving full body resistance training workout was able to produce elevated resting metabolism for 48 hours. The measurements were stopped at 48 hours, so we still do not know how long this effect may last. This after-burn is a unique state that occurs after intense exertion that includes the energy required for recovery, repair, and adaptation. This effect could not be predicted by focusing on the calorie consumption of the workout. Other studies have shown that the unique hormonal effect of the workout may be what is responsible. By focusing on hormones rather than calories you can burn fat at rest, as opposed to only when you exercise.

The Metabolic Effect is all about teaching the correct way to eat and exercise to deliver a sustained hormonal fat burning response. This entails a shift from aerobic exercise to weight training. It also involves straying a bit from strict bodybuilding workouts/protocols, and engaging in exercise sessions that combine elements of intense cardiovascular sprints/intervals, and resistance training. By combining functional weight training with aerobic intervals interspersed throughout the workout; fat burning is dramatically enhanced while muscle mass is maintained or increased.

Two studies in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, from September 2008, showed a workout that intermixed resistance exercise and aerobic exercise, produced a close to 10-fold greater fat loss compared to a workout separating the two modalities. This workout also built more muscle,  increased lower body strength and endurance compared to the traditional training program. A similar study in January 2008, in the same journal, showed this style of workout also created less soreness than the more traditional workout. This suggests something about the combination of cardiovascular and resistance training intermixed together facilitates recovery from exercise, and may explain some of the positive effects.

This new understanding about the effects of combination training along with high-intensity interval training, and high-volume resistance exercise is changing the way many people think about exercise. Taking a hormonal approach to exercise allows increased benefits from a shorter workout.

Hormones and diet

Diet too is being shown to be much more than calories. Every time you eat there is a whole cascade of hormonal messengers released by the body. In addition, to the body's hormonal response, food is more than energy, but is better thought of as information. Molecules present within food act directly as hormonal messengers themselves. Food molecules like omega-3 fats, phytonutrients (pronounced FYE-TOE-NUTRIENTS), and amino acids can all speak directly to your physiology turning hunger on or off, increasing cravings or decreasing them, and adjusting energy levels up or down. These influences not only adjust fat burning physiology, but also impact the mental, emotional, and behavioral aspects of lifestyle change. This is a key advantage over a calorie counting approach to food which works against your natural physiology, leads to unfavorable hormonal effects, and a less efficient fat burning metabolism over the long run.

There is much to learn about the new science of hormonal effects of exercise and the metabolic changes induced by food. Research continues to expand our understanding of the intricate interactions between our lifestyle (what we eat, how we exercise, whether or not we sleep, and even the way we think) and the release of metabolic hormones. These hormones act as translators by relaying information to the cells about what is occurring in the outside world and how cell physiology should change in response.