Once you've been heavy for some time, you're in a metabolic trap, a sort of high-walled box created in large part by high insulin levels. You may already have noticed that you're trapped. Certainly, trying diet after diet and failing on all of them is depressing. I know from personal experience and from the comments of thousands of my patients just how tightly the lid of metabolic obesity seems to press down. Fortunately, there is a key to unlatch this box. A perfectly natural bodily process called lipotysis can lift up the lid and let hope shine in.
The definition of lipolysis sounds like Nirvana to a person longing to lose weight. It means "the process of dissolving fat:' Isn't that exactly why we're all gathered here today? Now I will tell you the "secret" to unlocking the latent power of lipolysis.
When you bum fat, it breaks down into glycerol and other fatty acids. How does the process actually work? Are there any drawbacks? There are plenty of laypeople and even physicians who think there must be.
And burning one's fat off sounds like a faddish trick. These folks give a skeptical shrug and say, 'Tm sure people lose some weight with your approach, Dr. Atkins, but don't they gain it right back again?"
The interesting thing is that, if they adhere to the four phases of my program, which includes finding their Critical Carbohydrate Level for Maintenance (CCLM), meaning the amount of carbohydrates they can consume and neither gain nor lose weight, not many do. The phase known as Lifetime Maintenance, though more indulgent, evolves naturally from the three weight loss phases, thereby gradually teaching Atkins followers a permanent way of eating that still moderates carbohydrate intake to the degree that is necessary for each individual. As for the weight loss phases of Aticins, they are simple and overwhelmingly effective. I don't see any reason why I should understate the facts. Lipolysis is one of life's charmed gifts. It's as delightful as sex and sunshine, and it has fewer drawbacks than either of them! In the earlier editions of this book i used the word ketosis to describe this wonderful process. In fact, here is exactly what I said: "The term 'ketosis,' when it applies to the benign, diet-induced type we're talking about, is really a shortening of the term ketosis/lipolysis, which is enough of a tongue twister that you can see why it is commonly referred to only by the name ketosis" Well, experience is a great teacher, and over the years I have learned that in my attempt to simplify things I created confusion.
Let me explain. The Atkins Nutritional Approach stimulates the process of lipolysis, a state I hope you are always in: burning your fat for energy. A secondary process of lipolysis is ketosis. Ketosis occurs when you are taking in a low level of carbohydrates from the food you eat, as you will during the Induction phase of Atkins. Lipolysis results in the creation of ketones (that's ketosis), a perfectly normal and namral function of the body.
In the minds of laypeople (and even some ill-informed doctors) ketosis is often confused with diabetic ketoacidosis.
The latter is the consequence of insulin-deficient subjects having out-of-control blood-sugar levels, a condition that can occur ns well in alcoholics and people in a state of extreme starvation. Ketosis and ketoacidosis may sound vaguely alike, but the two conditions are virtually polar opposites. They can always be distinguished from each other by the fact that the diabetic in ketoaciclosis has been consuming excessive carbohydrates and has high blood sugar, in sharp contrast to the fortunate person doing Atkins. To avoid any further confusion, I will use the term lipolysis throughout this chapter to describe the process of burning fat for energy. Many controlled carbohydrate regimens have been proposed over the years. They work with some degree of effectiveness for some people. However, many of them do not bring carbohydrnte intake down to a level that will permit lipolysis. For people who are metabolically obese and have great difficulty losing, that is a grave weakness.
Atkins, on the other hand, starts off at 20 grams of carbohydrates. Each individual then proceeds at his or her own rate, gradually adding back both the amount and the variety' of carbohydrate foods. We'H get into the specifics of how you calculate grams of carbohydrate and which carbs you will and will not be eating in Chapter 8. For now, let me nssure you that my state-of-the-art weight loss program is the safest, healthiest, most luxurious way to become and stay slim for the remainder of your life.
Going for It
How does lipolysis work? Lipolysis simply means that you're burning your fat stores and using them ns the source of fuel they were meant to be.
The by-products of burning fat are ketones. When your body releases ketones—-which it will do in your breath and your urine—it is chemical proof that you're consuming your own stored fat. Once more, for emphasis: When a person on a safe, controlled carbohydrate plan such as mine is releasing ketones, he or she is in the fat-dissolving state of lipolysis. This process is simply the most efficient path ever devised for getting you slim. And the more ketones you lease, the more fat you have dissolved.
Lipolysis is the biochemical method of weight loss—-the alternative to using glucose for fuel, the very process that has made you heavy. Lipolysis can be your life -raft, giving you both slimness and health, and distancing you from the obese person's perils of diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Most of all, of course, it is the key to achieving your goalto use up the fat stored on your body.
The phenomenon of lipolysis or fat burning being the major alternative fuel system has been so well researched that it is simply not disputed in academic circles. It is scientific fact.
Lipolysis vs. Glucosis
Many scientists are of the opinion that you need glucose for fuel. That statement is only partially true. Ketoues provide the exception. They are derived from fat when lipolysis is occurring, and are the other source of fuel that energizes our cells and powers our brain and other vital organs. Ketones fuel the body in !ipolysis just as glucose fuels the body in glucosis—my term for a carbohydrate metabolism. Glucose and ketones are the only two fuels that come from food. (Alcohol is a third fuel.)
I find that people understand the concept better when I tell them, "If you're not in lipolysis, you're in glucosis: " The two fuel sources are your body's alternative, completely parallel options for energy metabolism.
This terminology has helped many of my patients convince their doctors or dieticians that Atkins was the right path. If you have a doctor who tells you lipolysis (and ketosis) is bad, counter with Ibis question, "if I'm not in lipolysis then I will be in glucosis, fight? So, why is it so bad for an overweight person like me, with hyperinsulinism, to be living off my own stored fat?"
If you think about it for a moment, you'll understand why such a dual system exists. Before the invention of agriculture, in the first few hundred thousand years of human life, periods of severe food shortage must have been uncomfortably common. Human beings had to be able to burn their own body fat for fuel on those recurrent occasions when the larder was bare. Naturally, our bodies devised a highly efficient system for doing just that.
Have you ever wondered what sustained bents and other hibernating animals during their long winter sleep? It was the utilization of their fat stores. When you dial down the volume of insulin production, as you do in lipolysis, your body is equipped to burn your own body fat in a similar way. It takes place smoothly and is serf-sustaining. For you, this is a sort of biologic utopia. The process of losing weight becomes as painless as eating naturally was when you were piling on pounds.
Why Does Lipolysis Work?
You'll remember that insulin's job is to convert all your excess carbohydrate into stores of body fat. In a normally functioning body, fatty acids and ketones are readily converted from fat tissue to fuel. But in overweight people, high insulin levels prevent this from happening.
Most obese people become so adept at releasing insulin that their blood is never really free of it and they're never able to use up their fat stores. By primarily burning fat instead of carbohydrates, lipolysis breaks the cycle of excess insulin and resultant stored fat. So by following a fatcontaining, controlled carbohydrate regimen, you bypass the process of converting large amounts of carbohydrate into glucose. When your carbohydrate intake drops low enough to induce fat burning, abnormal insulin levels return to normal—perhaps for the first time in years or decades.
Hunger Is Reduced
One of the most attractive features of Atkins is that lipolysis, and the resulting production of ketones if you have triggered the secondary process of ketosis, helps suppress your appetite. Frankly, it first attracted me because back in the 1960s, when I was a young doctor with an ever-increasing paunch, I wanted to slim down. But I knew very well that I couldn't stand being hungry for very long. I had too big an appetite and too little willpower, two facts that haven't changed much.
When I realized that the body could satisfy its hunger by burning its own fat as fuel, I thought I saw an escape hatch. After the first forty-eight hours, the body suppresses hunger and appetite diminishes. Another benefit of lipolysis——and the resulting state of ketosis if your carbohydrate level is low enough—is that it has certain metabolic similarities to fasting.
But there is a significant difference from fasting. A prolonged fast can he dangerous and has one severe metabolic disadvantage: The body burns not only fat for energy, it also burns protein. This means that it burns off some of the body's lean muscle tissue, which is clearly not desirable. Investigation has shown that on an eating plan where you are in lipolysis, and the carbohydrate intake is low enough to result in ketosis, virtually no lean tissue is lost, only fatty tissue.4-9 And that's why, for extremely overweight individuals, it is possible to be in lipolysis, and at the carbohydrate level that creates ketosis, for six months to a year, and confidently know that they will suffer no iii effects of any kind. These enlightened (and soon to be lightened) people are able to consume their own fat for energy and feel good while they're doing it.
The Message of Smooth and Happy Weight Loss
The beauty of lipolysis is that it bypasses the agony of low-calorie dieting. People who've been burdened with excess pounds for a long time or who've tried weight loss programs often find it very nearly impossible to drop many pounds unless they're in lipolysis. I've treated people who, even on 700or 800 balanced calories a tiny, couldn't lose weight. That's less than half the normal caloric intake of an average woman. And yet these pounds finally peeled off when these folks began to do Atkins, even though their meal plans comprised of foods totaling even more calories.
When I make this claim, that you can lose more weight on a higher number of calories, I seem to be breaking the lawone of the hallowed laws: A caloric is a calorie is a calorie, and anyone who claims otherwise is a heretic. If you've counted calories for so long that you could do it in your sleep, you'H be overjoyed m know that lipolysis nllows you to lake in more calories and still lose more weight ns compared with low-fat, calode-restricted diets? You'll see exactly what I mean in the next chapter.
KEY POINTS!
·Lipolysis is the biochemical process of dissolving fat.
·When you dissolve fat, it breaks down into glycerol and other fatty acids, which in turn break down into byproducts called ketones.
·Atkins initiates ketosis by restricting carbohydrate intake to 20 grams per day, a level that is then gradually increased as you move on though the phases of Atkins.
A FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION:
Are lipolysis and the secondary process of ketosis safe?
Yes. Lipolysis results in the creation of ketones (that’s ketosis),a perfectly normal and natural function of the body. Unfortunately,ketosis is often confused with ketoacidosis, a condition found in a Type Idiabetic person whose blood sugar is out of control and who cannot produce insulin.
Some individuals may experience side effects from ketosis such as bad breath,but the vast majority of individuals do not develop medical problems.Research shows that chronic ketosis without caloric restriction poses no danger to your heart,kidneys blood or bone health.