Fat is the energy rich material we have in our body and it is used to store extra food and energy.

When we speak about fat two important matters must be considered:

1- Fat calorie

2- Fat quality

If you want to eat healthy and you are not concern about weight then it is important to pay special attention to fat quality. Saturated fat and old style solid oil are considered bad and olive oil, fish oil and corn oil  are considered good quality oil. The fact is: calorie is the same for good and bad quality oil!

There are two sources of fat:

1- Endogenous; this means we make them by converting carbs and proteins inside our bodies.

2- Exogenous; this means we get them by eating.

Let’s talk about the second group. I explain this part in detail because many people are struggling with their weight or cholesterol or triglyceride (a kind of fat) all the time.

In a lab test and in your fat profile two things are routinely checked:

I- cholesterol

II- triglyceride

We have different type of cholesterol. we have good cholesterol and bad cholesterol.

If you see the lab result you figure that three expressions are highlighted. LDL, HDL and total cholesterol.

The first stands for low density lipoprotein which is bad for body and the second is high density lipoprotein that is really good for body and cleans the blood from bad cholesterol. The first one increases the possibility of brain stroke and heart attack and the second one do the opposite.

Triglyceride is another kind of fat you see on lab tests  and it has different structure compare to cholesterol. High triglyceride is not good too.

the first thing tried for treatment is normally life style changes like exercise and diet  . Even on cholesterol or triglyceride lowering drugs those two must be done.

In brief fish oil, olive oil, nut oil increases the good cholesterol HDL.

In natural remedies Natural garlic is said to bring bad cholesterol (LDL) down. Garlic tablets and supplements are still under question for having such an effect.

Triglyceride story is different. Liver have this ability to convert protein, carb and fat to each other. For example extra protein can be converted to cholesterol (red meat) and Extra carbohydrate is converted to triglyceride. bread, rice, cake, pasta and alike are responsible for many imbalances we have in our fat profile, although they are not fat originally.

Based on thisو different foods are able to produce different amount of fat if they are eaten in large amounts. There is a fat conversion index that says how much of this extra food is converted to fat in our body. I give you approximate numbers to show the difference and also importance:

- bread 90% (it means if you surpass your calorie need and eat bread 90% of it is converted to fat!), Cake 95%, rice 80%, boiled potato 70%, fruit sugar 35-50%, meat 60% and so on…list is long, but I can give you a heads up already. snacking with fruits is much better than cakes, protein is better than carb and so on. because of that you must be careful about carbs even more than fat itself. most people don’t know this point and get fat just by snacking little amount of carb throughout the day. the best example is sugar or chocolate with coffee or tea.

Now that we realized connection between fat and carbs we can think of our treatment options with better insight.

carb→fat→carb

It is a cycle which these two can convert to each other. how can we slow, then stop and at last reverse this carb to fat conversion?  First thing is to watch carb intake by watching our food. Second is to eat when body has more power to burn food( in the morning and noon). Third is to activate our muscles. Muscles are huge stores of carb.  When they are used in work outs they cry out for more carb from blood stream nearby and start using blood sugar just to keep you moving. Blood sugar starts going down, but blood sugar can’t go down very much…right? you remember? our brain can use sugar only. so our body and mainly liver releases its stores of carb into blood stream just to maintain blood sugar. it is not enough definitely…so liver starts converting fat in blood stream to carb release it back to blood .

Fat comes from fat tissue and blood vessels carry this fat to liver. Here come another problem. what if someone has poor blood vessels, especially in fat tissue? The answer is body cannot take fat efficiently if you do nothing about it. Best example is someone who eats less and does exercise but still can’t get rid of the fat on belly and sides! when there is poor access how can body remove and transfer that fat? here is the part that cupping, massage, lumicell, warming and shaking belts, laser, warm wax and many more methods come in. what they do is simple. They stimulate blood vessels and make them grow larger. Like streets if they become larger they can carry more fat out of fat tissue. Another important point and a frequently asked question: Can laser, massage and even many fat burning capsules reduce my weight?

The answer is: they can help only. They must be used in combination with other treatments. Even if you don’t want or can’t do exercise you must have a diet to make them effective. it is true like any other weigh loss program: eating style must be fixed first. If you think there is a magic pill or treatment that does this for you without eating modifications, be my guest. You spend money for nothing.

Let’s get back to muscle problem and low blood sugar. It happens either with exercise or diet or both. This fat converting process is slow. Is there any other way muscles can use another source of energy other than carb? Yes!

Muscles normally start eating fat in the neighborhood. That is what trainers call body sculpturing. You want to get rid of the belly fat? Use muscles of the same area. Thighs and buttock? Run, do cycling or do skipping rope or walk fast. Arms? Legs? Muscles are everywhere, so use them.

At last I want to remind you again:

Fat is not butter to melt away simply! you have to force your body to release them and there are simple rules for that!

If you had any questions regarding this article or the treatments please leave your comments in comment section or email me at health@drmehrshad.com

I would be happy to help.