Shiver for fat loss🥶

Following from the previous blog, I am re-iterating the fact that I am not a super-fit person, but if I knew this technique earlier, maybe I would’ve been in a better position! Will strive for the better self :)

Fat loss is a dear topic to me (because I am struggling to reduce fat) Whether you might be doing exercise a lot but are unable to reduce weight, or you don’t have enough time for exercise, let’s understand how fat loss happens, so we can design some protocols that might help us to accelerate the process.

Shivering aids to reduce fat. (Pic Source: Adobe)

First rule

This is very simple: Calories in < Calories out for weight/fat loss and Calories in > Calories out for weight/fat gain. (Weight loss and Fat loss are a bit different, but that’s for a different day)

Note: If you are eating highly processed food with low calories and feel that your weight isn’t increasing, that’s partially true, but you are damaging your gut microbiome which is very bad for health.

So, despite spending hours in gym, if you can’t satisfy this rule, everything goes in vain. (Usually I strive hard to maintain this, but I sometimes fail on my food intake😓)

Fat loss for dummies 😝 — Move and burn

Fat loss is a 2 step process → Mobilization and Oxidation

Mobilization: The fat (usually present in visceral/near abdomen, subcutaneous/under the skin) is the one we are trying to reduce. So, this fat should be moved from these cells to blood where it can be used as fuel.

Oxidation: Once this fat is in blood, it should be burned and converted to ATP. If it is just moved, but not oxidized, then the fat reattaches to body, thus no use in mobilizing fat from cells.

A simple (but not super accurate) analogy — Suppose you filled petrol in your vehicle (equivalent to mobilization) but are not turning on the engine (oxidize). Then there’s no use to fill your engine with petrol. (But don’t worry, unlike fat going back to their old cells, petrol won’t go to the gas station)

So, our aim is to accelerate this process of mobilization and oxidation. But how?

The world of epinephrine

Fat cells are connected to neurons and the release of epinephrine from these neurons onto the fat cells is what accelerates the process of mobilization and oxidation.

Epinephrine is released from brain (the neurons connected to fat cells) and from adrenal glands (above kidneys). It’s not the epinephrine that’s released from kidneys and swims in body that aids in fat loss, but the one that’s released by brain/neurons which are connected to fat cells that helps in fat loss.

Brown, White and Beige fat

Understanding a bit more about fats might help to dig deeper. There’re 3 types of fats.

1. Brown fat → The good fat, rich in mitochondria, useful when we are lack of energy resources in body. Main purpose is to maintain body temperature by burning.
2. White fat → This is the fat that’s present underneath skin (cutaneous) and around abdomen (visceral) that we aim to reduce. Too much of this fat leads to obesity. Doesn’t have mitochondria. Main purpose is energy storage.
3. Beige fat → This has few mitochondria and is converted either to brown or white fat depending on some conditions.

An infographic explaining different types of fats (Source: Nature publication)

Eating a lot and not exercising → Consuming/remaining excess calories → Stored in form of white fat. Our ultimate goal is to reduce white fat.

NEAT (Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis)

Thermogenesis is the process of dissipating heat (producing energy by burning fat). Usually, it’s achieved during exercise (that’s one of the reason why our core temperature rises during exercise, see this blog), but what if the science shows us some methods which achieve the effect of thermogenesis without exercising 🙇 (thus the acronym NEAT)

Fidgeting:

Fidgeting refers to small micro movements. These movements release epinephrine which aids in the mobilization and oxidation of fat thus burns calories.

A cool example of fidgeting. (Source: https://gifer.com/en/gifs/fidget)

Another example of fidgeting. (Source: This)

Shiver in cold shower

Well, now I believe the title of the blog is justified 😎. So, go for cold bath, start shivering, come out of it, wait for 1–3min (but don’t dry off completely), go back to cold bath and shiver again. The point is to shiver, not to resist or develop resistance to shiver. The cooling and rewarming is the key to shiver and not get adapted to cold.

Open windows, reduce room temperature

If you are living in a cold region like me, both these hacks reduces the surrounding temperature thus making our body to generate heat to maintain it’s core temperature. And to generate heat, the brown fat has to oxidize other forms of fat that’s mobilized thus reducing overall fat (indirectly white fat)!

In short, if you don’t have much time to exercise but are keen to reduce fat:

Shiver (cold shower or fidget or some other micromovements) → Neurons connected to fat cells releases epinephrine → Aids in mobilization and oxidation of fat → Fat loss (the effect is quite similar to exercising)

But exercising helps in lots of other ways, some of which are for a future blog 😊.

Acknowledgements and final notes

When it comes about health, it’s obvious to have disclaimers isn’t it! So, here it goes:

1. I am not an expert in this field, so don’t take the advice for granted. This blog is inspired from Huberman Podcast, an excellent podcast, highly recommend for everyone who wants to learn about science and science based tools for better life.
2. The blog might not be scientifically accurate, because I try to explain the concepts in a simple fashion and am a novice in this field. Feel free to message me in LinkedIn, Twitter for corrections/discussions.

P.S: I am trying to make notes for this podcast and some occasional (condensed) blog posts. The detailed notes can be referred here. This notes is not a replacement to Huberman podcast and it’s best used as a reference material. Once again, do checkout the podcast as it’s highly packed with lot of good stuff. It’s available in Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcast etc;