Burning Fat Through Brain Power
There is research at least showing the possibility of how our brain could potentially help us burn more body fat, lower our body mass index and even lower our blood pressure. When it comes to health and fitness, we often look for things we can add in or take out of our routine, whether it’s using fat burners, starting an exercise program, changing our diet etc. And though exercise and changing our diet are two of the most important things we can do, there just may be a powerful tool we’re not fully engaging, and that’s our brain!
Our body is one of the most powerful producers of personal designer drugs that we can ever hope for, and with the power our brain has, with its signaling system of hormones and nerves throughout the body, I have no doubt it has the capability to increase metabolism, burn more fat and increase muscle gains, when we get a more vivid picture in our mind of what it is we are trying to do, while we’re doing it.
Movement burns calories, burns fat, and even builds muscle when we make our muscles work harder then they’re used to. So imagine you’re burning fat and building muscle whenever you’re doing something physical whether in your exercise routine or in your activities of daily living!
This is an abstract from a Harvard University study where some of the participants were made very aware of what they were doing for their health and fitness through manual labor at their jobs.
Abstract: In a study testing whether the relationship between exercise and health is moderated by one’s mind-set, 84 female room attendants working in seven different hotels were measured on physiological health variables affected by exercise. Those in the informed group were told that the work they do (cleaning hotel rooms) is good exercise and satisfies the Surgeon General’s recommendations for an active lifestyle. Examples of how their work was exercise were provided. Subjects in the other control group were not given this information. Although actual behavior did not change, 4 weeks after the intervention, the informed group perceived themselves to be getting significantly more exercise than before. As a result, when compared with the other control group, they showed a decrease in weight, blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index. These results support the hypothesis that exercise affects health in part or in whole via the placebo effect. Information extracted from PubMed PMID: 17425538
With the obesity problems, as well as heart disease and blood pressure being a looming threat for most of us, the above study should mean a lot! This means, we can change our body composition and even blood pressure, by becoming very aware that our activities of daily living are exercise and that we’re burning fat and becoming healthier while we’re doing them!
Example: when you exercise or simply do something that increases your level of physical activity), imagine the straining muscles that are turning red with exertion and the fat that is melting down around them to energize and sustain them! Imagine the increased cardio activity going on with your heart, lungs, arteries and veins when you have your heart rate and speed of breathing revved up and then imagine this healthy oxygen and nutrient rich blood flow going to all the parts of the body that you are working.
Have you ever been riding down the road and a song comes on the radio that you haven’t heard in a long time that your brain connects up with some long-ago memory? Have you felt that tingle go from your head, down your neck and into the rest of your body? Makes you feel like you had the caffeine from several espressos put directly into your veins, right?
The brain is so powerful (that even in this modern era of research capabilities, unlike most of the other parts of our anatomy) we cannot come close to unraveling its complexities, power and capabilities.
Part of the reason I believe in the validity of the above Harvard study, is how easily our brain can trigger a rush of adrenaline and noradrenaline depending on what we encounter, which increases our blood supply as well as our energy and strength levels to the parts of our body that need it. We have a nervous system that revs things up (sympathetic nervous system) and one that calms things down (parasympathetic nervous system). Both can be affected by what we focus on. Should it not make sense, “that our capability to burn fat for energy and build muscle would increase, when we become more aware of the benefits of exercise and activity?”
Our conscious thought can lead to subconscious reactions throughout our body!
