Your Fat Cells…Your Micro Fuel Tanks

We have billions of these little fuel cells, and though fat gets a bad rap because most of us would like less of it, it actually serves a very vital energy role in the body. When we lose body fat, we are not referring to the cell but rather the energy matter inside the cell. These cells are like micro balloons that can expand as needed (to accommodate the excess calories we eat) and shrink as we expend the energy. The only way to remove fat cells is surgically, but we can however shrink them if we’re trying to lose weight.

We have fat cells all over our body for the purpose of reserve fuel for when our energy level runs low in our main fuel tank, which is our stomach, intestines, bloodstream and liver. When we constantly keep enough calories in our main fuel tank for our daily activities, we don’t store any excess, but we don’t burn off any of our stored energy either. When we know that we ate too much, it can be very beneficial to skip the next meal and burn off some of this excess fuel before we eat again!

Example: If I know that I ate too much for dinner, I’ll simply skip eating until around 1 pm the next day to burn off those extra calories.

When we take in more fuel then we will burn between the times that we eat, we simply store the extra. If we continue to do this long enough those billions of little fat cells will continue to expand and make us look fat. The exact opposite happens when we regularly use up the energy in our fat cells causing them to shrink. The problem many of us have is getting these fat cells to release their energy.

Here are 2 ways we can open up this reserve energy source-

1. We can: increase our heart rate by about 50–70% (depending on physical condition) for at least a steady 20 minutes or more. This will trigger what most of us know as our 2nd wind, it’s actually our body starting to burn body fat. Our body is designed to detect a need for energy, when our heart rate is increased for a sustained period, thus signaling the need for a strong source of energy to sustain the activity. I like to think of it as starting a fire… 1st comes the kindling and when that builds up enough fire and heat, the logs will catch on fire and that’s when the real heat and energy starts!

2. We can: drop the amount of calories to a very low level for an extended period, forcing our body to tap into reserve fuel thus dropping the level of energy matter in our fat cells. If we do this for too long however, our body will think its starving and will recognize the need to slow down our metabolism, it will do this by burning muscle tissue instead of fat because it is the most metabolically active. You can avoid this by not doing more than 2 super low-calorie days in a row, or no more than 18–24 hours complete fast.

Remember: staying low calorie all the time will simply force our body into accommodating this by burning off some muscle, and when this happens our metabolism slows down so that you can survive on this starvation diet.

Our body shifts between energy from sugars, carbs and fats. A sugar load entering, (or constantly supplying) the blood with glucose from sugary or starchy foods, will lock up your fat cells until the insulin level (from the intake of sugars) drops back down.

We have been blessed with a body that can shift all kinds of gears to accommodate our energy needs, and the simple basics of refueling our body, and fuel depletion work today just like it did thousands of years ago!