Now we will discuss how you can simply, still get rid of excess fat.
Fatty tissue is able not only to take fatty acids from the blood, but under certain conditions and return them to the bloodstream. For this purpose it is necessary first of all to hydrolyze fats. In the complete enzymatic hydrolysis of fats, free fatty acids and glycerol are obtained. Glycerol is easily dissolved in the blood and from it the body produces glucose. Hydrolysis of fats is the step that immediately precedes the transportation of fatty acids with the blood. Fatty acids with a long carbon chain are not soluble in the blood and therefore they are transported in the form of complexes with albumin.
According to the concept of the glucose-fatty acid cycle, mobilization of fatty acids from adipose tissue and an increase in their concentration in the blood occurs when blood glucose concentration decreases. An increase in the concentration of fatty acids in the blood accelerates their oxidation in muscle tissue and suppresses glucose utilization, which, first of all, leads to an increase in the concentration of glucose in the blood, and this circumstance is especially important for brain nutrition, since the brain cannot be nourished by fatty acids. And the heart, by the way, can completely switch to energy supply at the expense of fatty acids.
It would seem that if we follow the concept of the glucose-fatty acids cycle, according to which mobilization of fatty acids from fat depots occurs at a single decrease in blood glucose concentration, but we would not have to worry about this very mobilization – if we only started to starve, as glucose would be automatically replaced by fatty acids. But this is not always the case in real life. To illustrate the last sentence I give an example from the book “Reserves of our body”: Some people think that fat deposition is a good reserve of nutritious foods for a rainy day, but fat is not a pantry, but a dump. During the Great Patriotic War during the siege of Leningrad, obesity did not save people from death.
Apparently, a decrease in blood glucose concentration is not in itself a sufficient condition for mobilization of fatty acids from fat depots. Let us recall that a decrease in blood glucose concentration during the first day of fasting did not always provide sufficient mobilization of glucose from the glycogen available in the organism. And the alkaline reaction of blood served as an obstacle to this. Is it possible that alkaline reaction of blood to some extent prevents mobilization of fatty acids from fat depots? Yes, it is just as difficult to mobilize fatty acids from fats as it is difficult to mobilize glucose from glycogen when the blood is alkaline. But the case is even more difficult with fats than with glycogen. Note the fact that fats are also more difficult to process in the intestine than proteins and carbohydrates. The processing of fats required an additional process, the emulsification of fats with the help of bile acids. Similarly, mobilization of fatty acids requires not only lowering the concentration of glucose in the blood, but also additional acidification of the blood, and acidification is even more necessary than for mobilization of glucose from glycogen. In addition, acidification must be accomplished by substances capable of acidifying fats, such as vitamin E.
And this way of acidification in the organism is provided, it is somewhat similar to emulsification of fats with the help of bile acids. And we only need to familiarize ourselves with this mechanism and at the right moments to assist our organism in removing raw materials from fat stores. I would like to remind you once again that hydrolysis of fats takes place with the help of enzymes, and these enzymes need an acidic environment. And this is how it is created in the body.
Most of the fatty acids circulating in the blood go to the liver where they are oxidized, resulting in the formation of ketone bodies. Ketone bodies are acids such as acetoacetic acid and B-hydroxybutyric acid. Ketone bodies should be considered not as intermediate products in the metabolism of fatty acids, but as specific, important for the regulation of fatty acid metabolism in the body. They increase the acidity of blood at the moment when the body switches to energy supply at the expense of fatty acids, and they themselves are also a source of energy in the oxidation of fatty acids in peripheral tissues, as well as a source of glucose for brain nutrition.
When we eat predominantly carbohydrates, we have a small amount of fatty acids in our blood and a small amount of ketone bodies – up to 3 mg/dL. But when we starve, we can completely use up glycogen stores within a day and then the concentration of glucose in the blood starts to decrease and the main source of energy for the body will be fatty acids. But the level of fatty acids in the blood will increase only gradually – as blood acidity increases. And blood acidity will increase as ketone bodies in the blood increase. And if before the beginning of fasting the concentration of ketone bodies in the blood could be insignificant (up to 3 mg/dl), then after two days of fasting it can reach 5 – 6 mg/dl, and after a week – 40 – 50 mg/dl. Slight acidification of blood in the first few days of fasting does not allow to mobilize the necessary amount of fatty acids from fat depots, even when the concentration of glucose in the blood significantly decreases, and that is why starving people in the first three-four days feel not the best – they really feel hungry.
Many people have a very hard time with the first 3-4 days of fasting. And I explain these difficulties only by the fact that the blood of people who start fasting always has an alkaline reaction (and in brackets I will say that if these people had an acidic reaction of blood, their health would be all right, but it is the alkaline reaction of blood and directly connected with it all kinds of diseases that make many people resort to all kinds of methods for treatment of diseases. And since blood of most people has alkaline reaction, this circumstance does not allow the organism of starving people to take glucose from glycogen during the first days of fasting, but moreover it does not allow to replenish the missing glucose in blood with fatty acids from fat depots. But as soon as ketone bodies begin to acidify the blood to a sufficient extent, as at the same moment fatty acids from fat depots begin to enter the blood and the feeling of hunger passes, because the body will be sufficiently provided with energy as a result of oxidation of fatty acids.
Some of the inconveniences that may accompany fasting for a few days happen only because we are slaves to habits. If you survive the first three days of fasting, it becomes a pleasure. Your appetite will disappear, your thoughts about food will go away, and you will have an enormous amount of energy.
This quote also shows that the first days of fasting are hard. And it is not just our habits, but the fact that the body is really starving. When after three or four days of fasting there is a significant acidification of blood with ketone bodies and the organism starts to use fatty acids as energy raw material, the problem with hunger is solved and from this moment we really “have a huge amount of energy”. And from that moment on we will have no more thoughts about food, because the body will be provided with its internal reserves.
If the essence of physiological processes occurring during fasting is properly understood, the latter can be carried out without any difficulties from the first to the last day of fasting. But such fasts should be carried out only for the sole purpose of getting rid of excess weight, if you already have it.
I have already written above that according to the concept of the glucose-fatty acids cycle, a decrease in blood glucose concentration causes mobilization of fatty acids from adipose tissue and an increase in their concentration in the blood. But, apparently, a decrease in blood glucose concentration is not a sufficient condition for mobilization of fatty acids from fat depots, the main condition for easy mobilization of fatty acids is still sufficient acidity of blood. When blood acidity is high, there is also a high concentration of fatty acids in the blood. For example, the high content of glucose in the blood in diabetes is not an obstacle to the simultaneous content and high concentration of fatty acids in it. And it is explained by the fact that a significant part of the energy consumed by the body in this disease is provided by fatty acids, and therefore the liver intensively oxidizes fatty acids and simultaneously produces ketone bodies, which increase the acidity of the blood. The concentration of these bodies can reach 100 or even 350 mg / dl, which leads to a decrease in blood pH below 6.9. This decrease in blood pH occurs gradually, but synchronously with the decrease in blood pH increases the rate of mobilization of fatty acids from adipose tissue.
Now that we know under what conditions fat deposits build up and under what conditions we can take them away and use them for the body’s energy needs, it remains for us to consider only the mechanism of starvation itself, to which we can resort only for the purpose of reducing our weight. The main obstacle, because of which not every person decides to voluntarily fast for many days, is an unpleasant feeling of hunger. There are many ways to overcome it. For example, Indians of one of the South American tribes living in the valley of the Amazon River, in order to eliminate hunger contractions of the stomach, which can be associated with the feeling of hunger, tightly pull the upper part of the stomach with a rope. You can go the other way: drink at least 500 ml of water at once. The walls of the stomach will stretch and the feeling of hunger will stop or become noticeably weaker.
And, of course, I wish everyone who thinks about fasting in order to normalize weight to start, first of all, not with fasting, but with a complete renunciation of all dairy products and all mineral waters.
