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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

While your trainer's practical advice is very good (except the part about 
coffee, it is very good for you in a weightloss routine, me saying this 
although 
I never drink coffee), the chemistry behind it is overly simplified.

> >SUGARS - instantly available as an energy source. (Sugar, honey, etc.)
>             

Sugars are not an instant energy source.  You do not eat sugars and then have 
all this energy available.  When the sugars enter the blood, the body 
chemistry detects it and dumps insulin into the blood.  The insulin allows 
the sugar 
to pass into the liver and stimulates the production of <A 
HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycogen_synthase";>glycogen synthase</A> 
which coverts the glucose (all sugars are convered to glucose first) into 
glycogen, a from of starch,  a polysaccharide.    If you drink a can of soda, 
you 
don't have all the sugar in that soda instantly available as energy.  You 
body has 
been maintaining a certain blood level of sugar (glucose) for immediate use.  
On seeing all that sugar appear in the blood, it dumps insulin to take care 
of it and and provoke its conversion to glycogen.  The result is often a 
little 
over production of insulin and a resulting lowering of the blood sugar levels 
achieving the opposite effect of 'instant energy'.



> 
> >CARBS - If there are no sugar available (i.e. already burned up, or not 
> ingested) the body hunts for the carbs next (potatos, rice, veggies, bread, 
> etc.).  Carbs are actually important in the diet.  He did have me break 
> them down 
> into two type of carbs - Starchy Carbs (potatos, bread, etc), and Fibrous 
> 


Right, carbs are important.  But carbs only exist in the digestive tract.  No 
carbs are ever absorbed into the blood.  They are all broken down into simple 
sugars and then any simple sugar that is not glucose (such as fructose) is 
modified into glucose.  The only difference between eating a lump of sugar 
and a 
potato is that the sugar from the potato takes time to be broken down from 
the very complex starches in the potato and therefore enters the blood slowly 
over a period of time while the sugar from the lump is absorbed directly and 
right away.  Once it's in the blood though the body has no idea whether the 
glucose came from soda, Dixie Crystals, potoates, or carrots.  It is all 
treated 
the same.


> 
> >INGESTED FATS:  Once your body has ingested the carbs, if your muscles are 
> still working and need more energy - it heads to the ingested fat 
> department 
> for calories (oil, butter, nuts, etc).  The conversion process is pretty 
> 

The point here would be that it isn't quick.  You cannot "burn" fats 
directly.  The body doesn't directly burn the carbs or sugars you eat.  It 
maintians a 
level of blood sugar.  If you deplete this blood sugar by exercise, the body 
replaces it by breaking down the glycogen stored in the muscles into glucose. 
 
In resonse to to the muscle glycogen being depleted, the body will form more 
from injested carbs when it can and also transport some from the liver where 
it keeps a reserve of glycogen.  If the body can't replace this glycogen from 
ingested carbs, it will break down lipids to get the glucose to make more 
glycogen and replenish its store. 

This happens mainly while you are sleeping, not while you are exercising.

> 
> >PROTEIN:  If you are still working and your body needs more calories, and 
> the fats are all gone, you start burning ingested protein.  

Again, you can't 'burn' protein.  Protein has to be converted into glucose 
before you can "burn" it as energy.  This is a longer and more difficult 
process 
than covnverting starches or fats.  You don't eat the hamburger and the meat 
from it is available for energy.  Any of the protein that the body doesn't 
want for something else goes through the same cycle as the lump of sugar.  It 
becomes glucose and then is stored as glycogen which is released again as 
glucose 
in response to lowered blood sugar levels.



> 
> >STORED BODY FAT:  If the ingested protein is all gone, your body starts 
> burning body fat.
> 
> >BODY MUSCLE:  If there is no stored body fat, the body starts eating it's 
> own muscles for protein.
> 
> 

Alas, not quite that simple and this lack of simplicity makes weight loss all 
the more difficult.  First as described above, the fact that food was 
ingested or what form it was ingested in makes little difference to the 
storage and 
release of nutrients.  It makes a great deal of diffence in other aspects of 
your health, but the body does not burn simple sugars "first" then carbs and 
then fats and proteins.  Rather it converts them all into stored glycogen and 
draws from that pool without regard to where they came from.

Stored fat is a protection agains famine and starvation.  You might think 
that if the body concludes that it is starving, it would go for the stored 
fat, 
but in fact, alas, it is just the opposite!  If the body comes to the 
conclusion that it is starving, it holds onto the stored fat above all else.  
It will 
begin to convert its own muscle and even brain tissue and spare the body fat 
thinking that worse comes to worst it will need that before this famine is 
over.

How does the body conclude that it is starving?  It measures its glycogen 
stores.  If they are wanting and it seems to be having difficulty maintaining 
them, it panics and tries its best to store MORE food as fat against the 
starvation.  It will even begin digesting muscle to make more glycogen so 
that other 
glucose can be spared to make more fat.

Glycogen is heavy.  Not only that, it can only be stored dissolved in water.  
Under many of the popular diet routines, the glycogen is depleted and the 
person loses the weight of the glycogen plus the weight of the water in which 
it 
was suspended.  They say, 'Look, this diet is wonderful, I've lost 15 pounds 
in a couple of weeks!"  

Oh, but then the body panics and resists losing any more.  It thinks it's 
starving and so lowers the metabolism and conserves its fat at all costs.

By eating whole grains and eating six times a day, the body detects good 
times!  Why there's plenty of food and apparently it's pretty easy to come by 
because we're seeing it several times  a day.  No need to keep all this 
stored 
fat!  And so the long term stored fat is released as needed and a more natual 
body weight is achieved.

So, says I, says your body chemistry, the formula for weightloss is to burn 
more calories than you eat and to convince your body that it is experiencing 
good times as far as food is concerned and not famine.


James