Enhance Your Central Nervous System For Improved Fat Loss

Many people want to or need to lose fat.

Usually we focus on the optimization of our metabolism, hormone health or thyroid health, but in this blog I would like to discuss something that is mentioned far less frequently - your Central Nervous System (CNS).

Hopefully after reading this you will walk away with a variety of science-based tools that will help you optimize your CNS for higher fat burn.

Before I get started though, let me preface this by saying that as important as the key roles of neurons are when it comes to the body, nothing will ever defy the general calorie balance equation, meaning - in order to lose fat you still need to ingest less calories than your body is burning. Please keep that in mind while reading about all additional tips and ‘hacks’.

The Neurons’ connection to fat

Neurons (also called nerve cells) are the fundamental units of the brain and nervous system, the cells responsible for receiving sensory input from within the body and the external world, for sending motor commands to our muscles, and for transforming and relaying the electrical signals at every step in between. More than that, their interactions define who we are as people. Having said that, our roughly 100 billion neurons do interact closely with other cell types. Neurons are present all throughout our body, they look a little bit like electrical wires or little tree connections.

Some of the best ways to keep your neurons firing well and transmitting information optimally is by way of sleep hygiene, getting in regular movement, consuming healthy proteins (to support cell structure) and healthy fatty acids (especially EPAs), supporting healthy levels of iodine, selenium, and glutamine and taking care of a healthy gut microbiome (where we tend to have a large amount of neuron connections also referred to as the brain - gut - connection.

Interestingly, science also supports the fact that your thoughts and beliefs have a big impact on how the neurons fire and what processes they start. For example, in a study involving hotel housekeepers there was a significant difference in calorie burn between those who had been told that the daily activity they were doing through their work was beneficial for them and those that had no knowledge of the health benefits they were reaping from having and active job! You can read all about this in the research paper titled “Mindset Matters: Exercise And The Placebo Effect”, which can mostly be explained by neural innervation as explained in the following.

How Our Brain is Linked to Fat

Fat burning is a complicated process, but can overall be broken down into two separate processes - The first part is fat mobilization, also called lipolysis and the second part is fat oxidization, which is the actual burning process and conversion into energy. Mobilization means that the stored fat (fatty acids) needs to be ‘broken’ out of back bones and moved into cells where they can then be oxidized in the cell’s powerhouses (mitochondria).

The nervous system comes into play because it can initiate and INCREASE both of these aspects, the mobilization and the oxidization by laying axons (little wires or ‘tree branches’) into those fat cells and providing an increased fat burn stimulus.

How do they do that? The main compound that initiates this is epinephrine, also referred to as adrenaline, but not the adrenaline which is released via hormones from the adrenal glands when you are stressed or activated and rather through these neural ‘wires’ from the CNS.

How can we utilize or ‘hack’ this wiring and firing process or increased fat burn?

Tip #1 Fidgeting & Shivering

One of the most subtle ways to activate these neurons is by way of SUBTLE activity throughout the day, not full on exercise. This type of activity is also referred to as Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, aka NEAT. This is literally all unstructured activity, like walking, hand gestures, pacing, tapping pen, bouncing your knee and other types of fidgeting, but also shivering!

NEAT does not produce the kind of caloric burn that we usually think of with activity. These subtle, frequent movements by our core musculature trigger epinephrine release from those neurons throughout the day and stimulate fat mobilization and oxidization over and over again throughout the day!

How can you apply this?

Aiming for 8-10k steps a day is obviously a great start, but more than that - really make a conscious effort to stand up regularly, take the stairs, walk when on the phone, sit up right…

Shivering generates energy yet in another way. Overall it is a very costly way for the body to create energy.  First we need to know though that we generally have 3 different kinds of fat (2):

• White: subcutaneous fat (under the skin)
• Brown: between shoulder blades can break fat down locally and does not need to be mobilized in the same way that white does; if you think of fat being energy or a fire - brown “fire” burns stronger than white “fire” (just for a mental image)
• Beige: a mixture of bothCold: Mental resilience, causes release of adrenaline from adrenal glands but ALSO release of epinephrine from those neurons.

Cold exposure triggers primarily fat oxidization from brown fat through a chemical called succinate, but also triggers the conversion from beige fat to brown fat. That means shivering increases total calorie burn by increasing “burning intensity” (as more energy comes from brown than white fat).

How can you apply this?

Do not RESIST the shiver, if you practice any kind of cold exposure, as it is the shivering itself that causes the increase in metabolism!

A protocol could look like: 1-5 X per week cold exposure; Also keep in mind that longer is not necessarily better! Submerge until you start to shiver then exit, don’t dry off and repeat a few times, as opposed to staying in there; Repeat maybe 3 times; It should be just cold enough to be uncomfortable, it does not have to be freezing! Don’t build up tolerance so quickly, that you stop to shiver if you are after fat loss!

As important as these non-strategic movements are for fat loss, obviously exercise still plays a huge role and here is how you can optimize your neural firing in training for optimal fat burning:

Tip #2 Switch Up Your Exercise Regime For Additional Calorie Burn

Although we can’t technically tell our body where to lose fat, novel research indicates that switching up your exercise stimulus can help maintain a continued neural stimulation, which is responsible for the epinephrine release (one of the main drivers of fat mobilization and oxidization as we have learnt). Sticking with the same exercise regime can lead to adaptation over time, not just of your muscles, but also of your neurons. Of course you still get the calorie burn through calorie expenditure and the adrenaline release through the adrenal glands, but you are missing out on the nerval innervation that causes epinephrine release.

How can you apply this?

Incorporate a variety of different exercises, switch up your training program, reps and set from time to time and include novel exercises as well as completely novel activities (switch from low rep/high load to high rep/low load, try a new sport or mix it up with a zumba or yoga class etc.) to get your neurons firing!

A frequent question which pertains to this is: Will you burn more fat with fasted cardio?

(keep in mind that this advice is in regards to FAT LOSS, and not necessarily best for performance or recovery!)

It is important to know that generally speaking, insulin (released from food) inhibits ‘burning of fat’ by inhibiting fat oxidization. Which means we certainly don’t want to train with a full stomach. Nonetheless, evidence suggests that for shorter periods of training (less than 60-90 minutes) it does not matter whether you eat before cardio or not (3). A meta analysis (a study of a lot of studies) showed that only at or after 90 mins of moderate to low intensity exercise (like ‘classical cardio’) you would burn more fat fasted, otherwise it does not matter. However, moderate to high intensity training (including weight lifting) the switch over point from glycogen (carb storages) to fat burning for energy comes earlier, at about 20-30 minutes. That means if you are training for fat loss, it would be wise to deplete your glycogen storages first (so doing some sort of strenuous effort like lifting heavy) and then doing your steady state (zone 2) cardio, instead of the other way around.

What about the exercise after burn?

Research suggests (4) that moderate to high intensity training (including weight training will burn more glycogen (carb storages) during exercise and after exercise more fat. The reverse is the case for long duration exercise, like running a half marathon (more fat during, more glycogen after), which makes sense if you think about the fact that lower intensity exercise also releases lower levels of epinephrine.

Tip #3: Supplements that increase epinephrine resulting infat oxidization and mobilization

*Please keep in mind that none of these are recommendations or should act as medical advice!

No surprise that caffeine is present in nearly all ‘fat burners’ as up to it can obviously cause you to move and fidget more and hence increase the release of epinephrine.

GLP1, Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), is a hormone that plays important roles in regulating appetite and blood sugar levels. It is in the glucagon pathway and facilitate fat mobilization (as mentioned, high insulin prevents that process. Clinically there are many trials working on the reduction of obesity through GLP1. At this stage it is a prescription drug, but can also be naturally found in a tea called Yerba Mate or Guayusa .

Berberine is a chemical found in some plants like European barberry, goldenseal, goldthread, Oregon grape, phellodendron, and tree turmeric. It is a bitter-tasting and yellow-colored chemical, which is often used for blood sugar control, as it can reduce insulin and might thereby aid in fat oxidization.

Just to recap, the actual burning of energy is facilitated by glucagon being present (GLP) and insulin being low. Acetyl L Carnitine helps with that fatty acid conversion to ATP/ energy. In some cases supplementing can help (general dosages are about 1-2g), however long term supplementation is not recommended.

So let’s sum up how you can use your nervous system to increase fat burn:

• Neurons facilitate Epinephrine release which leads to fat mobilization and then oxidization.
• NEAT/ fidgeting can greatly increase caloric burn (through inertia).
• Shiverin can help brown fat oxidization and the conversion from beige to brown fat, i.e. increase in ‘burning intensity’.
• Switch up your exercise routinely to prevent neural adaptation.
• Fasted cardio is only useful if you deplete glycogen storages first (moderate to high intensity like weight training) or if you exercise for more than 60-90 minutes.
• Generally, fat oxidization after training is higher with moderate to high intensity exercise than with steady state cardio.
• Caffeine can be consumed to increase the release epinephrine (and therefore fat mobilization);
• Other substances: GLP1 (mate etc) can help with fat mobilization, L-Carnitine with fat oxidization and Berberine can reduce insulin which paves an easier way for GLP1.

To bring it back to the beginning though, as much as these little tricks and ideas can help you with the last 1-5% of fat loss, none of it is going to matter if your big rocks like sleep, calories, food quality etc are not in place!

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Resources:

This blog is largely based on the beautiful teachings through the Huberman Lab.

• Mindset Matters: Exercise And The Placebo Effect
• Periasamy, M., Herrera, J. L., & Reis, F. (2017). Skeletal Muscle Thermogenesis and Its Role in Whole Body Energy Metabolism. Diabetes & metabolism journal, 41(5), 327–336. https://doi.org/10.4093/dmj.2017.41.5.327
• Swift, D. L., Johannsen, N. M., Lavie, C. J., Earnest, C. P., & Church, T. S. (2014). The role of exercise and physical activity in weight loss and maintenance. Progress in cardiovascular diseases, 56(4), 441–447. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcad.2013.09.012
• https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2021.737709

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