Why You Can’t Drop Body Fat

Have you gained and lost weight many times over the years?

Is it becoming more and more difficult for you to drop the weight this time around?

You may be wondering why you are having trouble dropping that last bit of stubborn weight, and perhaps you may even notice it’s just not coming off as easy anymore.

There are many reasons this can be attributed to, for starters;

1. Gut Dysbiosis/Bad Bacteria

2. Your Body Fat is Literally Inflamed

3. Relying too much on long-term FAD dieting

4. Psychological disruptions/blockage

5. Stiffening of the Extracellular Matrix (ECM)

Honestly, the list goes on and we will cover all areas in great detail, but for now, we will explore the last one on the list as you may be wondering what really means. But first, let’s understand body fat a bit better.

So what really is body fat?

Body fat is a multi-component system and is much more than simply “stored energy.” Body fat is actually a critical endocrine organ that works to govern both immunity and our overall health.

Before we go on our deep dive, let’s clear the air with some myths and misinformation that’s still floating about.

1. Body fat is not just stored energy.

2. Losing body fat is not as simple as restricting calories.

3. Each time we lose body fat, it becomes more difficult to do it again the next time, no matter what the method.

We need to be careful when we reduce our health to the simplest equation of say; energy in = energy out. The human body is a vastly intelligent machine that will learn and adapt to your eating and exercise patterns.

For example: Eating too much of one food, your body can easily develop an allergy. Your body and especially your microbiome thrive on diversity.

Another example: If you have lost weight through calories-in-calories-out the first time, it will be more difficult to achieve the same results the second time. The same is true of everything (i.e. keto, fasting, caloric restriction, etc.) We must remember, the body does not always want to be in a deficit. It learns, adapts and will prevent this from happening over and over again.

Well how about keto, fasting, carnivore and so forth? Why wouldn’t they work as well the next few times around?

There are MANY biological signals that kick-in when we do anything long-term, whether it’s; Keto, fasting, vegan, carnivore, etc. All of these work on different pathways in the body and will even target different strains of bacteria in the gut.

This is why the body thrives with seasonal eating patterns. To not addict to only one method of eating, to not get trapped in a method that has worked once or twice before. Rather, we must see each and every way of eating and diet strategy as another unique avenue for healing. Nothing is sustainable long term. I know that I certainly learned that the hard way.

Think of life as one giant balancing act. The body is always seeking balance and much like a pendulum; the more it swings to one side, the more it comes back the other way.

The same goes for our body fat.

The constant weight gain and weight loss cycle we go through over the years is inflicting injury at a cellular level, as well as causing the extracellular matrix to harden.

Key Point: Whenever we are getting fat cells to shrink, we are inflicting injury at a cellular level.

When looking closer at a fat cell, we see that the nucleus is not protected. It’s vulnerable as it’s found on the exterior of the cell.

Typically, most cells have their nucleus in the centre to protect it from damage.

KEY POINT: ADIPOSE TISSUE ARE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO DAMAGE.

So now the question becomes;
“How do fat cells protect themselves?”

The answer: The Extra-Cellular Matrix.

The ECM is a protective exo-skeleton that surrounds adipose tissue. It is comprised of various collagen fibres and resembles what looks like a spider web.

For visual purposes; the fat cells are the meatballs and the ECM is the spaghetti.

Whenever we see fat cells expand or shrink, the ECM is forced to adapt to the new size.

This creates traction stress as the fat cells are literally ripping away from the exo-skeleton.

The ECM has specific proteins at the point of attachment to the fat cells which sense mechanical tension. These ‘webs’ are both stiff and flexible, at the same time. So when fat cells rip away from the ECM, it senses the traction/friction and signals inflammatory cytokines as a result.

This is called “traction stress” and it comes with varying long term issues if we do not act on it quickly.

We have a post fat loss window for about 4 months after a fat loss period. During this window, it’s important we spin down inflammation and remodel the collagen fibres within the ECM.

Image is from the research article; “Insights on Adipose Tissue Extracellular Matrix Remodeling: Models of Diet-Induced Obesity and Weight Loss.”

This image is illustrating a few things which is happening through the weight gain and weight loss cycle. As the fat cell increases in size, it recruits more M1 macrophages (inflammatory immune cells). Higher amounts of M1 macrophages in your fat mass will work to recruit a plethora of inflammatory cytokines (i.e. interleukin 1-b / interleukin 6).

After the weight loss cycle we begin to see a few things happen;

1. Insulin sensitivity plumets.

2. Fibrotic ECM fibers increase (The ECM stiffens - making it more difficult to lose weight).

3. M1 (inflammatory) Macrophages increase and infiltrate the adipose tissue.

The more times the ECM stretches and shrinks, the more likely it is to stiffen, become more inflamed and in-turn be more likely to promote disease states like cancer!

This illustration is demonstrating what happens

when adipose tissue becomes fibrotic, meaning
“thickening or scarring of tissue.”

Constant weight-cycling will increase hypoxia (depriving cells of oxygen), recruit M1 Macrophages, recruit pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, stiffen the ECM and even promote cancer.

Image is from the research article: Adipose Tissue Fibrosis: Mechanisms, Models, and Importance.

Where do we go from here?

Now, all of this is not to just scare you and leave you hanging without any active solution. This is all for awareness to an active and very REAL problem that no one seems to be talking about!

We are continuing to see in the research that body fat is not just stored energy for anytime use (if it was that easy, then weight loss wouldn’t be so difficult after the age of 30). It is one of our most important organs that is a gate keeper for immunity.

Despite listening to [insert “guru” name here], we must recognize that there is no one heal-all-solution that works for everyone. Rather, there are multiple healing avenues for each problem we face. We must continue to keep our eyes, ears and minds open to all avenues and think beyond the confines of what we are given and what we are told.

Be curious and question the information you receive.

Let’s Hack the ECM and Finally Put an End to This Problem

We can hack this biochemically and biomechanically. These are the way proteins move within the body.

Biochemically:

Get cold a couple times a week!
We do not want to over do cold exposure so it’s best we keep it to a couple times a week in a post fat loss window.

1. Upon waking, in a fasted state, take L-Carnitine and CoQ10.

2. Move your body! Run, walk, sprint, swim, just move.

3. Take a cold shower, cold plunge or bath post cardio.

4. Use a mechanical massager over your problem areas - this is physically restructuring the ECM biomechanically!

Biomechanically:

1. Use a mechanical massager over your “problem” areas. The physical force of the massage gun will help restructure and remodel the ECM. This will massively down-regulate the build-up of fibrotic tissue.

2. You can also use topical menthol to induce fat beiging and browning as you also recruit more M2 (healing) macrophages into your fat tissue.

This comes with the best results, especially after a weight-loss period but will also help you move in the right direction regardless. Sometimes we just need an extra push.

If you’re interested in discovering more biohacking tips like this one, especially on this topic, you can book in a free assessment and apply to work with us directly as we’ve only just scratched the surface.

References

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.22093

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9138682/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/295417861_Insights_on_Adipose_Tissue_Extracellular_Matrix_Remodeling_Models_of_Diet-Induced_Obesity_and_Weight_Loss

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4371661/#:~:text=During%20weight%20loss%2C%20energy%20stores,stored%20at%20any%20one%20time.

https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/20/19/4888

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28298393/