Jun 22, 2022
Today, I am blessed to have here with me Dr. Sylvia Tara. She
holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from The University of California,
San Diego, and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania.
This episode originally aired on March 1st 2021.
She was a healthcare management consultant with McKinsey &
Company and has worked for the world's largest biotechnology
companies.
After an extended battle with fat, Dr. Tara became fascinated
with its resiliency and embarked on a mission to better understand
it. This book culminated in years of research and interviews with
physicians, patients, and leading scientists. The Secret Life
of Fat will forever change how you think about this
misunderstood organ.
Dr. Sylvia Tara is the author of the book, The Secret
Life of Fat. This new book brings together historical
perspective and cutting-edge research to reveal fat's true
identity: an organ critical to our health.
In this episode, Dr. Sylvia Tara reveals the inspiration behind
her fat research. We usually think fat is simply storing calories.
What most people don't know is that fat serves many purposes. Also,
there are different types of fats. We dive into everything you need
to know about fat, including what's vital about leptin and
adiponectin. Later, we discuss the difference between men and women
when it comes to fat loss. Plus, we talk about which types of
exercises will be critical on your health journey.
Get Dr Sylvia Tara's Secret Life of Fat book here: https://amzn.to/3n2HSqn
/ E P I S O D E S P ON S O R S
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[00:30] About Dr. Sylvia Tara
- Sylvia gains weight really easily. Her whole life, she watches
people eat whatever they feel like, drink whatever they want, and
not gain any weight.
- So, Dr. Sylvia decided to understand fat once and for all.
- She went on a big expedition to really understand fat. She
wanted to know why she would gain fat easier than other
people.
- The Secret Life of Fat is based on all this
research!
- We think of fat as storage for calories; however, it’s so much
more than that.
[02:25] What Is Fat?
- Fat is a complex endocrine organ that has multiple functions:
- Storing calories.
- Producing leptin – which has a great effect on our brains, our
bones, and multiple organs.
- Creating adiponectin – which has a lot of impact on where our
fat is stored.
[03:25] What You Need to Know About Leptin
- Our fat produces this hormone called leptin. It's the biggest
producer of leptin in the body, and fat releases it into the
bloodstream. Once leptin goes to the bloodstream, it goes to your
brain; it'll tell your brain that you’re overall satisfied.
Basically, the brain will know that you are good, there's enough
nutrition in the world, and you are okay.
- Leptin will also communicate with your muscles. It tells your
muscles that it's okay to expend energy because you have enough
nutrition.
- When we start to lose fat and begin to lose weight, say 10% or
more, we reduce the amount of leptin we have.
- So, people who've lost 10% or more of their body weight respond
enormously to food.
- Overall, once you've lost weight, you have to eat less than
someone who's at that weight normally. It is why diets don’t
work!
[07:15] The Role of Adiponectin
- Adiponectin is more or less telling fat where to go.
- When we have dietary fat, adiponectin will guide the fat in our
bloodstream to the right parts of our body.
- So there's different kinds of fat, there's white fat. It's
right under the skin, it's in your thighs, buttocks, arms, and it's
actually the safest places to deposit fat. If you're going to have
some fat, those are the places to put it.
- There's also visceral fat; it sits underneath the stomach wall.
It is the more dangerous fat that's nestled against the internal
pancreas organ.
- There's brown fat – it burns calories instead of storing
calories.
- Plus, there is beige fat – it that can turn brown when we
exercise.
- Overall, adiponectin will help guide the fat you eat and put it
into the right place.
[09:20] How Exercise Can Help Adiponectin
- It’s around 20 hours of jogging a week to get adequate levels
of adiponectin. That is when your body will start to shift around
where your fat is.
- High-intensity interval training will also help raise your
levels of adiponectin.
- You have to exercise a lot before it starts to affect you.
- It's best to work with your diet and do some exercise. Don't
rely on exercise alone!
[11:10] How To Get More Brown Fat
- Brown fat is actually used to create heat.
- We have brown fat around our heart; we have it around the
clavicle areas and our spines. Having brown fat around those
important areas is critical. These areas need to be heated even
when we don't have exposure to cold.
- Beige fat, which was discovered last decade, is the fat that
can turn brown through exercise.
- The more you exercise, the more you can increase your levels of
brown fat.
- Exposure to cold will also increase your brown fat.
[13:45] Women Produce 33% More Ghrelin Than Men After
Exercise
- Women are designed just to have more fat. There are many
reasons for this:
- Fat produces estrogen.
- Fat is linked to our reproducibility.
- When women exercise, they have a different reaction than men.
Women’s bodies produce ghrelin after exercise, and it's a hormone
that's released from your stomach.
- If you burn off 600 calories or so, women produce 33% more
ghrelin than men.
- There's all kinds of dieting tips for women versus men because
women are different.
[17:30] How Women Can Lose Body Fat
- Women have to be really patient, and you have to understand
where you are on the spectrum of fat.
- Everyone has an individual fat blueprint.
- You have to understand your fat, and you have to be really
forgiving of yourself.
- Another issue with women is that they have something called
dichotomous thinking.
[22:05] The Role Of How To Use Intermittent Fasting For
Fat Loss
- Our growth hormone peaks at night. So, fasting during the
nighttime will benefit your body because eating mitigates growth
hormone levels.
- You want growth hormones because it’s a great way to burn
fat.
- If you sleep adequately, you're increasing your levels of
leptin, which means you're going to be a little bit more satiated
the next day during fasting.
[26:30] Strategies To Keep Insulin At Bay
- Fiber will bring down insulin.
- Eating higher protein diets, lower carbs, and obviously not a
ton of sugar will also help keep insulin at bay.
- Fasting enables you to manage insulin, and it helps with
insulin sensitivity.
[31:35] The Role of Genetics In Fat Storage
- To manage your fat, you have to work harder if you're at a
genetic disadvantage.
- Some people tend to have a much higher appetite because they
have a certain variant of the FTO gene.
[35:30] How Environmental Factors Affect
Fat
- The Four P’s:
- Pesticides
- Plastics
- Preservatives
- Parabens
- Overall, it's important to really watch what you eat and watch
what you put on your body. Think about what's really in the food
that you eat!
[43:45] Testing Your Fat
- The best way to test your fat is a CT scan.
- Sadly, there is no easier way to find out.
[48:20] Correlation Between Stress & Fat
- Stress is linked to abdominal fat.
- Exercise can be a perfect solution for people to lower their
stress levels.
AND MUCH MORE!
Resources from this episode:
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