Slayer's Den

[01dragonslayer]

The Goo Releaser​

Turn up the activity of this enzyme, release fat, and get ripped. Here's how.​

Ask the average person what body fat does and they'll say something like this: "It's where your body stores calories. Body fat is just lumpy globs of goo." That's exactly what everyone thought until fairly recently: fat is a dormant energy depot, an unsightly warehouse where extra tacos are stored.

Boy, were they wrong. We now know that body fat is metabolically active and highly dynamic. It's a very busy tissue. Stored fat produces hormones, modulates inflammation, generates heat, and influences insulin sensitivity.

This discovery kicked off in the 1950s with the identification of hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL), an enzyme in adipose/fat tissue. HSL plays a key role in fat metabolism, particularly in lipolysis or fat breakdown.

The process gets complex, but here's basically how it relates to fat burning:

1. Certain hormones activate HSL.
2. HSL then catalyzes the hydrolysis of triglycerides (the storage form of fat), breaking them down into free fatty acids (FFAs) and glycerol.
3. The FFAs are released into the bloodstream and travel to tissues like muscles that use fatty acids for fuel.
4. Once the FFAs reach target tissues, they enter the cells' mitochondria, undergo further breakdown, enter the Krebs cycle, and produce ATP.
5. After some more complicated body-magic, what started as stored fat is converted into usable energy. Science calls this lipid oxidation. We simply call it "fat burning."

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How Can I Further Activate HSL to Get Ripped?​

You're probably doing a few things now to activate goo-releasing HSL, like exercising. Exercise, particularly high-intensity exercise and endurance work, triggers the release of catecholamines (epinephrine and norepinephrine), which stimulate HSL activity. Caffeine also indirectly increases HSL activity.

Training and coffee... got it. What else?

• You could jack up cortisol. Cortisol increases the expression of HSL, especially during times of prolonged stress, fasting (low glucose), or long bouts of exercise.
• You could toy around with drugs. Thyroid hormones increase the sensitivity of adipose tissue to catecholamines, amplifying the activation of HSL. Growth hormone increases HSL activity, too, by reducing the sensitivity of stored fat to insulin (which normally inhibits HSL).
• You could fast. During fasting or caloric restriction, insulin levels drop while glucagon and catecholamine levels rise. This environment promotes HSL activation because your body's glucose stores are depleted.
• You could drop carbs. Insulin inhibits HSL, so low insulin levels lead to increased HSL activity. When insulin is low, it no longer suppresses cAMP production, allowing HSL to remain active.
• You could freeze your butt off. Cold temperatures activate the sympathetic nervous system. This subsequent release of norepinephrine stimulates HSL.
• You could ingest nicotine. Nicotine increases the release of catecholamines, which in turn activates HSL.
• You could hold your breath. Intermittent hypoxia (periods of low oxygen availability) was shown in some studies to increase the activity of HSL. Practically, intermittent hypoxia is the idea behind altitude training, rebreathing masks, hypoxic tents, etc.

You Lost Me After Exercise and Coffee​

Understandable. How about this: swallow a pill. Take a natural testosterone booster that also happens to increase the production of HSL.

The ingredient is called forskolin, or more specifically forskolin (the more bioavailable, longer-lasting form). It's called a "body composition compound" because it does three things: boosts T levels, increases lean body mass, and decreases body fat percentage – in part by activating HSL, and in part by boosting thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH).

In an abbreviation-packed nutshell, the process works like this:

Forskolin directly activates adenylyl cyclase, an enzyme embedded in the cell membrane. Adenylyl cyclase converts ATP into cAMP. The rise in cAMP activates PKA and PKA activates HSL.

In digestible terms, forskolin releases the lumpy globs of goo and burns them for fuel. You lose fat faster.