Do You Have the Fat Gene?

         

Science lesson time. 

Lurking along the blood vessels that course through your muscles is an important enzyme known as Lipoprotein lipase.  This enzyme – LPL for short – also hangs out along the tiny capillaries that run through your body fat.
Chromosome 8 is the innocent-enough sounding genetic driver for LPL action, and influences the control switch that decides whether to send the fat in your bloodstream to the muscle cells to be burned for energy or to the fat cells for storage.
Where do you want yours to go?

Genetic predisposition is not necessarily genetic destiny

Though your genetic machinery comes with a factory setting, the good news is that predisposition does not need to be destiny when it comes to storing fat via LPL.  There are dramatic influences on the activity of this enzyme over which you have control:  specifically, what you eat and how you move – or don’t move – your body.  Here are some insights and tips for how to leverage diet and exercise to “turn down” the genes that inspire LPL to shovel fats into your fat cells and  turn up the LPL action in your muscle cells.
1) Diet. Let’s make it simple. LPL is looking for fat, the principal raw material for building the fat stores in your body. As a matter of fact, if we were to biopsy the fat cells on your thighs, we could trace its origins back to the fats in your diet. The oil, dairy or piles of nut butter leave their fingerprints all over your fat cells. What does this tell you about how easily your body stores fat for future fuel? And depending on your genetics, you may be more likely to store this than your skinny girlfriend.
If you reduce the fats in your diet, the activity of LPL in your fat tissue will amp down somewhat. Of course we need fats in our diet, but a whole-foods, low-fat, plant-based diet with limited servings of high-fat plant food like nuts, seeds, avocados and olives gives you sufficient dietary fats. It’s far too easy to overshoot your dietary fats needs when you start eating globs of veggie mayo or drizzles of olive oil.
2) Exercise: Exercise idles down the activity of LPL in your fat cells and invites LPL to be more active in storing the fats in your bloodstream into the muscles cells where they can be used for energy. Even a single exercise session  boosts LPL activity in muscle cells. Think of what you can do by sneaking in short bouts of exercise through the day. There’s a method to this madness!

Bottom line for your bottom line

First, analyze your plate for fat content and crowd out the free fats (i.e. oils and veggie butter and those hidden in that favorite vegan pastry) with more whole, real, low-fat foods. This will keep your hunger satisfied without inviting you to overshoot your calorie needs. It will also give LPL far less to work with when it comes to adding to your fat stores.
Then, get yourself moving by sitting less and by sneaking in bursts of exercise and activity through the day.
 
Lani Muelrath, MA, CGFI, CPBN, FNS – the Plant-Based Fitness Expert – is the best-selling author of Fit Quickies:  5 Minute Targeted Body Shaping Workouts and creator of The Plant-Based Blueprint.  Lani specializes in helping people who struggle with health, weight and energy levels transform their bodies – and their lives – without going hungry or working out like a maniac. Lani created and starred in her own TV show and has recently been featured on ABC, CBS, Prevention, Fox News, and Huffington Post. As celebrity coach for the PCRM 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, she is also Fitness Advisor for the McDougall Health and Medical Center and is associate professor at Butte College in California. Lani maintains credentials and certifications in many exercise modalities and is Certified in Plant-Based Nutrition through Cornell University and hold  the National Academy of Sports Medicine Advanced Fitness Nutrition Specialist Credential. More resources from Lani on her website.