Bedtime Bellyfat Burner (BBB)

By now, most of us are aware of the dangers of excess body fat. We accumulate body fat in two main compartments in our body. The most abundant site for fat storage is just beneath the surface of our skin, called subcutaneous fat. Subcutaneous fat is found all over the body and has a tendency to accumulate in larger amounts centrally around the abdomen (belly) in men and is referred to as android fat and given the name “apple shape”. In women subcutaneous fat deposits in greater amounts around the hips and thighs and is called gynoid fat or “pear shape”. When excess fat accumulates in the belly (android) region some gets stored deeper and surrounds the vital organs such as the heart, liver, kidney, pancreas, etc. and interferes with the normal healthy functioning of these organs. This deeper storage of fat around the vital organs is termed visceral fat and leads to significant disease risk for diabetes, heart disease including high blood pressure, obesity-related disease, and even certain cancers.

The simple and easy-to-remember name we often use for visceral fat is bellyfat. As I describe above, men are more likely to store excess fat in the belly and therefore have greater visceral fat and disease risk. However, women of post-menopausal age are at similar risk for visceral fat accumulation and thus disease risk due to changes in hormones (lack of estrogen). Unfortunately, given our current nutrition and food landscape around the world, more and more people are at risk of excess abdominal bellyfat and visceral fat disease risk, including young boys and girls. The main reason for this disturbing public health concern is likely due to excess calorie intake, especially refined simple sugars. In fact, recent research has shown a link between higher simple sugar intake (sugar sweetened drinks) and higher visceral fat levels in adolescents (14-18 years old). Perhaps most alarming was the finding in those with the highest sugar drink intake also showed the highest levels of the stress hormone cortisol upon waking in the morning! Talk about an addictive response! We are creating a toxic environment for our children by making available to them an over-abundance of sugar sweetened drinks which may be altering their stress hormone levels by the time they awake in the morning, all of which is associated with a significantly greater accumulation of the dangerous visceral fat. Something has to change.

This something is exactly why I’ve developed the PRISE Protocol and especially Protein Pacing. My research and others has consistently shown that the timing of when you eat protein near bedtime may have a beneficial impact on our visceral fat. My research with both the PRISESM Protocol and Protein PacingSM over the past 10 years has consistently proven that when a bedtime protein pacing snack, provided within 2 hours of going to bed at night, as part of my overall protein pacingSM plan, with and without exercise training, visceral fat always drops drastically. This is great news and I hope provides you a great deal of confidence that my protein pacingSM and PRISE protocol are the best lifestyle strategies to counter the rampant increase in visceral fat among all segments of our population.

References:

1. December 15, 2017Volume 120, Issue 12, Pages 2289–2293. Relation of Changes in Body Fat Distribution to Oxidative Stress. Heval M. Kelli, MD, Frank E. Corrigan III, MD, Robert E. Heinl, MD, Devinder S. Dhindsa, MD, Muhammad Hammadah, MD, Ayman Samman-Tahhan, MD, Pratik Sandesara, MD, Wesley T. O’Neal, MD, Ibhar Al Mheid, MD, Yi-An Ko, PhD, Viola Vaccarino, MD, PhD, Thomas R. Ziegler, R, MD, Laurence S. Sperling, MD, Kenneth Brigham, MD, Dean Jones, PhD, Greg S. Martin, MD, MSc, Arshed A. Quyyumi. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2017.08.053
2. Physiol Behav. 2016 Dec 1;167:188-193. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2016.09.020. Epub 2016 Sep 19. Associations among sugar sweetened beverage intake, visceral fat, and cortisol awakening response in minority youth. Shearrer GE1, Daniels MJ2, Toledo-Corral CM3, Weigensberg MJ4, Spruijt-Metz D5, Davis JN6.
3. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 2006, 16, 373-392©. 2006 Human Kinetics, Inc. Increased Dietary Protein and Combined High Intensity Aerobic and Resistance Exercise Improves Body Fat Distribution and Cardiovascular Risk Factors. Paul J. Arciero, Christopher L. Gentile, Roger Martin-Pressman, Michael J. Ormsbee, Meghan Everett, Lauren Zwicky, and Christine A. Steele.
4. Moderate protein intake improves total and regional body composition and insulin sensitivity in overweight adults. Paul J. Arcieroa,, Christopher L. Gentile, Roger Pressman, Meghan Everett, Michael J. Ormsbee, Jeff Martin, Jason Santamore, Liza Gorman, Patricia C. Fehling, Matthew D. Vukovich, Bradley C. Nindl
5. Increased Protein Intake and Meal Frequency Reduces Abdominal Fat During Energy Balance and Energy Deficit. Paul J. Arciero, Michael J. Ormsbee, Christopher L. Gentile, Bradley C. Nindl, Jonathan R. Brestoff and Maxwell Ruby. Obesity (2013) 21, 1357-1366
6. Arciero PJ, Baur D, Connelly S, Ormsbee MJ. Timed-daily ingestion of whey protein and exercise training reduces visceral adipose tissue mass and improves insulin resistance: the PRISE study. J Appl Physiol 117: 1–10, 2014
7. Protein-Pacing Caloric-Restriction Enhances Body Composition Similarly in Obese Men and Women during Weight Loss and Sustains Efficacy during Long-Term Weight Maintenance. Paul J. Arciero *, Rohan Edmonds , Feng He , Emery Ward , Eric Gumpricht , Alex Mohr , Michael J. Ormsbee and Arne Astrup . Nutrients 2016, 8, 476; doi:10.3390/nu8080476
8. Protein-Pacing from Food or Supplementation Improves Physical Performance in Overweight Men and Women: The PRISE 2 Study. Paul J. Arciero ,*, Rohan C. Edmonds , Kanokwan Bunsawat , Christopher L. Gentile , Caitlin Ketcham , Christopher Darin , Mariale Renna , Qian Zheng , Jun Zhu Zhang and Michael J. Ormsbee. Nutrients 2016, 8, 288; doi:10.3390/nu8050288
9. Protein-Pacing and Multi-Component Exercise Training Improves Physical Performance Outcomes in Exercise-Trained Women: The PRISE 3 Study. Paul J. Arciero ,*, Stephen J. Ives , Chelsea Norton , Daniela Escudero , Olivia Minicucci , Gabe O’Brien , Maia Paul , Michael J. Ormsbee , Vincent Miller , Caitlin Sheridan and Feng He. Nutrients 2016, 8, 332; doi:10.3390/nu8060332
10. Multi-modal exercise training and protein-pacing enhances physical performance adaptations independent of growth hormone and BDNF but may be dependent on IGF-1 in exercise-trained men☆. Stephen J. Ives, Chelsea Norton, VincentMiller, Olivia Minicucci, Jake Robinson, Gabe O’Brien, Daniela Escudero, Maia Paul, Caitlin Sheridan, Kathryn Curran, Kayla Rose, Nathaniel Robinson, Feng He, Paul J. Arciero. Growth Hormone and IGF Research. 32 (2017), 60-70.