The Truth About Your Fat - Part 2 (Outweigh)

as you'll learn, this really cool thing called fascia. But the reason we're doing an entire series on this is because I believe that fat is so misunderstood because we hate it, we fear it, we name it, we blame it, we shame it, and some people will do whatever they can to destroy it and eliminate it. But whoever said that fat was ugly or something to be ashamed of, and whoever said it was a bad thing? Right? Whoever

said that fat was anything other than fat? And so again I'm sharing all of this with you to just impress upon you that if you have this dysmorphic relationship with your body fat, as in the subcutaneous fat on your body, then I absolutely urge you to actually learn about it and discover what it is and discover what it's not, and that way you can dispel the lies and use it as a way to connect with yourself or get past any residual body shame that you might

still be experiencing. But since it is such a prevalent enemy in today's world, and yes again I'm definitely putting enemy in air quotes, we might as well learn about it.

part of our body. But again, most women don't know about that side of it either, And when you think about it, we fear what we don't know, and that's the perfect place to dive in. So let's get to know it. Okay. So, thing number one that I want you to know about fat is that it's just fat. Okay, it's just fat. Yes, Like your elbow is just an elbow, your eyebrow is just an eyebrow, and your fat is just fat. But it's also this super powerful substance that

no one talks about. And just like every other part of your body, your fat has an actual job to do.

In many cases, its job is to protect you. And so not only will your stored body fat keep you alive if your body experiences a food shortage while roaming the desert or while stranded on a deserted island, if that ever happens to people in reality, but fat takes care of us in other various ways too, And so it cushions and protects your vital organs, and it insulates your body against heat loss, and it protects nerve tissue. But ladies, it also helps regulate your menstrual cycles. And

what most women don't know is your fat is very smart. Okay. So you may regard fat as this stubborn, squishy substance that you wish would disappear, but In reality, fat is simply a tissue. Technically, it's an ad a post tissue, and it's smarter than you think it is. Now, just roll with me for a minute because I'm gonna get a bit geeky. But it will all come back full circle,

I promise. So back in eighteen sixty four, a guy by the name of John Hilton came up with a theory that is well known today and frequently taught in anatomy courses. And it's called Hilton's law, that's what they call it today, and it states that the nerves that supply any muscles and its joints are also supplying the skin and surrounding tissues related to that particular joint. So again, whatever nerves are supplying your muscles and your joints, they're

also supplying tissues. Okay, So here's why this is so cool. Your muscles and joints are constantly communicating with your nervous system, but based on Hilton's law, so is your fat. That means that every time your brain sends a signal to your elbow to flex that bicep muscle, or that hip to extend to activate your glutes, it's also sending a signal to the surrounding tissues and fat. But it doesn't just stop there. Okay, So back in the day, I

wrote an article for the Huffington Post. It was probably like ten years ago at this point, because, like I said, I've been fascionated by this subject for a long time. But my editor at huff Post loved what I was sharing, but she wanted me to back up my sources. So I referenced this study that they did at the Department of Dermatology at Queen's Medical Center in the UK, and they dedicated an entire study to the nervous system's connection to fat. So you can imagine why I love this study.

But that study stated specifically that at a post tissue so fat, it's not just concerned with energy storage, right, but it's also a major endocrine and secretary organ as well, So hello metabolism. Fat is a hormonal and digestive organ. And this blew my mind. I'm like, wait a minute, fat isn't just fat, It's actually an endocrine organ, so of course we're talking hormones here, and then it's a

secretary organ as well, so we're talking digestion. And Queen's Medical Center literally called fat an organ all by itself. So why is this good news for you and you're fat? Well, for one thing, your fat is powerful, right, It's got brain power, It has neural properties, which means it has metabolic power and the survival power that we already talked about. Like, that's a lot of power. But here's some other things that will be important later on. So fat is also

temperature sensitive as well. So you know how coconut oil, if you leave it out at room temperature, it's solid, right, But anything above room temperature and it turns into a liquid. Right well, your body fat is also directly affected by temperature, both both hot and cold temperatures. So heating pads and hot baths and saunas and ice packs, they're a useful tool for impacting more than just your muscles and your joints.

Your fat can be impacted by temperature too, and the structure of your fat and fascia, as you'll learn and we'll talk about it, it's easily manipulated just by changing the temperature of the substance or the organ as we can now call it. Right, fat is an organ, right bottom line, though, your tissues, including fat and fascia are heat sensitive, and that allows you to be able to more easily manipulate it, which will come back to in a moment. Okay, but that actually brings us to my

next point. Your fat and your fascia are pliable, muldible, transformable things. Okay, So this is actually a really good time to tell you about fascia and what it is and what it does, because I keep mentioning it. But if you're starting to have a new appreciation for subcutaneous fat, just wait till you learn about fascia. So, fascia is a connective tissue and it's this NonStop, never ending tissue.

And the way I describe it is it's kind of like this tissue, paper thin material that is sticky like duct tape. So it's paper thin, but it's crazy sticky, and it surrounds everything in your body, from your organs to your muscles to your joints. It's really everywhere. And besides blood and oxygen and water, fascia is the most plentiful system in our bodies. And it's this never ending

connected chain. So there's no way to tell where fashia starts and where it ends because it's this never ending line, or it's really a series of lines that run from the top of your head to the bottoms of your feet and everywhere in between. So just picture fascia like literally wrapping around you like a mummy, like top of your head, bottom of your feet, around, crisscross, up, down, left, right, like every direction, like seriously, there's no beginning and there's

no end, and it's everywhere, including surrounding your fat. But here's the other thing about fascia and why your nervous system is just so dang smart and I'm so fascinated by it. If your muscles are not doing their job. Okay, so let's say maybe you have muscle imbalances, or maybe you have some old injuries, right, and that's creating muscle imbalances, right,

or maybe you're injured right now. If your muscles aren't doing their job, or maybe the join itself is not doing its job, your body will laid down fascia to essentially provide extra structure and support to support your body so that you don't get injured. Right. So it's really helpful when you think of it that way, because it's helping your body do what your joints and muscles aren't

able to do. But there is a flip side to that, because if you don't correct the movement or correct the map or the movement pattern, the fascia will stay there and sometimes it can actually bind fat within it. So it's a bit of a catch twenty two. But it's really helpful and can provide structural support, but it can also bind fat. So that's why I say it's a

catch twenty two. So this is where I'll go back to what I shared in part one, The truth about your fat and a lot of my fashion nation started when I noticed that I had these pockets of fat surrounding the areas of my body that were affected by my spine surgery. But they weren't normal like you know, cheesecake and red wine fat, right. It was this thick,

fibrous kind of fat. And that's because I was feeling the fascia that was surrounding my fat, okay, And so fascia had laid itself down to help my glutes and the muscles surrounding my spine actually do their job because I had some like nerve damage and it wasn't doing its job on its own, and so fascia just kind

of came in there and supported me. But my muscles weren't magically just turning back on because of the neurological damage from my injury and surgery, and so fascia just kept laying itself down, kept laying itself down, and it was encasing fat within that too. So now I was having like layers and layers of fashion and that's what I was feeling. So here's what I learned in my research.

So there's something called lipolysis, and lipolysis is essentially the process that needs to take place for your body to actually metabolize fat from your body and release it to be burned, aka fat loss, which is the thing that you know, the world's kind of obsessed with. So it's like, again, let's take a look at what fat loss actually is.

It's this process called lipolysis, okay. And in my research, I learned that in order for lipolysis to happen, it needed these things called catecholamines, which essentially travel through your blood to the targeted cell or the adipocytes, and for lack of a better way of saying it, they kind kind of open up the fat cell for the stored

triglycerides to be mobilized or released. And that's kind of what fat loss is in a nutshell, right, and again I'm totally oversimplifying it, but that's like polysis in a nutshell. If there's catacholamines present, the fat cell can release the stoarege triglycerides and the fat can be mobilized. Okay, and

again oversimplifying it. But here's the thing. If you have fascia that is essentially suffocating your fat and binding to it, kind of like I shared with mine, right, it kind of acts like a shield or a blockade, and it doesn't allow the catchola means to reach the adipocytes. It actually starts acting as a barrier. So this is where you can do as much you know, diet and exercise as possible, But if you have fascia that is binding

your subcutaneous fat, it won't matter. Okay, Blood and oxygen can never reach the targeted cell and release the fat. And that's actually what cellulite is. It's fascially bound fat. By the way, that explanation, the fact that cellulite is fascially bound fat, that in itself helped me really disarm my judgment and my shame around my cellulite too, right. I was like, Oh, it's just fascially bound fat, like

that's what those little pockets or dimples are. Like, Wow, that's the data, right, versus like, oh my gosh, I'm a bad person. What's wrong with you? You have cellulate, your ugly, your growth fill in the blank. And again, for purposes of this podcast, I'm oversimplifying this language and I'm not getting super technical, so you know, for any of you technical geeks out there, like myself, just just know that I'm simplifying this for the sake of simplicity. But that's

how fascia can interact with fat. And then, of course, on the flip side, like we said, if you have a protective layer of fascia surrounding your muscle because the muscle or joint isn't doing its job, once again, blood and oxygen can't really access the muscle and allow it to turn on. So again, fascia is awesome and helpful and this miraculous system in our bodies, but it can also be a barrier for muscles and fat for the

two reasons that I mentioned. So now you can probably imagine how I was, like, how is nobody talking about fascia, right, Like, not only does it have a lot to do with fat storage and fat loss, but it also happens to be a big influencing factor when it comes to muscular function and nerve function and injury, you know, recovery, prevention, all the things. So I'm not going to go down the deep rabbit hole of fascia today on this episode because it's this massive subject and that's why we're doing

an entire series on this subject. But i will just say this, Okay, there's a couple of sides to this concept of your fat and fascia being moldable and pliable, okay, And so we'll start with the logical one, or the obvious one that it is a substance. Actually, you know, fat and fascia are two different substances, but both of them are mouldable and pliable, and their textures can be broken up and transformed and can benefit from massage and touch and using tools to actually break up the knots

and the adhesions. And we're going to talk about that in the next two episodes. But on the other side of it, when you think about the areas and this is the okay, that was my logic and reason side of it. But this is where I really want to talk to your heart. When you think about the areas of your body where you have excess fat, and I see excess, but like just the places that you your version of excess. Right, I'm not saying that as a

dig or a judgment. I'm putting myself in your shoes where you are looking at your fat and thinking like it's not supposed to be there. So you know, typically it's a lot of places like love handles, your tummy, your thighs. I don't know about you, but for me, when I had all of this shame within me about my body, those were the places that I ignored. Even

more right, I never touched them. They were never exposed to sunlight because I was like covering them up with cardigans and you know, T shirts and all of that, and they had the least amount of exposure to light and oxygen. So on top of having a high likelihood of being like behind fashionally bound fat, I was giving them less neuro feedback than the rest of my body because it's the areas of my body that I was tending to cover up. Right, And so if you're never

seeing daylight. They're never getting touched or massage. It kind of gets them stuck even further, like even less blood and oxygen, which we learn you actually need for mypolysis or fat loss. So again it's another bit of a catch twenty two. And that's why I talk about like the psychological side of fat, right, It's really important. And again, I know this might sound a little bit weird to you, like it did to me too, because nobody's talking about it.

I mean, I never heard about fat and its relationship with fascia in the health and fitness world, but it is as real as real can be. And taking care of my fat and my fascia and looking at it like, okay, like I have muscles, I have teeth, I have hair that I take care of. Why don't I take care of the most plentiful system of tissue in my body? And why don't I start taking care of my fat

and fascia? And I literally just started there, and that's exactly where we're gonna start next week on part three of this series. So really, that is what I wanted to impress upon you today, first of all, that you have fat and fascia, whether you like it or not, So why don't you learn about it and look at it and discover how it works rather than just shaming it or blaming it. Okay, so that's the number one.

But also that you can't self love your way to something that you don't take care of or flat out ignore or disregard. And so what if taking care of your body, and we're going to talk about that that includes taking care of your fat and your fascia. What if that was your path to self love and self esteem and self worth and what if that was your path to health? And I'm not just saying, you know, blindly take my word for it. I'm saying, go try

it on, see what serves you. And this is what my clients and I are doing, and this is how I live and how my clients live. The third thing I would just want to impress upon you is simply to share that fat is so cool and fascia is so cool, and when you learn about it and what it has the power to do, like wow, you are going to be so much more equipped to take care of yourself and your health. And I mean it physically, mentally, emotionally,

all of it. So that's where I'll just leave it for right now, and then in next week's episode, we're going to start talking about how to start taking care of your fat and your fascia so that you can get what you really want right which is freedom and peace of mind and happiness and acceptance. And yes, we're still talking about your fat right So that's it for today, Outweigh, and I can't wait to bring you Part three of

this big Fat conversation next week. And if you liked what you heard today and you want to hear more about the process I teach my clients of rewiring your own brain, then head on over to stresslesseading dot com and sign up to watch the Stressless Eating webinar, where I walk you through the exact five step game plan that my clients use to heal themselves from the all or nothing diet mentality for good, but without restricting themselves

or punishing their bodies, and definitely without ever having to use words like macros, low carb or calorie burn. And so I've laid it all out for you in five easy steps over at stresslesseding dot com. So we will be back next week for more Outweigh, where we're going to get into part three of the truth about your fat. So I'm Leanne Ellington and I will talk to you then