Can an Alternate-Day High Fat Diet Turn You into a Fat Burning Machine (Boost Your Muscles' Oxidative Capacity)?

Can an Alternate-Day High Fat Diet Turn You into a Fat Burning Machine (Boost Your Muscles' Oxidative Capacity)?

alternate day fasting fasting fat burning fatty acid oxidation high fat

Whether the "alternate-day high fat diet" is in fact an alternative to "training low and competing high", which you can also tweak like this, appears questionable to me, but it is certainly interesting.

If you take a look at the contemporary "low carb"-hype, one of the often-heard arguments in favor of high(er) fat and low carbohydrate intakes is the notion that this would increase your cells' ability to bur fat... or, as some people phrase it: "A high fat diet will turn you into a fat burning machine!"

Believe it or not, this is not totally wrong. What is wrong, though, is that the increase in mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation capacity, which is an adaptive response to the lack of other energy sources, will translate into direct fat loss. Eventually, you will still only lose weight and body fat if you are in a caloric deficit: high carb, low carb or no carb - personal preferences and parameters may determine which one works best for you, but eventually both work.

Until further studies have been done, you better stick to real fasting?

Breakfast and Circadian Rhythm

Does Meal Timing Matter?

Habits Determine Effects of Fasting

Fasting Works - It Does, Right!?

Does the Break- Fast-Myth Break?

Breakfast? (Un?) Biased Review

But I am getting off an a tangent. The actual question in today's SuppVersity article is after all not, whether a high fat diet allows for easier, faster or more reliable fat loss than a balanced or high carb diet. No, the question for today's SuppVersity article is: "Can an Alternate Day High Fat Diet Provide Turn You into a Fat Burning Machine?"

A hilarious idea, right? Well, I would probably have said the same before I had read a recent study from the Waseda University in Japan (Li. 2016). In said study, Li et al. tried to elucidate whether they would be able to get the same improvements in mitochondrial enzyme activity and protein content others have observed in rodents on high fat diets without the concomitant long-term intra-abdominal fat accumulation, and ever-increasing insulin resistance, and obesity. Put simply, Li et al. wanted to know if a small tweak to the diet would be able to "induce increases in mitochondrial oxidative capacities in skeletal muscle without intra-abdominal fat accumulation and body weight gain," as it would "offer many advantages" to endurance athletes (Li. 2016). Their hypothesis was that

• feeding a high fat diet every other day would trigger the increase in free fatty acids (FFA) that's necessary to produce the desirable increases in mitochondrial capacity, while
• feeding a regular (low fat) diet on the other day would help to ameliorate (or even better block) the accumulation of intra-abdominal fat mass. 

Accordingly, the scientists conducted a study in which male wistar rats were fed an alternate-day high-fat diet, with a lard, corn oil, sucrose, and casein based HF diet (32%, 18%, 27%, and 23%, respectively, of total calories | 5.1 kcal/g) on one and standard rodent chow (59% carbohydrate, 12% fat, and 29% protein | 3.4 kcal/g) on the other day.

Figure 1: Visceral (epididymal) fat mass, plasma glucose, fatty acid and insulin levels and relative difference to control (above bars); mind the multiplicators that were necessary to plot all data in a single graph (Li. 2016).

As you can see in Figures 1 & 2 the scientists achieved their goal. The visceral fat gain was sign. ameliorated. In spite of identical body weights, the rodents who had been fat high fat diets on alternate days were yet still fatter than their peers on the control diet.

Figure 2: Levels of markers of mitochondrial oxidative capacity after the treatment period (Li. 2016).

To know whether this increase in visceral fat was worth it, one would need to know whether the increases in citric acid synthetase (CS), beta-HAD, PGC-1a and LCAD activity actually pay off in form of increased endurance and/or performance gains due to an increased oxidative capacity.

Figure 3: Effects of alternate‐day high‐fat diet feeding on glycogen concentration (A) and GLUT‐4 protein content (B) in rat skeletal muscle. Values are mean ± SEM of 6 animals per group // If we go by the effects on glycogen, GLUT-4 and insulin (see Figure 1), the ALT diet should not impair the use of CHOs in athletes and would thus allow for CHO fueling during competition, but that's, as much about ALT, in theory!

Bottom line: In view of unaltered glycogen levels and slightly, but non-significantly increased levels of glucose transporter 4 (GLUT-4 | see Figure 3) levels in the muscle tissue of the ALT rats, it is likely that these performance changes would have been observed, but Li et al. don't have the data to prove that they exist.

For the average endurance athlete of whom the scientists rightly write that he does not adopt a high fat diet, even though it may increase the mitochondrial enzyme activities and decrease the utilization of glycogen during endurance exercise, Li's study is thus of very limited value, because future studies are necessary to prove the practical efficacy and relevance of an "alternate-day high fat diet" that has been tested only in rodents and how it compares to "training low and competing high" (Burke. 2010) | Comment!

References:

• Burke LM. Fueling strategies to optimize performance: training high or training low? Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2010 Oct;20 Suppl 2:48-58. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0838.2010.01185.x.
• Li X, Higashida K, Kawamura T, Higuchi M. Alternate-Day High-Fat Diet Induces an Increase in Mitochondrial Enzyme Activities and Protein Content in Rat Skeletal Muscle. Nutrients. 2016 Apr 6;8(4). pii: E203.

Is »BAIBA« the Next Big Thing in Fat Loss Supplements? 24% Reduction in Fat Gain is an Impressive Number, But...

Is »BAIBA« the Next Big Thing in Fat Loss Supplements? 24% Reduction in Fat Gain is an Impressive Number, But...

BAIBA beta-aminoisobutyric acid fat burner fat burning leptin leptin deficiency lose fat weight loss pill

Could BIBA be the active ingredient in a pill that solves your weight problems once and for all? Or is that too good be true?

Beta-aminoisobutyric acid, aka BAIBA, is a natural catabolite of thymine. As with many other purported "next big things in fat loss supplements", early rodent studies suggest that it can significantly reduce body fatness through a mechanism that appears to involve increases in fatty acid oxidation (FAO) and reductions in de novo lipogenesis - in particular in the liver (Maisonneuve. 2003 & 2004; Begriche. 2008).

As Karima Begrich et al. point out in a more recent review of the literature, "experimental evidence [... also] suggested that BAIBA could reduce body adiposity through increased leptin expression and secretion" (Begriche. 2010).

Some people say that caffeine is the last real "fat burner" left on the market

Remember: With Coffee More Won't Help More

Coffee - The Good, Bad & Interesting

Three Cups of Coffee Keep Insulin At Bay

Caffeine's Effect on Testosterone, Estrogen & SHBG

The Coffee³ Ad- vantage: Fat loss, Appetite & Mood

Caffeine Resis- tance - Does It Even Exist?

Against that background, it is only logical to ask whether we have overlooked a potent natural fat burner with a mechanism of cation that may be beneficial for both losing fat (increase in fat oxidation and decrease in fat storage) and keeping it off (modulation of leptin expression and secretion).

Unfortunately, it does not take long to find the first evidence that blows a hole into the neat "BAIBA could solve the diabesity epidemic"-theory. It comes right from one of the previously cited studies.
In their 2008 study, Begriche et al. were able to confirm that the provision of 100mg/kg per day (for humans that would be ~8mg/kg per day) of Beta-aminoisobutyric acid triggers significant reductions in body fat gain in lean mice (Figure 1, left).

Figure 1: 100mg/kg/day BAIBA may be an anti-weight gain supplement The data from obese rodents (rights) does yet suggest that it is not a weight loss supplement (Maisonneuve. 2004) | Anti-obesity, but not weight loss effects were also observed in obesity prone rodents in a 2008 study by Begrich et al. at the same dosage of BAIBA.

What the same amount of BAIBA did not do, though, was to prevent the weight gain in already obese mice (Figure 1, right). In view of the fact that the same discrepancies were observed for liver fat and total body weight (not shown in Figure 1), the currently available evidence clearly doesn't support the use of BAIBA as a classic "fat burner".

In obesity prone mice, BAIBA (100mg/kg) did not just ameliorate the body fat gain, it also reduced (c,d) the number of fibrotic leasons (a,b) of the liver that occured when the ob +/+ mice got fat (Begrich. 2008).

Is BAIBA even safe? In the absence of human studies that's difficult to say, but in rodents it had no ill effects on mtDNA replication (Mainonneuve. 2004) and displays a generally low toxicity. As Begrich et al. point out, their "further investigations are [still] requested to determine whether BAIBA could induce deleterious effects," even though, "it seems that this endogenous derivative could have a favourable safety profile that might be attractive for pharmacological usage" (Begrich. 2010). Deteriorations of the lipid or glucose metabolism, were not observed in any of the currently published studies and at a dosage of 100mg/kg BAIBA reduced the fibrotic leasons in the livers of obesity prone mice and improved the level of lactate dehydrogenase, a potential marker of liver problems (Begrich. 2008).

Overall, it does thus appear as if Begrich's own conclusion that BAIBA supplements "may be indeed an attractive pharmacological strategy in order to prevent (and/or treat) obesity" (Begrich. 2010) is only partly warranted:

• While BAIBA may be useful to ameliorate the body fat gain in lean individuals and would thus in fact be an "attractive pharmacological strategy in order to prevent [...] obesity" (ibid.) in an obesogenic environment,
• it appears to be more than just 'a little too early' to assume that BAIBA supplements could also be used to "treat" (ibid.) obesity in individuals who are already carrying >50% more body fat on their frame than the average lean person.

It is however more than the fact that many of you are probably (still) lean that keeps BAIBA in the game: If you look at the data in Figure 2, it becomes obvious that BAIBA may do more than to prevent the body fat gain in people who have always been lean: its effect on leptin, in particular, could be of even greater use for people who have lost a significant amount of body fat and are now struggling with the nasty yoyo effect.

Figure 2: The increase in adipocyte (=fat cell) leptin and adiponectin production that was observed in the petri dish is particularly interesting for people who have already lost a significant amount of body fat (Begrich. 2010). If it translates into in vivo human studies, it may help those people to stay lean and reverse "metabolic damage".

As you can see in Figure 2, in vitro data shows that the direct exposure of fat cells (adipocytes) of mice, which are at a particularly high risk of becoming obese, will trigger a significant increase in leptin and adiponectin production. Why's that important? Well, of these...

• 

  Metabolic Damage, Energy Intake & the Human "Energy Thermostat" - An Update Based on Recent Studies | read it!

  the increase in adiponectin that is produced by one's fat cells has been linked to important health markers, like increased insulin sensitivity and improved markers of lipid management.
• the increase in leptin production, however, may be of greater importance, because the diet- or rather fat-loss induced remodelling of the adipose tissue (many small empty fat cells) will reduce the production of the "you're fat enough" signal leptin and thus increase the risk of formerly obese individuals to regain every pound (or even more) of body fat they have painfully lost over months of hard dieting.

With that being said, the possibility that BAIBA may be able to reverse a potential cause of something that is often referred to as "metabolic damage" of which it appears as if it was at least partly triggered by a reduction in relative leptin production (i.e. the amount of leptin that is produced at a certain level of body fat) brings BAIBA back into the game. 

Bottom line: Whether an increase in leptin production is, as Figure 3 from Begrich's previously cited review suggests, the only (or at least the most important) mechanism of the beta-aminoisobutyric acid induced anti-obesity effect will yet have to be confirmed in future studies.

Figure 3: If Begrich et al. (2010) are right, the beneficial effects of BAIBA are mediated mostly, if not exclusively by leptin. Due to a lack of human data, BAIBA must - as of now - still be classified as "promising, but unproven" anti-obesity supplement.

Of even greater importance than investigations into what I would like to call the "leptin hypothesis of BAIBA's anti-obesity effects", though, is the simple confirmation of its effects in independent human studies. I mean, rodents are (often) a good model of human metabolism, but there are instances where slight metabolic differences between man and mouse can have a huge impact on several practically relevant research outcomes. It is thus well possible that unexpected human-specific "side effects" like an extreme increase in appetite and energy intake could reduce or blunt the purported anti-obesity prowess of BAIBA. Before the aforementioned human studies have not been conducted, peer-reviewed and published, I recommend to stay skeptical about BAIBA being the "next big thing in fat loss supplements." | Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Begriche, Karima, et al. "β‐Aminoisobutyric Acid Prevents Diet‐induced Obesity in Mice With Partial Leptin Deficiency." Obesity 16.9 (2008): 2053-2067.
• Begriche, Karima, Julie Massart, and Bernard Fromenty. "Effects of β‐aminoisobutyric acid on leptin production and lipid homeostasis: mechanisms and possible relevance for the prevention of obesity." Fundamental & clinical pharmacology 24.3 (2010): 269-282.
• Maisonneuve, Caroline, et al. "Mitochondrial and metabolic effects of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) in mice receiving one of five single-and three dual-NRTI treatments." Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy 47.11 (2003): 3384-3392.
• Maisonneuve, Caroline, et al. "Effects of zidovudine, stavudine and beta-aminoisobutyric acid on lipid homeostasis in mice: possible role in human fat wasting." Antiviral therapy 9.5 (2004): 801-810.