The 4-Hour Body_ An Uncommon Guide to Ra - Timothy Ferriss [53]
Though lipoic acid naturally occurs in some organ meats and vegetables, including spinach and broccoli, the amounts are trace. I didn’t want to consume 10 tons of liver for 30 milligrams of lipoic acid, so I began using synthetic alpha-lipoic acid in 1995.
I began taking ALA for its impressive impact on glucose uptake and reduced triglyceride production.
First and foremost, I wanted to increase muscular absorption of the calories (and supplements) I consumed, and ALA turned out to be the perfect force multiplier. More calories absorbed into muscle meant fewer calories deposited as fat and faster strength gains.
ALA accomplishes this, in part, by recruiting GLUT-4 glucose transporters to the muscular cell membrane. This both mimics insulin and increases insulin sensitivity, and ALA is therefore being explored as an “insulino-mimetic” that can be used to treat type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
Not only does ALA increase glucose and nutrient absorption, but it also demonstrates triglyceride inhibition and—through extrapolation—fat storage. Here is an abstract from a 2009 article from the Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics that drives the point home:
Livers from LA [lipoic acid]–treated rats exhibited elevated glycogen content, suggesting dietary carbohydrates were stored as glycogen rather than becoming lipogenic substrate.
In one sentence, here is why alpha-lipoic acid is kick-ass for our purposes: ALA helps you store the carbohydrates you eat in muscle or in your liver as opposed to in fat.
GREEN TEA FLAVANOLS (EGCG)
Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is a catechin and flavanol found in green teas.
It has been researched for a wide range of applications, including decreasing the risk of UV-induced skin damage, inhibiting cancer growth, and reducing mitochondrial oxidative stress (anti-aging).
I tested green tea and EGCG, once again, for the underreported “off-label” benefits. Specifically, two related to body recomposition:
• Much like ALA, EGCG increases GLUT-4 recruitment to the surface of skeletal muscle cells. Of equal interest, it inhibits GLUT-4 recruitment in fat cells. In other words, it inhibits the storage of excess carbohydrates as bodyfat and preferentially diverts them to muscle cells.
• EGCG appears to increase programmed cell death (apoptosis) in mature fat cells. This means that these hard-to-kill bastards commit suicide. The ease with which people regain fat is due to a certain “fat memory” (the size of fat cells decreases, but not the number), which makes EGCG a fascinating candidate for preventing the horrible rebounding most dieters experience. Super cool and important.
Human studies have shown some potential fat-loss with as little as a single dose of 150 milligrams of EGCG, but we will target 325 milligrams three to four times per day, as the fat-loss results seem to “hockey-stick”—go from a mild incline to a sharp rise—between 900 and 1,100 milligrams per day for the 150- to 200-pound subjects I’ve worked with. I suggest decaffeinated green tea extract pills as the source, unless you want to be stuck to the ceiling and feel ill. Using tea leaves and steeping cup after cup is too imprecise and too caffeinated.
If you are undergoing cancer treatment, please consult your doctor before using EGCG, as it can increase the effects of some drugs (the estrogen antagonist tamoxifen, for example) while decreasing the effects of others,13 such as the drug Velcade®, to which it binds. If you are undergoing treatment for multiple myeloma or mantle cell lymphoma, likewise avoid EGCG.
GARLIC EXTRACT (ALLICIN POTENTIAL, S-ALLYL CYSTEINE)
Garlic extract and its constituent parts have been used for applications ranging from cholesterol management to inhibiting lethal MRSA staph infections.
Strangely, test subjects and I have had the best fat-loss results with extracts designed to deliver relatively high doses of allicin. Allicin, if delivered in a stable form, appears to have the ability to inhibit fat regain. The reason