Fast Burn!: The Power of Negative Energy Balance

By Ian K. Smith, M.D.

A motivational diet plan to blast fat—and keep it off—by Ian K. Smith, M.D., the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Clean & Lean.

New York Times bestselling author Ian K. Smith, M.D.’s unique new plan takes intermittent fasting to the next level, combining the power of time-restricted eating with a detailed program that flips the body into a negative energy state, scorching fat on the way to weight loss and physical transformation.

Many IF books leave readers to figure out what and how much they should eat during their feeding window, and even how long to fast each day. Smith knows that even readers highly motivated to change their weight and their health need marching orders, and they’re all here in Fast Burn!’s nine-week program. Dr. Ian believes in cleaner eating—forget perfect—and the two positively disruptive Jigsaw Weeks he works into his Fast Burn! program not only mix things up so Fast Burners stay on track, but introduce refreshing and less structured plant-based weeks to the program. Fast Burn! goes beyond the daily meal plan, but also includes simple and achievable exercises—with both gym and out-of-gym options—for every week as well as thirty-three recipes focusing on improved calorie quality, including the plan’s signature Burner Smoothie, to use throughout the three stages of the program.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Apr 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9781250271594

Ian K. Smith, M.D.

Ian K. Smith, M.D. is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Fast Burn!, The Clean 20, SHRED, The Fat Smash Diet, and many other books. He has created two national health initiatives—the 50 Million Pound Challenge and the Makeover Mile—and served two terms on the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition. A graduate of Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, Smith is an avid fitness enthusiast and sportsman.

Book preview

1

The Fat Truth

There’s a really good reason why we have a love-hate relationship with fat. We love the way it tastes, but we despise what too much of it can do to the appearance of our body. We enjoy that fatty piece of ribeye and those French fries and creamy alfredo sauce, because the fat we consume tastes good and triggers the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in our brains that brings us a sense of satisfaction and pleasure. But on the other side of the equation, fat that we consume, as well as excess calories that we don’t burn off, increase the amount of body fat that is stored under our skin and around our vital organs. Excess fat and calories inconveniently find their way into our abdomen, causing an unwanted protrusion, or on the back of our arms or underneath our chins. We have a schizophrenic relationship with fat—we want it, but then we don’t want it. You’re reading this book because you want to know how to get rid of all that unwanted fat that’s making your clothes fit too tight or has you contemplating how different you might look after a session of liposuction, or maybe it’s causing your insulin hormone to not function well, and thus your blood sugars are high. All of these scenarios and others prompt us to want significant change, but before we talk about burning the fat, let’s get a quick understanding of what it is and why we actually need it—at least some of it, in appropriate amounts.

What Is Fat?

Fat: you know it when you see it. Whether it’s the rim around a pork chop or the streaks running through a steak or the dimpling you can see under a tight dress—fat is everywhere. Fat is considered one of the three macronutrients—nutrients our bodies need to ingest in large supplies for us to survive. (The other two macros are carbohydrates and proteins.) Fat is critical for our bodies to function normally, and without it, we simply couldn’t live. It’s found not just underneath our skin (subcutaneous) and in our abdomens, but also in the cells in our brains and throughout the rest of our bodies, and around our vital organs (visceral fat). Some of this fat we are born with, but a lot of it we gather from the foods we eat. So let’s take a look at the fat we’re putting into our mouth.

Dietary Fat

four major types of fats that are found in our food—saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and trans

chemical structures and physical properties are different, and tend to be divided between good fats and bad fats

good fats are the monounsaturated and the polyunsaturated

bad fats are the saturated and trans

The unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature. They are predominantly found in foods from plants, such as vegetables, nuts, and seeds, as well as in fish. Think about the key ingredients you typically see in a Mediterranean diet. Unsaturated fats are considered good fats, because of their benefits, which include improving blood cholesterol levels (they lower the risk of heart disease and stroke), stabilizing heart rhythms, easing inflammation, and possibly lowering one’s risk for developing rheumatoid arthritis. Unsaturated fats are further divided into two groups: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. The difference between the two is in their chemical structures. Without getting too scientific, both contain the same atoms—carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen—but how those atoms are arranged makes a difference. Monounsaturated fats contain only one double bond in its structure, while polyunsaturated fats contain two or more double bonds.

Good Sources of Monounsaturated Fats

Cooking oils made from plants such as olive, peanut, soybean, sunflower, and canola

Avocados

Nuts such as almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, peanuts, and pecans

Seeds such as pumpkin and sesame

Generally speaking, the more unsaturated a fat is, the better it is for your health. So, poly- (multiple) unsaturated fats are better than mono- (single) unsaturated, but both are drastically more beneficial than the saturated fats that we’ll discuss shortly. Some oils, like canola, contain both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Most people don’t consume enough healthful unsaturated fats. In fact, according to the American Heart Association, 8 to 10 percent of our daily calories should come from polyunsaturated fats. More evidence suggests that eating as much as 15 percent of daily calories in the form of polyunsaturated fat in place of saturated fat can lower one’s risk for heart disease.

Omega-3 fatty acids are the most famous of the polyunsaturated fats. They are considered essential fats because our bodies are unable to make them, so we must consume them in our food. Omega-3s have been shown to reduce inflammation, help with normal brain development and function, reduce symptoms of depression, improve heart health, decrease liver fat, prevent dementia, reduce asthma symptoms, and improve bone health, as well as reduce weight and waist size. Good sources of these fats are oily fish like salmon, mackerel, and herring, as well as oysters, sardines, flax seeds, chia seeds, walnuts, and soybeans. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends eating at least two portions of oily fish per week to get sufficient amounts of the healthful omega-3 fats.

Good Sources of Polyunsaturated Fats

Walnuts

Sunflower seeds

Soybeans

Tofu

Oils such as flax, corn, soybean, grapeseed, and safflower

Fish such as salmon, mackerel, trout, sardines, herring, and albacore tuna

Saturated fats are quite different from unsaturated fats both in structure and impact on our health. From a chemical standpoint, these fats don’t have any double bonds between their carbon molecules. This means they are saturated with hydrogen molecules, thus the term saturated fats. Unlike unsaturated fats, saturated fats tend to be solid at room temperature.

The saturated fats have long been considered a bad fat, because they raise the LDL cholesterol (the bad type) in the body, which in turn can put one at a higher risk for heart disease and stroke. Recently, there has been conflicting data and messages about how bad saturated fats really are, but experts at the Harvard School of Public Health have deduced that cutting back on saturated fat can be good for health if people replace saturated fat with good fats, especially polyunsaturated fats. Evidence suggests that when someone eats good fats in place of the bad fats, they can lower the bad LDL cholesterol levels, which can ultimately lower the risk for heart disease.

While saturated fat is not the most healthful fat, it is still all right to have a small amount of it in your diet. The American Heart Association recommends that only 5 to 6 percent of your daily calories should come from saturated fat. What exactly does this mean? If you eat 2,000 calories in a day, no more than 120 calories should come from saturated fat. To put this number in terms of grams, that would be equivalent to 13 grams. Saturated fats are a natural component in many foods, the majority coming mainly from animal sources that include meat and dairy products.

Common Sources of Saturated Fats

Fatty beef

Poultry with skin

Pork

Lamb

Cheese

Tropical oil (coconut oil, palm oil, cocoa butter)

Sour cream

Butter

Ice cream

Lard and cream

Other dairy products made from whole or 1 or 2% milk

Cookies and other grain-based desserts

Trans fatty acids, commonly referred to as trans fats, got their comeuppance a long time ago when scientists and public health advocates rang the alarm about the potential and unnecessary dangers they can impose on our health.

Trans Fatty Acids

Can be naturally occurring but are largely manufactured by companies.

Are artificially synthesized via a process called hydrogenation: heating liquid vegetable oils in the presence of hydrogen gas and a catalyst (something that expedites the process). This process basically converts the oil into a solid, and thus you have a partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is more stable and less likely to spoil and become rancid.

Margarine and shortening are the best examples of what trans fats look like in your kitchen.

Partially hydrogenated oils became a favorite of the food industry because they’re less likely to spoil and can withstand repeated heating without breaking down, thus making them ideal for frying fast foods.

Trans fats flooded the market and could be found everywhere, including fried foods, processed snack foods, and baked goods.

Dangers of trans fats:

• They are the worst type of fat for the heart, blood vessels, and rest of the body.

• They wreak internal havoc, including raising the bad LDL cholesterol and simultaneously lowering the good HDL cholesterol.

• They increase inflammation.

• They contribute to insulin resistance (make the insulin hormone less effective).

• They damage the inner lining (endothelium) of blood vessels.

Not all trans fats are artificial. A relatively small amount occur naturally, and they are called ruminant trans fats, because they are found in meat and dairy that come from ruminant animals such as cattle, goats, and sheep. When ruminant animals eat grass, bacteria in their stomachs help digest the grass, and a byproduct of this process is the formation of trans fats. Natural trans fats come in modest amounts—2 to 6 percent of the fat in dairy products and 3 to 9 percent of the fat in certain cuts of lamb and beef. These trans fats that most of us consume from normal meat and dairy consumption should not be concerning, as studies have shown that moderate intake of these fats doesn’t appear to be harmful. However, when it comes to the artificial trans fats, also known as partially hydrogenated oil or fat, consumer beware. These are hazardous to your health. International expert groups and public health authorities have recommended that we keep our trans fat consumption to less than 1 percent of our total energy intake. So, if you’re consuming a 2,000-calorie diet, this is about 20 calories or 2 grams per day.

Look on the back of the food label and check to see if it contains trans fats. You should be aware that manufacturers use multiple terms to describe trans fats that can be confusing to the consumer. Make sure you look for these terms: trans fats, trans fatty acids, hydrogenated oil, and partially hydrogenated oils. If you see any of these terms, put the product back on the shelf and look for a similar product or different brand that doesn’t contain any trans fats. There are plenty of companies that thankfully have altered their manufacturing processes and have significantly reduced or eliminated trans fats from their products. It’s become such an important issue that many labels will clearly state right on the front of the package either 0g Trans Fats, No Trans Fats, or Trans Fat Free.

Common Food Sources of Trans Fats

Margarine

Frozen pizza

Baked goods such as cakes, cookies, crackers, and pies

Fried foods such as French fries, donuts, and fried chicken

Refrigerated dough such as biscuits and rolls

Ready-to-use frostings

Nondairy coffee creamer

Triglyceride Cheat Sheet

Found in our food as well as made within our body.

Chemical structure: comprised of three molecules of fatty acid joined with a molecule of glycerol (which is a type of alcohol).

Comprise over 90 percent of all fats we consume; found in both animal and vegetable fats.

Commonly found in butter, margarine, and oils such as vegetable, corn, and canola oil.

Many types of triglycerides; some are saturated fats, while others are unsaturated fats.

Our body also manufactures triglycerides. When we consume extra calories, alcohol, or sugar (carbohydrates), the liver takes these energy molecules and uses them to increase the production of