Shivering your way to a 6 pack...
of abs.
Yesterday I completed my tradition of doing a full body workout that my body is completely unprepared for... so that I could feast and turn Turkey directly into muscle mass.
I write this in much pain.
But here's a picture of me smoking a turkey in my underwear.
"But Trav," you say... "Why have you shown me this."
There are a few reasons.
#1. I am actually managing to get in shape, just in time for no one to see it... except you.
#2. The "Shiver Response" is an interesting way to trick your body into burning more calories. Go smoke a turkey mostly nude in 40 degree weather, and you're going to shiver a bit.
#3. Fat makes you slower, and generally drains your cardio by making you lug around more weight. Therefore it can easily be argued that body-fat makes you a crappier fighter, and so this immediately becomes relevant to my martial arts / self defense newsletter.
In the process of getting my nutrition minor, I remember scoffing at one of my teachers who suggested that 'fidgeting' was a legitimate way to burn calories.
After all, I was suffering on pieces of cardio equipment for hours at a time, and generally hating life, just to get in shape.
The suggestion that relentlessly tapping your foot throughout the day could compare to my hard work was offensive to my uneducated brain.
...but it's true.
Those who fidget throughout the day burn anywhere from 800 - 1200 more calories than those who don't.
But it's not because the activity itself burns a ton calories, it's because your body expends FOUR TIMES as many calories as the movement actually requires, due to its inefficiency in fueling the movement.
We are not 100% efficient creatures. Not even close. We can utilize that to burn more calories.
(This is due to complicated mechanisms involving epinephrine signaling in the nerves that innervate your fat tissue... and if you want it explained to you in brilliantly simple detail, I can't recommend Dr. Andrew Huberman's podcast on fat burning enough.)
Shivering works similarly to fidgeting. Your body shivers to generate heat, and has the added benefit of converting white adipose (fat) tissue to brown adipose tissue... which fuels this type of movement.
So, you burn a bunch of calories to generate the shiver and the heat, and then you make this process easier in the future by making more 'brown' fat tissue.
Things that you can actually do that will make a huge difference:
1. If you notice yourself sitting still at your desk... start fidgeting. I personally wiggle my legs back and forth while reclining, which kinda taps my toes together. I feel my quads pulsing, as well as my abductors and adductors. I've forced it to become a habit... Basically, I try to fidget with the largest muscle groups that I can!
2. Play with some 'cold therapy'. Walk outside until you shiver for a minute or two, and then warm back up for a few minutes. Repeat this a 5 times, and you will 'trick' your body into burning more fat by virtue of the shiver response.
And by "trick" I mean take advantage of inefficiencies in the way that your body uses energy to create movement.
This has been me in my underwear.
And your newsletter.
Happy thanksgiving.
-Trav