Lazy metabolism? Blame it on age, genetics, or bad diet choices.
The truth is always far more complex.
Your body composition is controlled by enzymes. Powerful proteins that speed up or slow down the metabolic reactions inside your cells.
Knowing which enzymes govern fat loss, metabolism, and energy production is some of the most useful info you can learn about your health.
You’ll learn:
- What Enzymes Do to Your Metabolism
- The Metabolic Health Problem Nobody Is Talking About
- Why NNMT Is The Enzyme Most People Have Never Heard Of
- How NAD+ Connects Enzymes To Your Body Composition
- Lipase — The Enzyme That Releases Stored Fat
- AMPK — The Body’s Built-In Fat Burning Switch
What Enzymes Do to Your Metabolism
Enzymes make everything your metabolism does possible.
They’re responsible for every chemical reaction in the body. Digesting food. Breaking down nutrients. Turning carbs, fat, and protein into cellular energy. Repairing damaged tissues. Even converting sunlight into vitamin D.
Everything.
Each enzyme has a very specific role in your metabolism. When your body has all the enzymes it needs and they’re functioning properly, your body can handle a poor diet and sedentary lifestyle without much issue.
But there’s something many people miss:
Your body composition IS affected by how well these enzymes perform.
When enzymes related to fat burning are activated, energy levels rise and fat is burned instead of stored. Lean muscle is retained. When enzymes like NNMT run amok (or are inactive when they should be active), the opposite occurs.
Suddenly you find yourself gaining fat. Losing muscle. And feeling sluggish all the time.
Peptide fat metabolism support like 5 amino 1mq are starting to target specific enzymes directly responsible for sabotaging fat loss on a cellular level. Let’s review why this process is so powerful.
By inhibiting the activity of NNMT, less NAD+ gets sent to the liver and muscles where it can do much more good. Instead of relying solely on diet and exercise to stimulate your metabolism or running yourself ragged with stimulants, you get to address a core metabolic problem at its source.
The Metabolic Health Problem Nobody Is Talking About
Here’s a stat that should worry you…
According to one study that used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, only 12% of US adults were considered metabolically healthy.
That means that nearly 90% of Americans (normal-weight individuals included) are fighting some kind of metabolic problem.
So what’s causing this metabolic imbalance?
Enzymes.
Poor enzyme function leads to poor blood sugar control. Weight gain. Increased fat storage. Inflammation. Elevated blood pressure. And a whole host of other health issues. Since most people have no idea their enzymes are out of whack, they continue trying to fix their health in ways that don’t work.
They think eating fewer calories fixes everything or that blasting themselves with caffeine is the only way to lose fat.
But if you don’t correct the underlying issue first, none of it matters.
Why NNMT Is The Enzyme Most People Have Never Heard Of
NNMT…pronounced “enem”.
It’s an enzyme found in nearly every organ of the body. Its primary function is to attach a methyl group to nicotinamide (a form of vitamin B3).
Doesn’t sound too bad, right?
Except if NNMT is overactive, nicotinamide is diverted from being recycled into NAD+. When this happens, NAD+ levels decline and pretty much everything involved in energy metabolism begins to break down.
What you’re left with is…
- Decreased levels of NAD+
- Impaired mitochondrial function
- Sluggish fat-burning
- More stored fat (especially visceral fat)
This may not seem like a big deal. But considering NNMT ramps up as you age, gain weight, and experience metabolic dysfunction, allowing it to run rampant in your body is only asking for trouble.
When researchers inhibited NNMT in mice, they witnessed a 47% decrease in adiposity. That’s huge. No wonder why researchers are focusing so much attention on NNMT these days.
How NAD+ Connects Enzymes To Your Body Composition
If NNMT depletes NAD+, what DOES NAD+ do?
A ton!
NAD+ (short for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) assists with over 500 different enzymatic reactions in the human body.
Here are just a few of its most important functions:
- Energy production
- Fat oxidation
- Insulin sensitivity
- Anti-aging
When your NAD+ levels start to decline (thanks to NNMT or other aging factors), your ability to burn fat, build lean muscle, and recover from workouts all take a hit.
One of the reasons fatty acid oxidation is so important is because it accounts for up to 50% of your body’s energy needs. If this process is impaired due to low NAD+, the effects on your body composition are undeniable.
Lipase: The Enzyme That Releases Stored Fat
Lipase is an enzyme that breaks down triglycerides (stored body fat) into fatty acids that can be burned for energy.
There are two forms of lipase you should know about:
- Hormone-sensitive lipase or HSL. This enzyme helps release fatty acids from fat cells when the body needs energy (like during exercise). HSL is activated by hormones like adrenaline.
- Lipoprotein lipase or LPL. Found on the walls of blood vessels, this enzyme is responsible for processing fat in your bloodstream. It helps send fatty acids to your cells to be used as fuel or stored as fat.
Getting the right balance of HSL and LPL activity after eating and during exercise is critical for losing fat and improving your body composition.
Much of this has to do with nutrition and exercise. But supporting your body’s natural lipase enzymes can also give you an edge over time.
AMPK: The Body’s Built-In Fat Burning Switch
AMPK is short for adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase.
It’s sometimes referred to as “the master metabolic switch”.
AMPK is activated when your cells are starved for energy. Low on ATP. During periods of exercise and calorie restriction, AMPK turns on to restore balance by…
- Increasing glucose uptake into your muscles
- Promoting fat burning in the mitochondria
- Turning off new fat storage
- Enhancing mitochondrial biogenesis (the process of making new mitochondria)
This is why exercise and diet are so powerful for improving your body composition.
But did you know there’s a way to activate AMPK through enzymes and NAD+?
Oh, you did?
Turns out AMPK, NNMT, and NAD+ are incredibly interrelated. If you want to improve your metabolic health over the long-term, it’s important to understand how they impact one another.
The Final Word On Enzymes & Body Composition
Ignore your enzymes at your own peril.
Your body composition is dictated by NNMT levels, lipase activity, AMPK signaling, and NAD+ levels. Improve one and you’ll likely see improvements in the others.
Here’s what you should know off the top:
- NNMT depletes NAD+ and promotes fat storage when overactive
- NAD+ is needed for the enzymatic reactions that support fat burning and muscle growth
- Lipase breaks down dietary and stored fat so it can be used for energy or stored
- AMPK is a “fat burning switch” found in every cell of your body
- Peptides that target fat metabolism work by enhancing the enzymes mentioned above
Knowing which enzymes affect your body composition is only half the battle.
What you do with that knowledge is up to you.
