Some of this may be old news, but it's the synthesis of these two articles - one written last week, one six months ago - that puts it together and helps explain why eating a high fat, low carb diet makes us healthy and helps us burn lots of stored body fat.
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Endocrinology, doi:10.1210/en.2008-0816
Endocrinology Vol. 149, No. 12 6018-6027
http://endo.endojournals.org/cgi/co...act/149/12/6018.

Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 Corrects Obesity in Mice

Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is a metabolic regulator that provides efficient and durable glycemic and lipid control in various animal models. However, its potential to treat obesity, a major health concern affecting over 30% of the population, has not been fully explored. Here we report that systemic administration of FGF21 for 2 wk in diet-induced obese and ob/ob mice lowered their mean body weight by 20% predominantly via a reduction in adiposity. Although no decrease in total caloric intake or effect on physical activity was observed, FGF21-treated animals exhibited increased energy expenditure, fat utilization, and lipid excretion, reduced hepatosteatosis, and ameliorated glycemia. Transcriptional and blood cytokine profiling studies revealed effects consistent with the ability of FGF21 to ameliorate insulin and leptin resistance, enhance fat oxidation and suppress de novo lipogenesis in liver as well as to activate futile cycling in adipose. Overall, these data suggest that FGF21 exhibits the therapeutic characteristics necessary for an effective treatment of obesity and fatty liver disease and provides novel insights into the metabolic determinants of these activities.
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Good news - but it gets better. Because we don't have to wait for Big Pharma to create a pill to take. We've already got the 'on switch' built into our bodies - which was published six months ago, but somehow ignored. Read on, you'll see why:

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/N...ne/05060702.asp

'Atkins hormone' discovered 05 June 2007

They are loved and endorsed by celebrities and dismissed as an unhealthy diet craze by critics. But 'low carb', high protein and high fat diets have proven their metabolic worth: scientists in the US have discovered a fat-burning role for a specific hormone stimulated by these eating regimes. The work has also raised the intriguing question of whether the Atkins diet could make you live longer.

A group of researchers led by Steven Kliewer at Southwestern University in Dallas, Texas found that a growth hormone called fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) stimulates fat metabolism in the liver.

At the same time, Eleftheria Maratos-Flier and her colleagues from Boston University found that a ketogenic diet, low in carbohydrates and relatively high in fat, stimulated the production of this hormone. Both studies are published simultaneously in Cell Metabolism.

'It was one of those serendipitous discoveries,' Kliewer told Chemistry World. 'We were studying receptors in the liver that are activated by fatty acids, and we found that the receptors, called PPARalpha, regulate the hormone FGF21, so we went on to study what FGF21 does.'

Kliewer's treated mice with FGF21, either by genetic modification or direct injection, and said that it made the animals look like they were starving. 'It turned on a starvation response, even when the animals were feeding. They switched from using carbohydrates to fat stores as an energy supply,' he said.

Maratos-Flier's group fed their mice a high fat, low carbohydrate diet for 30 days and found that levels of FGF21 increased.

This biochemical deception, causing the body to burn fat even when on a high fat diet, is a weight loss method made famous by Robert Atkins, who died in 2003. Such diets are called ketogenic because, without a source of carbohydrate to produce energy, fats or lipids are metabolised, producing ketones as a replacement fuel.
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So, FGF21 impacts metabolism, insulin resistance, lipid profiles and fat burning for the better, and eating a ketogenic diet increases the level of FGF21. Nice.

Lisa

Thanks Lisa...Bru

So this is where I wonder if using something like MCT oil which increases the amounts of ketones is useful for weight loss.

Thanks, what a great find!

Does coconut oil - which is also mainly medium-chain triglycerides - maybe also have the same effect? I did a (much too short) VCO experiment recently and ate (off the spoon) 3 tsp of VCO after every meal for about 10 days. During this time, I lost 4lbs quite effortlessly, without really having to diligently watch my carbs - I even drank beer and still lost!!!

I also made a special effort to add more fat into my food in general, but the main difference was the addition of the 3tsp of VCO. I really must get back into that habit again!!!

What with one thing and another, I stopped doing this and the 4lbs have gone straight back on again. Either it was the VCO which upped my metabolism, or the extra fat in general. But whatever it was, I have to start doing it again!!!

amanda

Interesting article. Maybe the "metabolic advantage."