Stop Being Stupider
Nicotine also has nootropic effects, which means it can improve cognitive function, particularly working memory[10-11]. And no, working memory isn’t your recollection of the horrors inflicted on you over the years by your ******* boss while you sat in a biomechanically disadvantageous position in your cubicle and got fatter on a daily basis. Rather, working memory is your ability to reason correctly, succinctly, and efficiently[12]. So, yes, nicotine can make you smarter. Maybe not Einstein smart, but you’ll be able to figure out what I’m talking about at least 90 percent of the time—and during that other 10 percent, chances are I’m not even sure what the hell I’m talking about, so you’re good.
Slow Down Killer
Smarter? Stronger? Impervious to adrenaline diabetes? I bet you’re not even reading anymore because you’re checking Nicorette prices on Amazon. As exciting as all this research is, however, it’s all still very new, and only through continued work will we discover exactly how powerful these effects are and how we can best utilize them for our performance and aesthetic goals. What’s not new—and what’s established fact—is that nicotine burns fat.
Nicotine accelerates fat burning in two major ways. In order to burn fat, you’ve got to get it out of fat cells. Nicotine, because of its unique receptor stimulation on fat cells, causes them to dump fat like a drunk sorority girl puking her guts out after a party[6, 13-14]. Because of this, nicotine is not appropriate for a carb-based diet because the simultaneous increase of triglyceride levels, insulin, and blood sugar can cause all the problems associated with diabetes—and fat cells exposed to nicotine and insulin simultaneously can actually increase the rate of fat storage in fat cells[15]. The fat-dumping potential of nicotine also increases with physical activity, so the more you move—or the more intense your movement is—the more fat you’ll burn[16].
Your resting energy output also goes up with nicotine ingestion. This appears to happen primarily through an upregulation of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1). The uncoupling proteins, when present in high amounts, disrupt the body’s ability to create ATP, and the excess energy gets wasted as body heat. This is how mammals regulate body temperature, and it’s also why starving yourself for fat loss decreases energy output. Calorie deprivation downregulates UCP1[17]. Nicotine re-stimulates UCP1[18-19], so you keep burning fat even if you drop calories.
And speaking of calorie deprivation, nicotine can help there, too. It’s an excellent appetite suppressor[20-22].
The Protocol
If you’re thinking a few moves ahead, you’ve probably figured out by now that you should take your nicotine first thing upon waking. This is how you can re-ignite mTOR activity without eating, thus allowing you to push your meals back a little further if you’ve found that works better with your lifestyle. All it can possibly do is increase fat burning and mental awareness. You only need 1 mg, although I’d highly recommend cutting this dosage in half to see how you react[25]. If you’ve never been exposed to nicotine—like me, before I started this regimen—it can leave you seriously mangled in the form of light-headedness and dizziness. Avoid operating heavy machinery or lifting heavy weights over your head, at least for the first few minutes.
After this, take another 1 mg in the afternoon, a few hours before training. This is the protocol I’d suggest when using either Carb Nite or Carb Back-Loading. For Carb Nite, the morning dose ensures quick clearance. Nicotine clears the system in roughly 24 hours, but this takes longer in the evening[24], and it’s hard to sleep with the elevated body temperature this causes. The same is true for Carb Back-Loading, but in that case, you don’t want to ingest nicotine with carbs because of the adverse effects discussed earlier.
Also, ingesting nicotine earlier in the day can cause transient insulin resistance[26], which means that if you’re ingesting nicotine while on Carb Back-Loading, you absolutely
must resistance train.
I recommend chewing gum twice per day on training days, and only once per day on non-training days—or not at all. You should also make sure that you train on your actual Carb Nites if you’re going to implement nicotine usage while on The Carb Nite Solution—or abstain from nicotine for 24 hours before you feast.
Stack It
Don’t be afraid to stack your nicotine and caffeine. I would lower your caffeine dosage from the maximum recommended training amount (800 mg) to 200 mg at most, an amount research shows to be an effective adjunct to the nicotine for fat loss and mobilization during training[25].
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather cruise around in a Bugatti than a Honda Civic.
Power Is Knowledge
Yes, I know. I’ve got it backwards here, but in this case, it’s appropriate. Power is knowing how to use these cutting-edge techniques without affecting your health. The best time to use nicotine—and the only time I use it with clients—is during the last 4-6 weeks of contest preparation, or to help a powerlifter who has a lot of body fat to lose. Personally, I like to chew a 2 mg piece first thing in the morning, every other day. Even when doing this, I’ll never chew nicotine gum for more than eight weeks at a time without taking a break of four weeks or longer. You should adopt this protocol if you’re thinking about incorporating nicotine.
Wrapping It Up
So, there it is. We’ve discussed all the good things nicotine can do for you, while addressing the bad, too. I’m here to provide cutting-edge knowledge to help you reach your goals faster and more efficiently without jeopardizing your health. This protocol is ideal for competitors who are leaning out, because it accelerates their fat loss while keeping them anabolic—which means far less muscle loss in most cases, and muscle gain during the lean-down phase. This can work for you, too.
Let’s be perfectly clear, though. I’m not recommending that everyone go out and try this. This is bleeding-edge science, and the consequences of such low-dose administration are unknown. From animal studies that use quantities in the range of micrograms-per-kilogram, the effects seem to be all positive, but these studies haven’t been done with humans. It’s safe enough, however, that researchers have considered using it as a treatment for Alzheimer’s.
As I said in my introduction, proceed with caution. Until there’s significantly more research done on the subject, the use of nicotine will remain controversial. Research on fat loss conclusively shows its benefit in that regard—and when compared to the illegal branch of the fat-burner family, it may actually be worth a try.
My purpose here is to relay to you what’s in the research, and to figure out how it can help you reach your goals. That’s what I do. And I’d never talk about something I wouldn’t do—and haven’t done—myself.
References
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