The Solution

Your Hormones Can Contribute to Stubborn Fat

A S YOU KNOW from reading parts 1 and 2, your hormones can be a liability when it comes to getting rid of stubborn body fat. For example, the hormone estrogen has a unique relationship with the fat cell. Fat cells can release signals that enable your body to synthesize estrogen and to regulate the reproductive cycle. In turn, estrogen affects fat cells. An influx of extra estrogen into the body from food sources can cause fat cells to grow and become stubborn.

A similar situation occurs during pregnancy and in mothers who are breast-feeding, as these cause the fat cells in the body to swell so that they are able to absorb and store more fuel. Estrogen tells them that they need to stock up on extra fat, so the fat cells prepare to do so. This is why many women gain weight when starting birth control pills or when entering menopause when levels of progesterone fall and estrogen becomes the dominant hormone.

Estrogenic Foods Also Affect Men

Most of the time, women have a more difficult time losing body fat than men. However, men are quickly catching up in this day and age because of estrogenic foods they consume in our modern Western society, rife with environmental pollution and refined foods. Ironically, one reason women have a harder time with fat loss than men is because, at any given time, women are more likely to be on a severely restricted diet to attain the coveted thinness that’s been established as a standard of beauty and attractiveness in our culture.

How Dieting Affects Fat Storage

Unfortunately, severe and prolonged dieting shuts down the metabolism, sending the body into starvation mode. The fat cells begin sending out even more fat-storing enzymes and a significantly smaller amount of fat-releasing enzymes. Because the fat cells are afraid of being starved to death and depleted of their stores, they will hold on to the fat they have to the best of their ability, causing the body to start burning lean muscle mass to get the amount of fuel it needs.

Lean muscle mass, located in the skeletal muscles and the organ systems, is the metabolically active part of the body. This means that after the diet is over and your body is out of starvation mode, your metabolism will still not function as well as before the diet, because you have lost some of your muscle mass, which was the engine driving your metabolism.

In addition, the effects of restrictive dieting on your fat-storing and -releasing enzymes can be permanent. Though the levels will return closer to a normal level after the diet, the fatreleasing enzymes will almost always be at a slightly lower level than before the diet, and the fat-storing enzymes will almost always be at a slightly higher level. Even worse: the effects are cumulative. This means that after each successive bout of dieting, it will be harder and harder for you to lose fat and control your weight for the long term.

Don’t Panic—There’s a Solution!

It sounds hopeless, but it’s not, so don’t panic! This doesn’t mean that you’re stuck with unwanted fat and excess weight for the rest of your life. It only means that you don’t have to diet anymore. Even if you tortured yourself with deprivation diets that left you hungry, anxious, and unhappy in the past, what we know about hormones, enzymes, and fat cells can actually be great news. You can lose your unwanted fat through good oldfashioned nutrition, calorie-burning, and metabolism-stimulating exercise and anti-estrogenic foods.

What I suggest to you is not a magic bullet solution, and if you’ve been a long-term chronic dieter, it might take a lot longer to lose the amount of fat you want to lose. But by putting an end to the quick-results, crash-diet approach and taking the weight loss gradually, you will not only avoid the feelings of deprivation that sabotage many diets, but the weight you lose will be three times more likely to stay off.

To improve your results in losing stubborn fat and to reduce estrogenic effects on your body, there are a few steps you must take to ensure your success. Your success depends on understanding how to detox your liver, eat foods that aid in reducing estrogen, and exercise.

The Stubborn Fat Reduction Plan

On this stubborn fat reduction plan, you are going to consume as many anti-estrogenic foods as possible and eliminate as many estrogenic foods as you can. In addition to stimulating greater fat loss, this type of eating will also help to detoxify your liver. Without cleaning out the liver and reducing the chemical build up, your liver becomes overburdened and your fat loss can hit the wall.

There are a few stages in stubborn fat removal, so here we go…

Overview of the Plan
First and foremost you must eat unprocessed foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds, and occasional wild salmon. This starts the detoxification of the liver as you eliminate all processed foods, grains, farm-fed livestock, and chemically altered foods. Try to eat as much organic food as possible.

The base of your anti-stubborn fat plan is to consume an enormous amount of cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and Brussel sprouts, as these vegetables are very anti-estrogenic. Include citrus fruits such as grapefruit, oranges, and pineapple, because they have enzymes in cofactors that aid your body against radical damage and help your liver detoxify.

Supplement your diet with omega-3 fatty acids from wild caught salmon and flaxseed. You can also take an omega-3 fatty acid supplement such as Carlson’s oil, available at www.mercola.com.

Eating raw nuts and seeds, avocados, and olive oil also improves your body’s function. In addition, eating green leafy vegetables, whole oats and barley, legumes (no soy), and spices such as turmeric (cancer fighter), milk thistle (liver detoxifier), dandelion root (natural diuretic), and ginger increases the loss of stubborn fat by decreasing estrogen in your body.

There are many estrogen inhibitors that can help you decrease body fat quickly. According to Ori Hofmekler, consuming these foods will greatly improve your ability to remove stubborn fat and decrease estrogenic effects. Hofmekler says there are additional estrogenic inhibitors such as chrysin (passion flower), apigene (chamomile), quercetin (onions, garlic); all of these cofactors can work together to detoxify your liver and get the stubborn fat off.

To simplify, systemize, and organize this information, Hofmekler developed an anti-estrogen, anti-stubborn fat program with three stages:

Stage 1—Eat Anti-estrogenic Foods and Estrogen inhibitors Cruciferous vegetables
Passion flower
Citrus fruits
Chamomile flower
Omega-3 oils
Wild catch salmon
Organic dairy

Stage 2—Additional Foods That Promote Anti-estrogenic Hormones Raw nuts and seeds
Avocados
Olives and olive oil
Rice germ oil
Wheat germ oil

Stage 3—Foods That Serve as Cofactors and Promote Liver Detoxification

Green vegetables
Spices (turmeric, oregano, thyme, rosemary, and sage) Fruits (citrus, berries, apples, pineapple)
Whole oats and barley
Legumes (no soy)
Herbs (dandelion root, ginger, alma berries, milk thistle)

Note: This is an adaption of a plan from my good friend Ori Hofmekler, author of The Warrior Diet. Thanks, Ori!

 

A Three-week Plan

Outlined below is a simple plan that will produce good initial results in just three weeks. After this initial three-week phase, you can then rotate the stages to get continued and even better results. You can also alternate the stages by the day after the first three weeks.

Stage 1, One Week Detoxify your liver

 

Stage 2, One Week

 

High fat for fuel changeover

 

Stage 3, One Week

 

Food reintroduction

 

For more information on how to set up a plan on a day-to-day basis, email me at david@flattenyourabs.net.

 

The Importance of Exercise

In addition to eating the proper anti-estrogenic foods to remove stubborn fat, it goes without saying that a crucial part of any program is exercise. Diet alone is not enough. Regular exercise is not only beneficial for fat loss, but also for your overall health. Exercise lowers body fat, blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol. You need to set some goals and plan to exercise on a continual basis.
If you attempt to lose weight without exercise, you should expect only temporary success and to succumb to the rebound effect. This simply means that sooner or later you will eventually gain back the fat, which will be harder to remove the next time around.

Increasing Your Activity Level

Instead of using the diet-only approach, emphasize the diet and exercise combination and focus on increasing your daily activity level overall. (For more information on exercising more rather than just eating less, see my article, “Movement Sufficiency, Not Calorie Deficiency.”)

Here are a few quick and practical suggestions: Walk to the store instead of driving, go for a bike ride, walk upstairs in office buildings rather than using the elevator, and park your car at the end of the parking lot instead of looking for the front row spot. Take short walks during daily breaks or after you get home. Mow your lawn with a push mower; vacuum your carpets every other day; tidy up your backyard, basement, or garage; iron your clothes; wash your windows; and play with your kids. These activities are usually not looked at as exercise or workouts, but all such activity adds up at the end of the day, and it can work wonders as it accumulates over the long haul.

Incorporating a Formal Exercise Program

Naturally, of course, you should also have a more structured and formal exercise program to achieve maximum reductions in body fat. Even mowing your lawn has health benefits and burns some calories, but for really making inroads into reducing those stubborn fat stores, more intense and focused exercise is a must.

A great type of routine for stubborn fat loss goals is a circuit training program. This style of training not only raises your metabolism, improves your cardiovascular ability, and increases strength, it is also time efficient. Put together a routine that uses large body parts such as legs, chest, back, and shoulders into groups and perform all of the exercises nonstop. You can also mix cardio interval training into your circuit workouts or in addition to your circuit workouts to increase the fat burning effect.

A Simple Circuit Program
Here is an example of an effective and time-efficient circuit program that can easily be performed at home with nothing but dumbbells and a Swiss ball.

A1 – Swiss ball Squats (ball up against the wall)
A2 – Dumbbell Cleans
A3 – Dumbbell Flys on a Swiss Ball
A4 – Lunge

A5 – Dumbbell 3 Matrix (side laterals, bent laterals, front laterals)

 

A6 – Dumbbell Row

Perform each exercise with perfect form for 6–8 reps and then get on your cardio equipment and go hard for 1–2 minutes. Rest about 90 seconds before repeating the circuit 2–3 more times, as your schedule and fitness level dictate.

The Real Secret to Stubborn Fat Loss

You can easily take one or two ideas from this series, put them to work, and immediately begin to see improvements in stubborn fat reduction. However, the real secret, if there is one, is putting all the pieces together into a comprehensive, healthy lifestyle overall.

The lifestyle suggestions below may seem basic and general, but when combined with what you’ve learned in this article series, they will have a profound impact on your outcome.

1. Don’t diet—Eat reasonably but do not starve or deprive yourself; avoid yo-yo dieting.

 

2. Avoid empty calories and processed refined foods like sodas and sweets.

 

3. Eat many smaller meals—Eat light at every meal to keep your blood sugar steady and your metabolism stoked.

4. Eat healthy fat—Eat omega-3 fatty acids such as those found in salmon to promote proper hormone function and balance.

5. Eat a lot of vegetables, focusing on the cruciferous variety.

6. Drink lots of water—What can I say other than, “without it, you will die!” Drink half an ounce for every pound you weigh.

7. Get sufficient quality and quantity of sleep.
8. Keep stress to minimum.
9. Avoid excessive and chronic use of stimulants.

10. Exercise—Just a little increase in daily activities will go a long way toward improving your health; add circuits and intervals to knock off the most stubborn fat.

11. Have a little fun—Find an exercise program you enjoy and stick to it.

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