How to lose belly fat....

Today's post:  Thursday, 9-22-2016

For appearance and health losing inches of fat off your waist is more important than losing pounds on the scale.

That’s because part of it is inside you and is called visceral fat.  Too much of it tends to squeeze your lungs and heart and stomach.  That reduces your ability to breathe well and tends to increase your blood pressure and can cause or worsen acid reflux.

Not only that but visceral fat when tends to release compounds that cause heart disease I’ve read.

For appearance, fat elsewhere tends to make you look bigger overall; but belly fat sticks out and is very visible so it makes you look fatter.

The good news is that there are many things that do help you remove excess belly fat.  And, not only does removing it have health and other benefits, most of these methods have health benefits in addition to removing belly fat!

1.  The most important method is in Mike Matthews advice on how to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.

He says and has pictures to prove it that if you add muscle and lose fat enough to lower your bodyfat percentage enough, you CAN lose your belly fat.

Though this table says that higher percentages are OK than Mike’s actual pictures show is the case, I found it on Google and list it here mostly to show the significant range of percentages and to show that the percentages for women are higher than for men.

Acceptable Body Fat Percentage

Description      Female      male

Athletes             14-20%              6-13%

Fitness                 21-24%        14-17%

Acceptable      25-30%            18-25%

Obese                  31%+           26%+

Body Fat - Does Yours Measure Up? - Bodybuilding.com

www.bodybuilding.com/fun/measure_up_body_fat.htm

Mike has found studies showing that women who have much under 18 or 19 percent fat can have menstrual or fertility or health problems.  And men much under 8% tend to have health problems.

But the people who don’t show excess belly fat are just above that!  About 20 to 23 % fat for women and 9 to 12% fat for men.

So getting rid of all your excess belly fat can be a challenge because it’s a high bar to get over.

The good news is that it is doable.  The bad news is that what this lists as acceptable shows fat bellies in the pictures of people at that percentage of body fat.

My waist is 4 to 8 inches too big as a man and I’m at about 18 to 20% fat.

This shows that to lose my belly fat without gaining more muscle, I have to lose about half my remaining excess fat.  That way instead of instead of 18 to 20 % fat I’ll be 9 to 10% fat.

As some of you know who have been following my posts, I’m currently trying partial intermittent fasting using Bulletproof Brain Octane to avoid excess hunger and mental energy drop off. 

(I also limit my calorie cut back to be just above my metabolism level for the week and eat a high protein, high organic vegetable diet or food plan the rest of the time.)

Those days once I’ve had my high protein breakfast to maintain or add to my muscle mass, I only eat lightly and eat only vegetables.  I’ve also reduced my intake of sugar and organic dried fruit every week.

I’m at about 162 now and to get to 10% body fat from 19% by only losing fat, I need to lose about 16 pounds to 146.

Or I can lose about one pound but gain 15 pounds of muscle.  That’s my preference but at my age and not yet being able to lift heavier weights in the gym, my current focus is on fat loss.

2.  There are some other things that either help remove belly fat or turn off things that add it:

a)  It’s harmful for the people who eat the food but until recently factory farms routinely “finished” meat animals by feeding them extra grain and penning them up.  This reliably made them fatter.

What this means in people who work at their desks for long hours and then watch TV for long hours is that they are inadvertently penning themselves up.

That keeps them fatter and tends to be effective at adding belly fat.

There are two cures for this. 

Watch far less TV, less than 10 to 15 hours a week, and what you still watch exercise on an at home exerciser while doing so.  Note that this does NOT need to be strenuous only that you stay in motion and avoid sitting totally still.

When it becomes available get a low key exerciser you can use at your desk and keep it in motion as many minutes in your work day as you can fit in.

Working while standing or walking is somewhat available in some workplaces but is not as good or usable by most people as a way to exercise while sitting at a normal sized desk.

The devices sold for that are not very good yet.  But given the importance we now know they have, I believe that is temporary.

I have more space at my desk than most and have managed to get a recumbent bike set up. 

Currently after reading that excess sitting reduces the lipase you need to use and get rid of excess fat, I’ve been making a real effort to triple the amount of time I spend pedaling this bike.

In fact, I am doing it now!

b)  Excess stress that you don’t quite relieve adds belly fat and also makes it hard to get rid of.

Getting better at running your life without excess stress does work.  But it often is not enough.

Exercise does help you relax anyway, particularly walking or exercising moderately at your desk.

Yoga and Tai Chi do work to relieve stress for some people. 

But the device that was in Medical News Today a day or two may be both more effective and much more time efficient to use.  The researchers found that people who don’t relax enough after being stressed stay too amped up AND the hemispheres of their brain get out of balance.  But by using this device and real time feedback from it, people were able to lower stress and balance their hemispheres too.

The people they tested it on had high blood pressure and by using this device they cur that y 16 over 13 to readings that were completely out of the high blood pressure range.

When this becomes available, it likely will help cut belly fat too!  Here’s the article itself:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/312914.php

Innovative sound therapy treats hypertension and migraine   by Tim Newman    Saturday 17 September 2016

Reducing migraines too was a desirable effect!

Another way I’ve found effective is to have a support network of good hearted and competent friends, relatives, or co-workers.  This both helps you overcome the problems that stress you and enables you to relax more when not actively working on them.

This has been tested to be true for most people.  And, when I’ve had it, my high blood pressure readings become normal.

Conclusion:

1.  Doing the basics of fat loss and adding strength training and properly done intermittent fasting can lower your percentage bodyfat enough to remove your excess belly fat.

2.  Moving enough more and sitting totally still less can help remove belly fat and turn off a known cause.

3.  Reducing excessive stress, getting good support from other people, and using a practice or device that enables you to relax between stresses turns off another known cause of belly fat. 

How and why to cut belly fat....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 6-16-2016

A.  The biggest two reasons to lose fat are to protect your health and improve your appearance.

1.  If you have more than a little bit of belly fat, it puts your health at risk itself – in addition to any health risks of the stress or bad eating or too little exercise that put it there.

Mike Geary wrote this: 

“What people don’t realize is that excess abdominal fat, is not just ugly, it is also a dangerous risk factor to your health! Scientific research has demonstrated in many studies that although it is unhealthy to have excess body fat throughout your body, it is particularly dangerous to have excess abdominal fat.

Most people do not realize that there are two types of fat in the abs area. The first type that covers up abs and prevents them from being visible is called subcutaneous fat and lies directly beneath the skin and above of the abdominal muscles.

The 2nd type of abdominal fat is called visceral fat, and that lies a bit deeper in the abdomen, beneath the muscle and surrounding the organs. Visceral fat plays a role in giving certain men a "beer belly" look where their abdomen protrudes excessively and at the same time, feels hard if you push on it.

Both of these fats, subcutaneous fat and visceral fat in your abs area are very serious health risk factors. Science proves that excessive visceral fat is far more dangerous than subcutaneous fat. Both types of fat greatly increase your risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, sleep apnea, and various forms of cancer. Other well known degenerative diseases are involved too.

One of the reasons visceral fat is so dangerous is it releases inflammatory molecules into your body on a consistent basis."

Another is that since it shares space with your vital internal organs, heart. lungs, and liver, they become less able to protect you, give you good health, and keep you alive.  This is one of the ways enough too much belly fat and the internal visceral fat that goes with it causes high blood pressure and sleep apnea and acid reflux.

Based on my experience a large waist measurement reflects internal visceral fat even more than the subcutaneous fat just underneath the skin.

2.  And, if you have more than a little bit of belly fat, you look fat even if the rest of you is lean.

(Personal note:  I developed acid reflux which was caused mostly by gaining belly fat.  And my belly fat and the proton pump inhibitors I took for it plus stress gave me high blood pressure.

And, after my recent effective strength training and the fat loss I have managed, my legs, arms, chest and shoulders look lean while my middle still looks fat.

And when I stand straight, my belly sticks forward several inches too far.  So I still look fat.)

B.  In fact, your waist measure may be the best indicator of how fat you are, NOT BMI, and how much health risk you are likely to be under.

If you are male and muscular, you can be fat by BMI, over 30 or even over 35, but have little or no excess fat.

Worse, and more common in both sexes, if you are sedentary and have little muscle tone or development, you can have a desirable BMI such as 23 or 24; but your internal or visceral fat may put your health at risk and only show in your belly and waist measurement.

Statistics currently show that about a third of people in the United States are fat by BMI.  But besides that group, a sixth of the people in the United States have lower enough BMI but show as fat by their waist measurement.  This means that half of the people in the United States are too fat, roughly speaking. 

(This is much worse in many Southern states and better in California, Colorado, and most the New England states.)

And even more revealing measure by which even more people likely show as being too fat is the waist hip measurement.

Here’s how to use it.  You want to be in the Low Risk category.

Low Risk Men .90 or below   Women .80 or below

Moderate Risk Men .91 to .99   Women .81 to .84

High Risk  Men 1.0 or above  Women .85 or above

Mike Matthews (See Muscle For Life  Build Muscle. Stay Lean. Get Strong. For Life.

at www.muscleforlife.com/.)  says his experience shows that to lose your belly fat, the biggest key is to lose enough of your extra fat to get enough below a percent body fat. 

He has studied it and found that men 9 to 12% fat is low enough but not too low; and

women 17 to 21 % fat is low enough but not too low.

It is possible to get somewhat lower than that for some athletes and bodybuilders; but much below that range tends to produce health problems.

So besides following the health rules that help you keep off fat you lose by upgrading your lifestyle, you need to lose fat until you get into that range.

There are ways to measure your percent fat with calipers and more.  But the most accurate is to compare yourself in the mirror to pictures of men and women with different percent body fat.  And, these pictures are online.

(My current status is that I look about 12% fat above and below my waist and 20 to 24% fat at my waist. And, the calipers I got that go by a pinch of external fat on my waist have me at 19% which is likely about right.   My waist hip ratio now is a very poor 1.09/)

At 161 pounds I have about 31 pounds of fat now.  So to get to 10 % and lose my excess belly fat and stay the same weight, I would need to gain 15 pounds of muscle and lose 15 pounds of fat.  Oddly that much muscle burns three times as many calories so I might be able to then eat MORE calories.  Then I’d have 16 pounds of fat at 161 pounds and be just below 10% fat.

Without using steroids at my age, even using heavier weights in the squat, leg press, and deadlift which I do plan to do and am progressing towards, adding 3 pounds of muscle may be more achievable.  So, I’d have to lose more like 14 pounds of fat in addition to replacing the 3 pounds of fat with muscle to get to 10% fat.  Then I’d have 14 pounds of fat and weigh 150 pounds and again would be a bit below 10% fat.  But to do that I’d need to wind up eating less.)

To lose that much fat you need to do four things: 

1.  Totally avoid fattening foods and drinks.  Soft drinks, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, all wheat, and most grains and the foods made from them -- all need to go!

2. Eat a LOT of organic vegetables, some organic whole fresh fruit, and health safe protein and some health safe oils.

3.  Create a calorie deficit as low as you can without going below your basal metabolism until you get to your % fat goal -- AND lower your base intake to match what keeps you at that level after that - which may be less than you eat now. 

4.  Also do effective strength training. Then you will lose only muscle and lose MORE fat.

You will also likely wind up gaining muscle and eating more without gaining the fat back.

Doing higher intensity interval cardio helps -- plus you will stay mentally sharp & live longer.

So, if you do those exercises you are dramatically more likely to keep off the fat you lose.  

Why aim for a smaller waist....

Today's Post: Monday, 7-11-2011

A local health professional mails out periodic newsletters with some health news items to promote his work.

His recent newsletter had that doctors at Harvard have found that belly size may be more indicative of health problems than pounds or BMI measures.

Abdominal fat, and visceral fat which is inside your body but increases your waist size, they now know tend to indicate future problems with heart disease, strokes, and type 2 diabetes and other problems.

They said that health risks begin to increase at a waist measurement of 31 inches for women and 37 inches for men.

A waist size of 35 inches or more for women and 40 inches or more for men puts them in the danger range.

Clearly the things that reduce visceral and belly fat are health protective according to this measure. (It also helps that having a smaller belly helps you look better.)

What to do if you have a bigger waist than these standards:

1. The most effective thing you can do is exercise. Doing some vigorous and some moderate exercise each week helps.

One study found that exercise helped twice as much as the other solution they covered.

(Even people who are of normal weight but don’t exercise tend to have bigger bellies and hidden visceral fat inside them. People of the same weight who exercise have far less.)

2. That solution was to eat foods high in soluble fiber. The best sources are beans and lentils and nonstarchy vegetables. Oatmeal and oat bran are high in it. But oatmeal is a bit higher in glycemic index. And steel cut oats and rolled oats are far lower in glycemic index than instant or quick cooking oatmeal. Apples are high in it. But apples are best for you if organic and unwaxed which can be a bit hard to find.

3. The other solution which for some people can be as much as 70% or more of the effect they need is to cut way back on sugar and to eliminate packaged snacks, packaged desserts, most fast food, and all soft drinks.

This also includes eliminating all refined grain foods. And, cutting way back on oils high in omega 6 and eliminating all such oils that have been partially or fully hydrogenated also helps. Eliminating high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners also helps.

In practice, these often go together. A packaged snack may have little in it after the refined grains, junk oils, and sweeteners are removed.

4. Monosaturated oils such as extra virgin olive oil and found in avocados and nuts tend to reduce belly fat. Some studies suggest they do so directly. And, they clearly do as replacements for oils high in omega 6 and all such oils that have been partially or fully hydrogenated. Best of all, monosaturated oils consistently have been found to produce health benefits directly.

5. Eat more protein. But eat beans and lentils and nuts and naturally fed animals to the best extent you can. 100 % grass fed beef and lamb and wild caught fish are examples. If you do get animal protein from meat from grain fed animals, eat less and eat the leanest most fat trimmed version you can.

Protein is most filling and helps you eat less of the junkier foods. And these kinds of protein sources tend to produce the best health results.

6. Watch far less TV. Doing so can give you the time to exercise while watching TV burns fewer calories than sleeping! In addition, much of commercial TV entertainment has ads for the foods and drinks best avoided.

People who watch 14 hours or less of TV a week are less fat and have smaller waists than people who watch 28 or more!

Even if you are obese, you can be healthier....

Today's Post: Monday, 10-4-2010

Yesterday, Sunday, 10-3-2010, LiveScience.com had this headline:

“Obese But Healthy? Gray Area Confounds Science.”

It seems that some people who measure as obese on their BMI score have normal readings on things like blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugars.

This is despite the fact that 60 to 75 % of similarly fat or obese people do NOT have such good readings.

1. What makes the difference?

The article had some of the answers.

There were several.

And, I’ll add some they didn’t have.

The healthy people were fat or fatter everywhere except their abdomen or belly. Their fat tended to be in their arms or hips or thighs.

The less than healthy people were always fat in their abdomen or belly. And, it’s abdominal fat, particularly the internal visceral fat that tends to cause or be associated with bad health in various ways.

That has some corollary or explanatory reasons.

Stress is known to cause both worsening of these health indicators and to increase your abdominal and visceral fat.

So, obese people who weren’t extra stressed for long periods tended to have healthier readings and smaller bellies.

Sedentary work and recreation are known to both cause both worsening of these health indicators and to increase your abdominal and visceral fat.

And, that’s compounded for people who don’t get regular exercise.

So, obese people who were a bit less sedentary at work and likely watched less TV and particularly those who exercised regularly tended to have healthier readings and smaller bellies.

The Livescience.com story didn’t have it. But another way that some obese people stay healthy or healthier and have better health indicators is to take supplements that improve these readings. Last Friday, we listed some that increase HDL and lower LDL and triglycerides, for example.

Similarly, the people who were obese but not healthy I suspect quite strongly, ONLY ate and drank poor quality and fattening stuff with little nutrition while the healthy ones ate and drank a mix of both such junk foods AND also ate some real vegetables and fruit and other healthier choices. I also suspect strongly that a follow up study would show the healthier obese people drank dramatically less soft drinks than the less healthy majority. One definite that a follow up study would almost certainly find I think, is that the less healthy obese people probably ate significantly more trans fats and hydrogenated oils.

So, similarly to people who take supplements, the healthier obese people got more and better nutrition from their food and drink despite taking in too much bad stuff also. While the less healthy obese people were more harmed by their poor quality foods and drinks.

Lastly, though it’s not mentioned in the article, the healthier obese people were almost certainly exposed to less tobacco smoke.

2. Did you know there is a way to tell if you may have an obesity related health problem even before or without getting your health indicators checked?

Because so many of these factors contribute to abdominal obesity, you can measure your waist with a simple tape measure and get an indication.

Here’s how to measure your waist. Walk around just a bit so you feel how tense your tummy muscles usually are. Then measure your waist at your belly button where the circle made by the tape is parallel to the floor and not slanted up or down. If you have neither pulled in or tensed your tummy muscles extra nor pushed out your tummy or over relaxed its muscles, that reading is pretty accurate. (Most obese people who were pants wear them lower than that where they are not quite so big around. But that place on them is NOT the right place to measure the true size of their waist for this purpose.)

If you are a man and your waist measures 40.0 inches or more, your health is at risk. And, if it’s 46.0 or more inches, you are almost certainly at risk and should have your health indicators checked at a lab or by a doctor.

If you are a woman and your waist measures 35.0 inches or more, your health is at risk. And, if it’s 40.0 or more inches, you are almost certainly at risk and should have your health indicators checked at a lab or by a doctor.

In fact, if you are only overweight on the scale and get such waist measurements, you are just as at risk.

3. What can you do if you have a too large waist measurement or are obese on the scale?

The most important things are these.:

a) If you haven’t already, begin to do some regular exercise even if you start with a two minute walk on your lunch hour or 5 crunches first thing in the morning three mornings a week. Then gradually build up to more and keep doing regular exercise most days of every week.

Separate research has found that fat exercisers, while not as healthy as nonfat ones, are MORE healthy than sedentary thin people.

(Skinny but sedentary people, in fact, are actually fat inside with underdeveloped muscles that are lighter than they should be. They are fat too; but just don’t look like it.)

This means that even before you lose weight or build up to enough exercise to cause you to lose weight, you can be DRAMATICALLY healthier if you begin regular exercise and continue it.

b) Rate the TV shows you watch and cut back on the less important to you until you watch 15 or 20 hours a week or less. Your health will be better because you’ll be less sedentary even if you take a nap or do very light housework instead. Plus you may find you have time to exercise once you do this.

c) Once you have started regular exercise and have been doing it a couple of weeks, also do some strength training even if you start with 5 pound dumbbells or with just one or two from the knee pushups. Do strength training every other day.

d) Add some new fruit and vegetable foods to what you eat. Even one a day more will help.

e) Simply eliminate the worst and most fattening and health damaging foods and drinks. Even if you eat and drink the same number of calories or healthier ones, you will dramatically improve your health. And, since that’s actually quite hard to do, you may find that 20 to 60 pounds simply leaves you with no further effort needed. The more of this stuff you eat and drink now, the more weight you’ll lose on the scale.

Drink no regular or diet soft drinks. Regular soft drinks fatten without cutting your hunger. And diet soft drinks fatten just as much since they are an appetite stimulant drug for sugary foods! Drink water, or tea, or coffee, or club soda instead.

Always read labels. If a food shows any trans fat reading above 0.0 grams, do NOT buy that item or ingest it.

(Similarly, if it has ANY hydrogenated oil listed as an ingredient, it HAS enough trans fats to harm you even if it lists a serving with 0.0 transfats. They can list 0.0 grams even if it really has .49 grams and you likely will eat five servings or more for over 2.45 grams of trans fats. Oops !)

Get that item from a better food provider or make it homemade if you like it. But do NOT knowingly ingest it with such stuff in it. It will make you fatter in your belly and harm your health.

Buy no foods or drink no drinks with high fructose corn syrup even if they re-label it as corn sugar. It IS more harmful than real sugar if you eat tons of it as most people do now. And, about 30 % of it has mercury in it too. So there is an extra incentive to NOT eat or drink stuff containing it.

Avoid tobacco smoke as close to 100 % of the time as you can get. Whether smoked or breathed in as second hand smoke, it causes heart disease and triggers heart attacks. And, the more you are exposed to the worse your heart health indicators will be.

It’s harder due to how much the stuff has taken over the diet of the average person.

But try to eliminate foods made from refined grains and eat less grain foods and then get only 100 % whole grain foods.

And, also cut the amount of sugar you eat in half; and then cut that in half; and then cut that in half once you get used to it. The average American ingests 22 teaspoons of sugar a day. And, for most Americans, the safe amount to eat is closer to 2 teaspoons!


The bad news is that if a lot of these categories apply to you, your health is seriously at risk.

The much better news is that you can dramatically improve your health and health indicators by making these changes.

And, the best news of all is that making most of these changes produces near effortless weight and fat loss.

Fat Loss makes you sexier as well as better looking....

Today's post: Monday, 12-22-2008

It turns out this works BOTH ways. Excess fat de-sexes you to some degree and so does one of the causes of you gaining excess fat in the first place that also tends to cause you to add belly fat. AND, the doing the things that will take off excess fat or prevent it showing up or coming back, have been proven to make you sexier.

The article we quote today from last Friday’s Total Health breakthroughs email is written mostly for men.

But all these factors work in women too. Some work every bit as well for women as they do for men; and some work to some degree but not as strongly.

1. The hormone connection.

Excess estrogen tends to make both men and women less sexy. But it is particularly bad for men.

Similarly, testosterone tends to make people feel sexier and more interested in sex.

Men, particularly when they are young tend to have a lot of testosterone. But as they get older they tend to have less or to have sexually ineffective versions and less useful, or “free”, testosterone in their blood.

Women, particularly when they are young, also do have some testosterone. And women who have too little testosterone, tend to lose some of their interest in and enjoyment of sex.

Excess estrogen tends to cause sex and health problems in both sexes.

First, here’s the THB article with some of the key information.:

"This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise's Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com"

“Friday, December 19, 2008

Men: "Hormone Hell" is NOT Just for Women!

By Layne Lowery

Can men go through menopause? Absolutely! You might not know it, but estrogen dominance, or andropause, is a major health hazard for men over 40. This hormone imbalance occurs when your body builds up too much estrogen and xenoestrogens -- which are synthetic forms of the hormone.

You've probably never heard of estrogen dominance -- and your doctor would probably misdiagnose your symptoms. But this could be the reason you suffer from...

Memory loss and "senior moments"
Depression and mood swings
Sleepless nights
Unwanted weight gain-- especially belly fat
Muscles turning into flab
Low sex drive and erectile dysfunction (ED)
Enlarged prostate and other prostate problems-- and a frequent need to urinate
Hair loss
Male breasts or "man boobs"

There are three main reasons why these unpleasant symptoms of male menopause may be tormenting you: 1) aging, 2) environmental pollutants, and 3) your diet.

As you get older, your body doesn't make as much testosterone. The remaining testosterone gets weaker and easily converts to estrogen. Unfortunately, mid-life weight gain increases estrogen production because fat cells contain the aromatase enzyme, which changes testosterone into estrogen.

Another cause for hormone imbalances comes from xenoestrogens -- or toxins that imitate estrogen-- which are dumped into the environment by industrial, agricultural, and chemical companies. In his health newsletter, Dr. HingHau Tsang said these phony hormones are offshoots of products such as spermacides, detergent, plastics, plastic bottles, pesticides, herbicides, personal care products, and lacquers.

Dr. Tsang also said commercially raised beef, chicken and pork, as well as birth control pills and canned foods, contain xenoestrogens. He said massive amounts of hormones are regularly injected into beef and poultry, which can upset your natural estrogen levels.1

John R. Lee, M.D., an expert in natural progesterone therapy, thinks that significant amounts of estrogen are the main cause of prostate enlargement AND prostate cancer!2

And estrogen dominance can also lead to erectile dysfunction (ED). According to Nick Delgado, Ph.D., a leading expert on anti-aging, a number of men with ED are "at greater risk for heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, or hypertension."3

So whether you call it estrogen dominance, "male menopause," or andropause -- estrogen overload is a real health hazard. And as indicated in a report titled "Manopause" by Lisa Marshall, large numbers of baby boomers are being hit with symptoms of male menopause.4

Therefore, Dr. John Morley, lead researcher of estrogen dominance in men and head of the geriatrics division at Saint Louis University Medical School, predicts that, "We are going to see an explosion of interest in it."5

What does this mean for you? Have your hormone levels checked to ensure that you don't have elevated levels of estrogen that can cause major health problems. A good naturopathic practitioner can advise you on lifestyle changes and nutritional supplements that will help keep your hormones in balance and reduce your risk of both male menopause and chronic disease.

References

1. HingHau Tsang, M.D., Dr. HingHau Tsang's Crusade on Nutrition: Newsletter #75--"Estrogen Dominance, Natural Progesterone and Men," Tsangenterprise.

2. John R. Lee, M.D., Natural Progesterone.

3. Nick Delgado, Ph.D., "Steps to Overcoming Estrogen Dominance and Slowing Symptoms of Aging," Ezine Articles.

4. Lisa Marshall, "Manopause," Natural Awakenings.

5. John R. Lee, M.D., Medical letter--"Prostate Disease and Hormones," March 2002.
[Ed. Note: Layne Lowery is the owner and operator of Health Resources ™, a manufacturer of high-quality nutritional supplements. In the health business since 1995, Layne's passion is providing affordable natural health solutions and educational tools based on the best scientific research available to empower his customers to make wise decisions on matters of personal health.]

The Hormonal Cause of Man Boobs and Facial Hair in Women.. You've Likely Never Heard Of!

It's called "estrogen dominance" and it's a silent menace that could be plaguing your body and wreaking havoc on your health. It's annoying (and often dangerous) symptoms affect both men and women. And contrary to popular belief, not only women need estrogen for healthy living.

If you're a man, the warning signs of estrogen dominance include: Enlarged prostate and frequent need to urinate, prostate problems, high PSA levels, belly fat, male breasts, muscles turning to flab and low sex drive.

If you're a woman, the warning signs of estrogen dominance include: Abnormal breast cells, hot flashes and painful menopausal symptoms, unwanted facial hair, vaginal dryness and painful intercourse, weight gain, brittle bones, dry skin and wrinkles and thinning hair and bald spots.

The good news is you can safely put an end to estrogen dominance and restore a normal hormonal balance with a remarkable phytonutrient called Di-Indole Methane. ….”

X* X* X* X* X* X* X*

Three key ideas are in this article.:

a) “….mid-life weight gain increases estrogen production because fat cells contain the aromatase enzyme, which changes testosterone into estrogen.“

This means that the fatter you are the more likely you are to have less testosterone and too much estrogen. The fat cells directly trigger a process that causes both problems.

I knew some of this other info. But this one I did NOT know.

So, if you want to be as sexy as your heredity and circumstances allow, this means that excess fat on your body is your enemy.

b) The other things that trigger too much estrogen tend to make you gain fat and to gain belly fat in particular. So, doing the other things that prevent excess estrogen will make you less fat all over and help you lose belly fat too.

c) The “phytonutrient called Di-Indole Methane” apparently helps prevent the compounds that trigger excess estrogen from doing so and to block the excessive conversion of testosterone to estrogen. In men, it helps boost testosterone levels and may do this in women as well.

The phytonutrient called Di-Indole Methane is available at the health food store now. There it’s called DIM. Source Naturals is a company that produces a DIM supplement that health food stores carry. And, there may be several others that I do not yet know.

But, you don’t need to get it from supplements alone. It is a phytonutrient that is found in broccoli and possibly other cruciferous vegetables as well.

Another supplement that increases testosterone release is Tribulus. Many supplement companies make it including the NOW brand that you can get in health food stores.

2. The food connection.

If you eat lots of broccoli or a moderate amount often. -- and you also eat other cruciferous vegetables regularly, particularly if you regular have some raw and some cooked, you get a good bit of cancer protection, particularly for the more aggressive sex-linked cancers from the raw ones; and you get many kinds of other health benefits as well.

This is in addition to the DIM you get by doing so!

These foods, as well as green beans, tomatoes, onions, green peas, celery, green peppers, and many other less starchy vegetables are high in fiber and nutrition and low to very low in calories.

That means they are good for you; fill you up; and do not make you fat.

In fact eating a lot of them helps allow you to eat fewer calories WITHOUT feeling less full, too hungry, or undernourished.

This is so much the case, Weight Watchers assigns them ZERO points.

So that means that eating a lot of cruciferous and other nonstarchy vegetables every week makes you sexier two ways, you’ll be less fat so you’ll have less of the aromatase that creates excess estrogen; and you’ll take in the DIM and similar phytonutrients that tend to prevent excess estrogen and increase your testosterone levels.

3. The exercise connection.

Regular exercise has been proven to improve the sex lives
of BOTH men and women.

Here’s why.:

The calories burned tend to make you less fat. The muscle you gain or don’t lose burns more calories than the fat cells you otherwise would be feeding. This makes it easier to lose fat and keep it off AND, to some degree it makes it possible to do so without getting hungry!

Progressive strength training and interval cardio do this best, partly because they cause you to burn more calories for up to several hours AFTER you stop exercising.

But they do more than that. All exercise tends to release growth hormones.
And one of the growth hormones exercise releases is testosterone! Here again, progressive strength training and interval cardio do this best.

And, it doesn’t hurt that doing these exercises makes you stronger, look better, and have more stamina so you don’t run out of gas in the middle of a sexual encounter.

So, it’s literally true being fat makes you less sexy. And doing the things that help you lose excess fat tends to make you sexier even BEFORE you lose all the fat.

They’re BOTH true.