Look Like a Lady, Train Like a Man- Part 2: Fixing Stubborn Fat Areas

Look Like a Lady, Train Like a Man

Part 2: Fixing Stubborn Fat Areas

The majority of people in the world, are struggling to reach their fitness goals. I believe throughout one's dieting journey, the average person will try over 3 fad diets. Whether you choose low-fat diets, low-carb diets, or the Twinkie diet highlighted by Mark Haub, a professor at Kansas State University, you have probably tried it all and gotten nowhere. 

Displacement in Weight Loss

So many of us have struggled to keep our weight where we want it. We go on diets for a few months, only to rebound and get right back to where we started or even further behind. The issue may be further than how much you are putting in, but what specifically. 

End the Back and Forth

Specific hormonal imbalances can not only lead to the weight gain, but can also determine where you store the majority of the fat. This is a difficult issue to understand because the way hormones interfere with each other in the body.

For example, the effect of insulin in the body when catecholamines (neurotransmitters that stimulate adrenaline and dopamine: common sources coffee, green tea, and dark chocolate) are present. If insulin is high and so are catecholamines, insulin's effect can be blunted. However, if insulin is high while catecholamines are low, the effect of insulin can act unhindered.

Belly-Fat

Cortisol: High cortisol levels can stimulate your body to store more fat in your belly, this is often diagnosed as metabolic syndrome . Counter: To counter the effects of cortisol, you should make sleeping a priority, increasing to at least 8 hours. Other factors that can benefit this are cutting down on alcohol, and implementing consistent resistance training, keep it short, and intense. Please Please, avoid long bouts of cardio.

Lower-Back and Love Handles

Insulin: This area is most often attributed to the mismanagement of carbohydrates and glucose. Counter: Obvious remedies for this are cutting down on carbohydrates, but on a hormonal level it is wise to pair this with a strength training regimen to improve insulin sensitivity. For more on improving insulin you should look to either carbnite or carb backloading made popular by Kiefer.

Store Fat in your Lower Body, or Tricep Area?

Estrogen: This is an area that few men, outside of the obese suffer from. However, this is very common in women. Estrogen has a way of storing extra fat on women, mainly on the back of the arms, in the legs, hips and in the chest area. Not the chest area you want either, mainly in the side pec to armpit area. Counter: For women, this is a very tough area to reduce, due to your role in nature, your bodies have adapted to holding on to more fat for childbirth. You can see these areas improved with stimulation of testosterone or growth hormone. Ways to improve growth hormone secretion are fasting in the morning, lactic-acid training (slow-reps) and getting plenty of sleep. 

Growth Hormone Side Note: 

Growth hormone is released when you sleep, but only when your blood glucose is back to a stable level. Using Carb Backloading can help you use G.H. and proper insulin management to bust through fat loss plateaus and into a much leaner physique.

Stay Tuned for Part 3:

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Information Gathered from http://www.metaboliceffect.com/hormonal-body-fat-signatures/

http://athlete.io/303/fixing-the-damage-part-2-backloading/

http://www.romanfitnesssystems.com/blog/lose-stubborn-fat/

Look like a Lady, Train like a Man- Part 1: Hormonal Differences

Look like a Lady, Train like a Man

Part 1: Hormonal Differences

[side note: there are many men out there, that nobody should train like, men or women.]

I feel that women are greatly underrepresented in the fitness community. Why is this, when the majority of people hiring personal trainers and doing the research are women. First I must say that as a man, I cannot begin to understand the hurdles women face in reaching their goals. I have discussed the obstacles women face when training with some female trainees in efforts to understand their strife and encourage women who are apprehensive, to train the way they should. 

The biggest misconception women have when starting their fitness careers is that they need to train like women. Lifting pink dumbbells, and spending the majority of their gym time on the treadmill. Women are different than men, in most cases this is obvious unless you enjoy daytime talk shows such as Springer, and Maury. The biggest division between men and women, other than Y Chromosomes, are their hormones. Women have many amazing capabilities that men do not, and the same in reverse. The hormonal differences can be the biggest obstacle women face when trying to reach their fitness goals. 

Understanding your Hormones

For sake of the target audience, I will address only the effect hormones have in the female body.

Estrogen: In the female body, estrogen reigns supreme. Estrogen is essential for the development of female sex organs, and the regulation of menstrual cycles amongst many other functions.  The physical effects as result of estrogen are to limit height increases during puberty, and be highly catabolic (breaking down) in the limiting of muscle. 

Key Point: Estrogen limits muscle growth.

Testosterone: Testosterone in the endocrine system of females, is much lower than males. Testosterone is responsible for the anabolic (building up) of tissues in the body. Testosterone is responsible for libido, muscle building, and bone health. Testosterone levels in women are on average 5-10% of that in men. 

Key Point: Women have very low testosterone levels, so... lifting weights will not make you bulky. Men have a hard enough time adding muscle, you should be fine.

Cortisol: Cortisol is a catabolic hormone related to stress and reaches it's peak when you wake up and after strength training (putting stress on your muscles). Cortisol is seen as a evil hormone by many, but for those trying to lose weight it can be your friend, *if you do not raise insulin while cortisol is high. More on that later. Cortisol is key in regulating your thyroid, blood pressure and kidney function.

Insulin: Everyone is familiar with insulin, but many don't understand the function of insulin in the body, and even less know more than John Kiefer. Insulin can be the key to why you cannot see your toes, or the reason for ice-cube abs. Understanding insulin's function in the body and how to manipulate insulin for your gain can be the key to easier fat-loss or muscle gain. Insulin stimulates cells in your body to absorb glucose. The cells targeted by insulin are both muscle and fat cells, but you can learn how to manage insulin to force your body to take up insulin in your muscle cells and not in your fat stores. 

Hormonal Effect in Women

These hormones can tell you a lot. For the beginner female trainee's:

• You will not bulk up, if you are lifting heavy weights. Focus on strength and building lean muscle, muscle has many benefits.
• Cortisol is not always the enemy and can be used as a tool for fat loss if used correctly.
• Low-Carbohydrate diets are not the end-all-be-all of fat loss diets. You can use insulin management to better reach your goals. 

Hormonal imbalances can relate to where you store fat in the body, see what I mean in part 2.

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