Thought you couldn’t spot reduce?
Pioneering diet and fitness experts now claim you can target fat spots by
balancing your hormones.
If you’ve joined a gym and ditched the
chocolate, but the fat on your turn still isn’t shifting, you may be surprised
to hear your hormones could be to blame. Until recently, exercise physiologists
considered spot reduction a myth, believing you need to burn fat all over,
using a mix of cardio and whole-body resistance work. But this view could be
changing.
A growing number of fitness and nutrition
experts are claiming you can whittle fat off your middle, thighs or bingo
wings, by rebalancing your hormone levels with a tailored diet, exercise and
supplement regime. And Canadian strength coach, Charles Poliquin
(charlespoliquin.com), has devised a complete system to do just that.
“The theory of BioSignature Modulation is
that many individuals have stubborn problem areas due to imbalances in their
body biochemistry, especially with hormones,” says Poliquin. “By identifying
which hormones are causing the fat imbalance, a precise supplement protocol can
be prescribed to restore the hormone balance so the individual can lose the
excess body fat”
Naturopath Max Tomlinson, author of new
book Target Your Fat Stores: How to Banish Your Bulges (Quadrille Publishing,
$20) is another expert who believes hormones can affect how and where you store
fat. Tomlinson runs a fat spot-reduction programme at his London clinic to
target disproportionate fat deposits.
“Restoring your body to its correct
hormonal balance is an essential element in reducing your fat spots,” says
Tomlinson. “Advancements in functional medicine laboratory testing and targeted
nutritional supplements have given me a greater understanding of which hormones
in the body may be unbalanced, and how to rebalance them. These advancements
also provide the tools to help combat fat storage at specific sites”
Target trouble zones
During a BioSignature assessment,
practitioners use skin calipers to measure 12 body fat sites, including your
chin, triceps, stomach and calves. These measurements are then tapped into a
computer programme to reveal your overall bodyfat percentage and where you
accumulate the most fat. By matching body parts with their “relative hormone imbalances”,
a tailored regime is then devised which practitioners claim can result in
overall fat loss of two per cent in the first week, and half to one per cent a
week after that.
To get an idea where you have fat spots,
Tomlinson recommends taking a careful look in the mirror and doing a simple
pinch test. Pinch the skin between your forefinger and thumb and then measure
the distance with a hard ruler or rigid tape measure. Once you’ve identified
your fat spots, it’s time to take action with a BioSignature practitioner or by
keeping a record at home and using the guidelines below. If you thought you
were stuck with your fat spots, then it’s time to think again!
Trouble zone: “I’ve got bingo wings!”
Diagnosis:
Lack of the male hormone, testosterone.
“Excess fat around the back of your upper
arms, also know as bingo wings, is very common in women, and indicates too much
oestrogen and a lack of testosterone” explains women’s BioSignature Modulation
practitioner, Niki Rein (barrecore.co.uk). “Testosterone, is just as important
for women as it is men, because it helps maintain muscle, bone strength and
brain function. Fat is also stored here when you’re lacking in zinc, or when
your body isn’t processing oestrogens or toxic xenoestrogens (compounds that
imitate oestrogen), which are found in plastics, pesticides, detergents,
preservatives, carpets, and even in the atmosphere”
How
can I fix it?
Change your diet: “Include more zinc in
your diet by eating foods such as oysters, sesame seeds and roast beef,” says
Rein. “Zinc helps your body produce more testosterone. Healthy fats found in
foods such as salmon, flaxseeds, nuts, coconut, and avocados are also required
for testosterone production, and will help you to build lean muscle tissue”
Bingo wings, is very common in women,
and indicates too much oestrogen and a lack of testosterone.
Rethink
your exercise
“Resistance workouts using big compound
exercises (exercises that use more than one muscle group), such as squats and
press-ups will put your muscles under the maximum amount of stress, and force
your body to produce more testosterone,” says Rein. Try doing a circuit of
lunges, press-ups, deadlifts and dumbbell shoulder presses at least three times
a week. Do 15 reps of each move, then repeat the circuit four times, taking a
minute’s rest in between each exercise
What
supplements do I need?
Start with zinc, such as Solgar Zinc, $10
(solgar.com/uk) and omega-3 fish oils capsules. Such as Perricone MD Omega 3,
$48 (perriconemd.co.uk), that are rich in EPA (anti-inflammatory oil) and DHA
(an omega-3 acid). Also try a gamma linoleic acid (GLA)-rich oil, such as
Nature’s Plus Borage Oil, $21 (revital.com), which is packed with omega-6, and
will further help restore healthy testosterone levels.
