The One Hormone That's Keeping Your Stomach Fat
by Shin Ohtake creator of Max Workouts

Beer belly, spare tire, spill over...they're all the same thing - Belly Fat. And it's the most difficult area to lose fat and get lean. No amount of sit ups, crunches or side bends are going to get rid of it. It's fat around your belly and you need to burn off the fat if you ever want to see the effects of all your ab/core exercises.

The problem is that the fat around your belly isn't like any other fat on your body. It's heavily influenced by your hormones and in order for you to make real changes in that area, you're going to have to take charge of your hormones. And this is the difficult part...first you have to know which hormones are doing the damage and then you have to learn how to control these hormones and lastly, you have to implement these changes if you ever want your belly fat to go away.

Now, there's few key hormones that affect your belly fat, but there's one in particular that really makes a difference. It's a powerful hormone that is essential to your body's metabolic functions but it can also easily get out of balance and cause havoc to your body. And to make matters more difficult this hormone increases as you age making the occurrence of imbalance, and a larger belly, almost a sure thing. BUT all is not lost...you CAN get rid of your spare tire, IF you know what to do. Stop wasting your time and effort on things that don't work. I'll show you what you need to know, so you can take control of your hormone and really start making a difference in your body. You'll understand why you haven't been able to burn off your belly fat and learn to make the necessary changes in order to finally penetrate the stubborn fat that's been surrounding your belly like Fort Knox.

If you've been reading my articles for a while now, you know that I'm a stickler about insulin. It's one of the most influential hormone in your body when it comes to health and fat loss. Insulin control hinders on consuming the right type of carbohydrates, proper food combinations and elimination of refined sugars...all in an effort to keep your blood sugar levels even. Abusing insulin through poor diet and lifestyle is one of the biggest reasons people gain weight and have a real hard time losing it. Insulin insensitivity is a real problem and it you tend to be easy on your sugar, refined carb and alcohol intake...you need seriously consider changing your habits, if you're really serious about losing fat.

But, if you feel that you're quite careful with your sugar, refined carb and alcohol intake and lead an active healthy lifestyle, but still have that dreaded belly you just can't seem to budge...I want to introduce you to another hormone that plays a key role in fat loss, and it may be the missing link to that stubborn fat around your belly.

The hormone in question is estrogen.

In a healthy normal body, estrogen is balanced with progesterone in women and estrogen is balanced with testosterone in men. The intricate balance and homeostasis of these hormones play an important role in maintaining essential metabolic functions in your body. But when these hormones get out of balance, it can severely disrupt your body's metabolism and cause fat to be deposited around your belly, thighs and buttocks for women, and in the belly and chest for men. It's also heavily linked to serious illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

An imbalance in your hormones causing excess estrogen levels can be caused by many things and unfortunately we're susceptible to all of them. Here's a list of some of the major causes:

• (i) Aging process. As you age the hormone that balances estrogen level decreases and there's an increase in conversion of androgens to estrogen for both male and females.



• (ii) Processed Foods. Many of the processed foods you eat have been treated or exposed to chemicals that increase estrogen activity. These are chemicals that cause estrogenic effects are known as xenoestrogens. For instance all processed or packaged foods that have genetically modified foods in them, such as genetically modified corn and soybean. (which by the way is about 99.9% of all products).



• (iii) Foods from livestock. Meat, dairy products and eggs that come from cows and chickens fed with genetically modified corn and soybeans, injected with growth hormones and treated with antibiotics all produce estrogenic effects.



• (iv) Produce. All fruits and vegetables treated with pesticides and herbicides. (xenoestrogens)



• (v) Alcohol. Alcoholic beverages decrease testosterone and increase estrogen levels.



• (vi) Petroleum. All petroleum based products like detergents, paints, nail polishes, lotions, soaps and plastics are considered xenoestrogens and causes estrogenic effects in your body.

Anything treated or exposed to pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and even air pollutants like car fumes are all considered xenoestrogens.

Excess estrogen can increase the size of your fat tissues. It just so happens that your fat tissues are very estrogen sensitive and so the more estrogen you have the larger the your fat tissues get. The problem with these fat tissues that are estrogen sensitive is that it's stubborn and resistant to fat burning.

And to make matters worse, these estrogen sensitive fat tissues end up producing more estrogen, which then promotes more fat gain and so on, creating a vicious repetitive cycle. And here's the real kicker, regular exercise and normal caloric restriction diet isn't enough to burn these stubborn fat either. The only way to win the battle against the bulge is by eliminating excess estrogen.

Here's the other issue...as you age your end up producing more estrogen as well! You could be doing the exact same level of physical activity and be eating the exact amount of calories from the same foods and all of a sudden you hit a certain age and you start getting thicker, softer and generally more plump. As mentioned above, for women the typical area of that's affected is your belly, butt and thighs and for men it's your belly and chest. Men that have male breast development known as gynecomastia, often suffer from excess estrogen levels.

So what's the best way to eliminate excess estrogens in your body?

The first step is to minimize your exposure to xenoestrogens. Here are just a few steps you can take to help decrease your exposure to xenoestrogens.

• Minimize use of plastics such as plastic utensils, plastic water bottles, plastic containers (tupperware). Instead try and use glass or stainless steel containers instead.



• Try and use liquids and lotions that you put onto your skin that have little or no parabens (synthetic preservatives) in them. Parabens are chemicals used as preservatives in cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. (Examples of common parabens are methylparabens, ethylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben). Instead of synthetic preservative, you can look for natural preservatives such as neems oil, vit E, salt, lemon, bee propolis, rosemary extract and grapefruit seed extract instead.



• Stay away from processed foods, packaged foods and fast foods. Active ingredients in these engineered foods have been exposed and treated with various harmful chemicals that can have estrogenic effects. Instead have real, unrefined whole foods that haven't been exposed to pesticides or herbicides.



• Stay away from regular red meat, milk and other dairy products. Majority of cows have been fed genetically modified corn and treated with growth hormones and antibiotics which all increase estrogenic activity. Instead, consume grass fed red meat and organic milk and dairy that come from grass fed cows that hasn't been exposed to harmful chemicals like growth hormones and antibiotics.



• Stay away from regular chickens and eggs. Most chickens are kept in horrible, feces infested coups with thousands of other chickens, given antibiotics and fed GM corn to fatten them up quicker. Instead, get free range chickens and eggs, free of antibiotics and fed wild grains.



• Stay away from fruits and vegetables treated with pesticides and herbicides. I would say go organic, but it's not a label that's as trustworthy as it used to be, so I would opt to buy at your local farmers market where you can talk to the farmers to make sure that harmful chemicals aren't used on their products.



• Stay away from genetically modified soy products. Processed soy products have high estrogenic compounds. Also, be careful of consuming too much natural soy as well, since the active ingredient isoflavones produce estrogen activity in your body. However, there are positive health benefits that isoflavones have as well. So consume natural soy foods, like edamame and soya beans in moderation.

The second step is to combat excess levels of estrogens in your body by consuming estrogen inhibiting compounds founds in plants. The active ingredients that are found in plants are flavonoids and indoles. Here's a list of foods that have estrogen inhibiting compounds.

• Cruciferous vegetables: kale, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, cabbage, collard greens, bok choy, mustard seeds, watercress, radish, daikon



• Citrus Fruits: oranges, tangerines, clementines, grapefruits, lemon, lime



• Garlic & onion



• Bee products: propolis, bee pollen, royal jelly



• Chamomile



• Zinc** - Zinc help inhibit aromatase enzymes, which are naturally occurring enzymes that convert androgens into estrogens. The availability of these enzymes increase as you age.

Lastly, change your lifestyle to enhance your body's own abilities to combat excessive estrogen production that occurs with the aging process. The best way to keep your body young and your hormones balanced is to exercise, get plenty of rest and avoid chronic stress.

• Strength training - Using heavier challenging weights helps increase beneficial hormones (DHEA) to counterbalance excess estrogen.



• Full Body exercises - Utilizing compound movements that involve larger muscle groups have shown to be the most effective in increasing many favorable hormones (including DHEA) to combat excess estrogen.



• Rest - Getting enough sleep, usually around 8 hours, is vital to increase beneficial hormonal production as well as decrease destructive hormones (cortisol) which can enhance estrogen imbalance.



• Chronic stress - Avoiding or managing chronically stressful situations, both personally and professionally will greatly reduce the production of stress hormones (cortisol) and help reduce estrogen imbalance as well.

So, if you've been struggling to get rid of your stubborn belly fat for sometime and you've tried everything under the sun with no success, you may be suffering from excess estrogen levels in your body. If that's the case, you can start making these changes I showed you above and see how your body responds.

It's vital that you minimize exposure to xenoestrogens as much as possible and start incorporating estrogen inhibiting foods into your diet. And of course implement the simple but essential changes like working out using full body exercises using challenging weights as utilized in the MAX Workouts program, to help maximize your body's ability to combat excess estrogen productions as well.

Once you've combined all of the factors mentioned, you'll finally create the much needed metabolic environment within your body to regain the necessary hormonal balance and finally start to be able to burn off that stubborn belly fat!

Shin Ohtake is the author of the world-famous fitness program, MAX Workouts. To learn more about how you can get ultra lean and toned with shorter workouts, visit http://www.MaxWorkouts.com

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