John Limpus

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Below is an article from a good friend of mine, Paul Mort, on how to spot reduce the fat around your thighs and butt. 

Hip and Thigh Fat- Apple anyone?

After last weeks look at muffin tops and love handles I though tit best to move on to a problem that affects mainly you ladies out there.

Accumulation of fat around the gluteals and thighs. In other words- fat ass syndrome!
It’s important to say here that this is only relative if you’re fairly lean everywhere else and you have problems with fat and cellulite in the buttock and thigh areas.

A J-lo butt might be the must have beach accessory this summer but all the ladies I work with find it a great source of frustration. I’ve literally met females with 6 pack abs yet who still carry a fair bit of stubborn fat around the rear!

Why does this happen?

Well, the source of this ‘stubborn’ fat is the female hormone estrogen
.
We all make estrogen, even men can create it (think man boobs or ‘moobs’) but it’s what happens to it once it’s been produced that matters.
More importantly, the amount of man made estrogens (named xenoestrogens) has increased frighteningly in the past 30 or so years.

Did you know for instance that the following things can actually mimic estrogen INSIDE your body from the OUTSIDE?

Plastic Bottles, Birth Control Pills, Teflon Coating and commercial meat injected with hormones (most of the meat in your supermarket!)

Whilst the liver tries to detoxify estrogen to eliminate it from the body it sends it via the bloodstream to the local adipose tissue (fat stores) – in the case of females, this is in the lower body.

Why is in only women? How come men get off Scott free?

In a nutshell, females, as well as producing there own estrogen, they also have a greater number of so called alpha-2 receptors in there lower bodies than men do (men’s ‘stubborn’ area tends to be lower abdominals)

Alpha-2 receptors basically block or inhibit fat from being taken from the fat cell and being used as energy- hence the ‘stubborn fat’ phenomenon.

The Bad News for Fans of Spinning.

Being a spinning instructor myself, I found this difficult to grasp but it makes complete sense and our results here speak for themselves.

Now before you get your Lycra covered knickers in a twist, let me clarify that there’s spinning and there’s spinning!?! Spinning SHOULD be taught with A LOT of resistance, resistance is what causes fat loss. Simple as that. If your class is based around intervals (periods of maximal work followed by periods of recovery) then you’re fine.

HOWEVER- if you working at low/medium resistance at high speeds (over around 65pm) then your in trouble.

Spinning at high speeds/low resistance can cause the calcium plates of the body to tire. This, repeated over time will cause the increased storage of fat IN the muscles of the hip and thigh region to provide a more readily available source of fuel for the muscles. UH-OH!!!

Now that we’ve kicked spinning’s ‘ass’ (see what I did there?) lets look at what we need to do to effectively get rid of that troublesome butt and thigh fat for good!

How to Spot Reduce from The hip, thigh and butt
1. Detoxify estrogen levels by consuming A LOT of vegetables high in Indole-3-carbinol. Watercress is the number one choice here as well as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and kale. Estrogen binds to these foods and is ‘excreted’ LOVELY!

2. You can also get indole-3-carbinol in supplement form, although I prefer it in its natural state in food.

3. As with last week DO NOT microwave food as it destroys 97% of the flavanoids than can help get rid of this excess fat. Oh and boiling destroys 66%- that means STEAM!

4. Organic Flax Seed HULLS are great for speeding up the ‘excretion’ process. Take one teaspoon mixed with water upon waking.

5. Bin the low resistance/high speed spinning.

6. Make sure you lift your weights- a resistance training plan of 10-15 reps, 3 sets with short rest periods of 30 seconds is VERY effective. Choose compound movements such as squats, lunges and pushups. If you’re doing the 3 things listed above you will NOT bulk up.

7. You must get off you fat ass to lose your fat ass!