John Lark

Spot reduction is a myth right? You can’t possibly shift that troublesome spot of cellulite off your thigh or kick the bingo-wings into touch – can you?  Well, yes you can and the answer lies, according to Olympic Strength Coach and founder of the ‘Biosignature‘ System, Charles Poliquin in your hormones.

Your body fat doesn’t just lay down fat in a random fashion to seemingly spite you. There is a pattern that has been unearthed by functional medicine experts and endocrinologists that determines where you possess your body fat is a reflection of your hormonal activity.

The science behind this has been around for years. Take for instance our belly. When we are stressed we release a hormone called cortisol. This is our fight or flight response hormone or a low-grade adrenaline that used to help us get the hell away from lions and other man-eating predators.

The only thing now is that we don’t have any of those around, unless you include the gaggle of women spilling out of our night clubs.

Our bodies are in essence still primal. Our genetic coding has changed 0.01% in 40,000 years. Not much in the grand scheme of things. But yet we still continue to produce cortisol at a rate which we find it hard to live with.

Do we still run away from lions? No.

What has happened, and this has been unearthed by scientists, is that the higher your cortisol levels, the higher your belly fat readings making you more prone to the nasties such as Syndrome X and dislipidemia.

Men can also take note that incidences of male breast cancer and Gynecomastia (‘moobs’) is on the rise.

High levels chest and arm fat can be correlated to your levels of aromatisation or how male or female you are.

Men are not designed to have breasts. Common symptoms include crying at Little House on the Prairie and shopping for bras.

This is not normal and what is increasingly more worrying is that functional medicine experts are in agreement that for males this elevates your risk of prostate cancer

What about your love handles? Your love handles and fat that you carry on your back are reflective of your insulin management.

Genetically a carbohydrate or sugar tolerant individual will carry little fat on their back. However, your love handles may carry a sufficient amount of fat. This is a classic case.

Skipping meals and or consuming too much carbohydrate will elevate your circulating insulin levels making you insulin resistant rather than insulin sensitive. So, as you consume sugar instead of being shuttled to the muscles for energy, you push it into your fat cells.

Bad news. This coupled with a high level of back fat and abdominal fat will significantly increase your risk of dislipidemia and other nasty scourges on society such as cancer.

Fat around the legs is also indicative of your estrogens (the female hormones) and growth hormone activity. High levels on the calf and knee point to recurring sleep issues. Why are men carrying fat on their legs? The answer lies in too much circulating estrogens.

Did you know, for instance, that red wine and dark chocolate are excellent for clearing excess estrogens? 1-2 glasses a day of red wine and 3oz of 70% Coco Organic Chocolate, once or twice a week are excellent for this. The reason being is the high levels of Resveratrol – a nutrient that inhibits the action of estrogens at the cell receptor sites and inhibits aromatising enzymes.

Bad news is – more is not better.

The bottom line is this – it is not your fault. A combination of lifestyle, exercise and supplementation protocols can be used to combat each site resulting in a leaner and more importantly healthier individual.

So each bit of fat on your body tells us a story. It makes sense. Why do individuals carry fat all on their legs and not up the top? What about the individual who just cant shift the fat off the hips.

Spot reduction a myth? Not anymore. Here is a glass of red to a healthier and leaner new you.

John Lark M.A. is a Fat Loss Specialist and Personal Trainer in Dublin Learn more about his methods at www.spherefitnessstudio.com and download your ‘5 Top Tips for Fat Loss’.

If I told you that to win a million euros you had to jump out of an aeroplane, I am sure some of you would overcome your objections, fears, excuses of heights and whatever it took to fling yourself from a moving plane.

Fat loss is no different. The task is not impossible. It just requires all out war. It requires 100% effort, focus, determination and clear road map. Particularly if you want to get lean quickly. Not 80%, not being flaky at the drop of a hat.

You are either in or out.

What about this? What about if I were to tell you that to win a million euros you would have to strip naked and walk up your town high street.

I am sure that would drive you to become body conscious, enough to actually take it seriously.

So if fat loss is your goal and ‘getting in shape’ or ‘toning flabby bits’ is what you are after you had better be prepared for the fight.

Cover models, celebs have it easy. The sheer burden of having to look good in the public eye seemingly drives them work their back-sides off to stay in shape.

So where does it all begin?

First step – ditch the excuses. I couldn’t care less how many kids you have, what hours you work or how much stress you are under at work. I really couldn’t.

Some of the above is not your fault. Some of it is.

If you want it enough you will move heaven and earth to  do it. One of my clients sets their alarm to get up before the children to cook and prepare meals for the day. That is why she is very lean. Others just do it.

So what do you need to do to get lean in say 4 weeks? This would equate to dropping a serious amount of body fat.

Notice a say body fat, not weight. You see the crucial difference here is we are looking to preserve what muscle we have. Muscle is crucial to our metabolism, tone, health and well-being. Starving yourself will lead to a loss of muscle.

It really takes a three-pronged approach focusing on training, nutrition and supplementation.

Training requires hard word. Plain and simple. Ideally, training twice a day with two days on, one day off with weight training and sprint intervals is key. Performing an exercise for the upper body and pairing this with an exercise for the lower body works best. As does High Intensity Intervals with bouts of hard work (sprints, jogs, runs – whatever you deem high intensity) followed by easy period of recovery. This is repeated for 20 minutes.

Your nutrition will lean towards taking in vegetables, lots of organics meats and fish and Omega 3 Fats in the form of Fish Oil, Nuts, Seeds and healthy oils.

Before you say, ‘Where are the breads, pastas, rice or spuds’ or ‘this isn’t balanced’ then please this isn’t for you.

Olympic Strength Coach and Nutritionist, Charles Poliquin likens wheat to sugar. “Wheat influences blood sugar levels the same way as plain table sugar”.

In addition “Gliadin family grains such as oats, wheat, spelt are the most common food allergen. People of the Celtic ancestry, like the Irish, are more likely to be gluten allergic. Besides raising insulin levels in the body and their rapid carb intake, grains also release cortisol in response to the stressor, than a food allergen is”

We use a unique body composition assessment that allows us to determine where you store your body fat is an indication of your hormonal profile.

Results come fast as result if coupled with a good training programme and sound nutrition as a tailored supplement programme can be modulated depending on your own body fat distribution.

For example carrying fat around your mid-rift – the dreaded love handles – would signify a low tolerance to sugars and poor insulin management. Fish Oil, Magnesium, Greens Powders and a special blend of Fenugreek and other herbs would work wonders here.

Does this require hard-work? Yes. But it also requires a road-map tailored to your needs, a sound understanding of your physiology and hormonal activity all topped off with the grit between your teeth.

John Lark is a Fat Loss Specialist providing tools to help you get healthier and leaner – faster. He can be contacted at 01-505213. Download your free fat loss report at www.spherefitnessstudio.com

Scientists have found a hormone that encourages the liver to start using fat as fuel. What this hormones does, according to the scientists involved in the study, is switch the liver from using carbohydrate stores to fat stores.

This is the central idea behind Atkins. By depleting the body’s dependency on carbohydrate through an initial induction phase (restricting your carb intake to around 40-50g per day) you are encouraging the body to use its fat stores.

The by-product of this are a large number of ketones putting you in a state of ketosis. Is this dangerous? No. According to Jonny Bowden, it must not be confused with ‘ketoacidosis’ a condition suffered by Diabetics through their inability to shift sugar from the blood. We produce ketones all the time. They are used as fuel by the brain smooth muscle such as the heart. On a low carb diet, the difference is that the levels circulating now become measurable.

According to David Manglesdorf “In addition to switching the body to a fat-burning mode, the team found FGF21 induces the hibernation-like state of torpor that conserves energy in fasting animals”

This may explain why they found elevated levels of this hormone in obese people. A double edged sword!

In essence this hormone is key to regulating fat metabolism and for those who have high biosignature readings on the insulin sites – waist and back – take heed! We want to ramp up the activity of this hormone and guess what – low carb is the way to do this!!

References

M K Badman et al, Cell Metab., 2007, DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2007.05

T Inagaki et al, Cell Metab., 2007, DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2007.05.003

Bowden, J (2003) Living the Low Carb Life

John Lark is a personal trainer in dublin and founder of the Sphere Fitness Studio including Corporate Fitness. He can be contacted at 01-5052131.

Thought spot reduction was a myth?

Think again. John Lark is proud to offer a concept in the field of functional medicine, exercise, nutrition and supplementation providing you with the opportunity to burn fat in stubborn areas, feel energised, correct sleep faulty patterns, increase libido and much more.

Trained strength and fitness professionals will be able to tell you why you store your body fat where you do based on your unique hormonal profile. What’s more John will be able to provide you with the road map to success.

This system was developed by Olympic Strength Coach, Charles Poliquin who has more Gold Medals to his name than you or I have had hot dinners. This is scientific spot reduction.

To find out more call Albert on 01-5052131 and book for an assessment.