Lose the Belly Fat and Pack on the Muscle

February 06, 2020

Increased Testosterone levels burns fat and adds muscle.

The New Year has arrived, and the herd of gym goers are putting their new year’s resolution of a Fit Bod into action. Their action plan, Add Muscle, Lose Belly Fat and exude Sexual Energy.
A physiological factor that aides or hinders the rate of achieving this plan is the King of inducing muscle growth and fat loss, yeah you guessed it, TESTOSTERONE.

Testosterone can be that King that bestows upon you gifts of sex appeal, bigger leaner stronger muscles, and vitality. Or if not respected, it can be that royal pain that wrecks your relationships, makes you fat, and accelerates aging and DEATH!!
Stating the obvious, testosterone is the primary hormonal driver of muscle growth. Research has been conducted and shown that testosterone therapy in men with testosterone deficiency has profound effects on body composition, resulting in reduced fat mass, and increased lean body mass (1).
Now, let me make something clear, deficiency in testosterone doesn’t discriminate nor does it limit its victims. Low testosterone can plaque the young, the old, the rich, the poor, the uneducated and the wise.

Speaking to ALL MEN…

Are you finding yourself hanging out more with your couch? Did you once look like Popeye and now you resemble a pregnant Olive? Are you no longer the king of the jungle, but instead have converted into the prey in the bedroom?

Symptoms of LOW T Levels:

1. DEPRESSION
2.  LOW ENERGY
3.  FITNESS LEVEL DROPS
4.  INCREASED BODY FAT
5.  DECREASED MUSCLE MASS
6.  STIFFNESS OF MUSCLE AND JOINTS
7.  NO SEX DRIVE
8. ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION
9.  FOGGINESS
10. REVOKED MAN CARD

NOTE: This list is not restricted to just the above-mentioned symptoms.

So, one would assume the solution is to simply race to the nutrition store or quickly logon to the computer and purchase testosterone boosters to increase their testosterone levels. HOLD BACK!!! With limited knowledge and taking emotionally driven actions to curtail or completely rid of low T symptoms could produce more damage than benefits.

The primary goal here should not be in replacing your hormones through HRT (hormone replacement therapy), but instead in re-establishing the natural production of your hormones as nature intended.
The fatal mistakes most of us make that produce long term complications are 1). Taking supplements or drugs to increase our testosterone without getting the proper labs done to fully know the status of our current hormone levels. 2). Limiting the resolution of ridding of low T symptoms through administration of testosterone supplementation and ignoring the other many components that play an essential role in the maintenance and health of your hormones.

Let’s begin to properly put this action plan of Increasing T levels to burn body fat and add muscle into motion.

Congratulate yourself for owning your divine masculine truth and taking the first step in educating yourself to becoming your greatest version through optimizing your hormones.

1. Run Functional Labs

Running functional labs will provide a clear picture of the current state of your hormones and assist in creating a reliable blue print for re-establishing your T- levels.

Functional lab testing aids to identify the malfunctions at the subclinical level within the steroid hormone pathways.
Running these lab tests removes any guess work in needing to re-establish the proper T-levels and accomplishing your fitness goals.
There are subtleties in treatment and variations in each unique individual that makes it vital to run a functional lab test before blindly attempting to restore T-levels through supplementation. Test results are interpreted in context and used to assess ones function. Every man is a unique individual, and so the interpretation of lab tests will be based on each individual and will require pattern recognition – everything is relative. Stimulating and re-establishing proper levels of testosterone production is a tough inside job, don’t blindly attempt to resolve it.

General rules to follow:

1. Get labs done if experiencing any of the low T symptoms.
2. Run lab tests before trying to increase your T levels through supplementation.
3. Understand the difference between normal and optimal levels.
4. Have steroidal hormone pathways and adrenal functions evaluated via lab test.

2. Eat a clean diet

To further maximize testosterone production to add muscle and burn fat you must eat a clean diet customized for your metabolic type.

Hippocrates said it best, “One’s man meat, is another man’s poison.” Consuming the wrong foods that doesn’t complement your biochemical individuality will produce adverse effects and prolong your fitness goals.

The question “What should I eat?” may be the most important question in nutrition. There is no greater or more powerful influence on optimizing your hormones and maintaining homeostasis than the foods you consume daily.

Reconnect with your body and listen to it, have faith, your body knows best. Your body will let you know what fuels its energy and what drains it. Giving your body exactly what it needs will produce max energy production and faster results.

Consuming unhealthy foods packed with toxins, chemicals, and that are GMO-modified are running havoc on the body, which in-turn is causing hormonal imbalances and weight gain. This is the total opposite of what you are trying to achieve.

Eating a clean diet and optimizing the testosterone levels will make the dream of losing the belly fat and gaining muscle a reality. Getting fit happens faster than one can even imagine when you change to a healthy based diet and optimize your testosterone production with calculated steps.

General rules to follow:

1.  Get labs done if experiencing any of the low T symptoms.
2. Run lab tests before trying to increase your T levels through supplementation.
3. Understand the difference between normal and optimal levels.
4. Have steroidal hormone pathways and adrenal functions evaluated via lab test.

3. Effective workouts

High intensity workouts produce the increase of testosterone to promote muscle anabolism and fat loss.

Exercise plays a vital role in our physical and mental fitness. It contributes to maintaining a healthy bodyweight, reducing levels of cortisol, strengthening the immune system, preventing numerous chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, insomnia etc.

Effective and challenging exercises can yield the best benefits.

An effective high intensity workout promotes positive hormonal changes which increases the opportunity for muscle build-up. Building muscle guarantees a fat burning metabolism.

When the body is placed under extreme stress through exercising, a trigger promotes the body to produce testosterone and other beneficial hormones.

There was a study conducted among young men that presented a correlation of exercise-induced hormone profiles with gain in lean body mass after 12-week resistance training study (2).

General rules to follow:

1. Implement the H.I.I.T & P.A.C.E method
2. Stimulate different muscle fibers.
3. Challenge muscle by focusing on compound heavy weights.
4. Increase time under tension.
5. Implement muscle confusion through periodization training.
6. Keep workouts to 35minutes or less.
7. Exercise but don’t over exercise.

4. Adequate rest

Optimize production of hormone levels through obtaining adequate amount of sleep.

Increasing the amount of sleep is one of the best natural ways of simply increasing testosterone
production, losing body fat and increasing lean muscle mass. Testosterone is mainly produced
when the body is sleeping.

General rules to follow:

1. Exercise earlier in the day to get better nights sleep.
2. Best bedtime: 10:00pm Best rising time: 6:00am.
3. Optimize hormone levels with 7-9 hours of sleep per night.
4. Have room as dark as possible.

5. Reduce stress

Reducing stress levels promotes effective fat loss and muscle anabolism.

Stress is one of the major culprits that lowers testosterone, encourages muscle catabolism, and unwanted weight gain.
Stress creates a disruption to the HPA axis (hypothalamic-pituitary- adrenal axis). In this event, testosterone becomes suppress due to the cortisol shunt.

A clinical research presented a basic support for the relationship between chronic stress, alterations in the HPA axis activity, and obesity. It revealed a chronic exposure to external stress potentially contributed to the development of obesity (3). Reduction in stress is a crucial part of the whole-body approach to achieving a better body inside and out. As Plato quoted, “one can
never heal the part without healing the whole.”

General rules to follow:

1. Avoid people who are energy robbers.
2. Meditate.
3. Learn to breathe properly.
4. Learn Emotional Freedom Technique (E.F.T).
5. Exercise early in the day.
6. Journal feelings
7. Read a good book

Taking the following calculated steps mentioned in the latter will promote the following benefits mentioned below. Don’t hesitate to take control of your destiny, your manhood depends on it.

Benefits of Optimized T Levels:

1. IMPROVEMENT IN MOOD
2. VIBRANT
3. DECREASED BODYFAT
4. INCREASED MUSCLE MASS
5. INCREASED SEX DRIVE
6. STRENGTHS ERECTIONS
7. IMPROVES CONFIDENCE
8. SHARPENS COGNITIVE ABILITY
9. PROMOTES PREVENTION OF CHRONIC CONDITIONS

References:

1. Testosterone and weight loss: the evidence . Abdulmaged M. Traish.Curr Opin Endocrinol Diabetes Obes. 2014 Oct; 21(5): 313–322. Published online 2014 Aug28. doi: 10.1097/MED.0000000000000086 PMCID: PMC4154787
2. Associations of exercise-induced hormone profiles and gains in strength and hypertrophy in a large cohort after weight training . Daniel W. D. West, Stuart M. Phillips.Eur J Appl Physiol. 2012 Jul; 112(7): 2693–2702. Published online 2011 Nov 22. doi: 10.1007/s00421-011- 2246-zPMCID: PMC3371329
3. Stress and obesity: the role of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis in metabolic disease. Mousumi Bose, Blanca Oliván, Blandine Laferrère.Curr Opin Endocrinol Diabetes Obes. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2010 Apr 22. Published in final edited form as: Curr Opin
   Endocrinol Diabetes Obes. 2009 Oct; 16(5): 340–346. doi: 10.1097/MED.0b013e32832fa137.PMCID: PMC2858344