Getting Fat Makes You Old
The connection between aging and body fat is the human grown hormone (HGH), the grandaddy of all hormones. Age-related loss of HGH makes it harder to lose fat as you get older. Less HGH means more fat gain.
The big problem with this scenario is that more fat reduces HGH even further. It is a Catch-22 that accelerates aging. The trap is that less HGH leads to more fat and more fat causes less HGH. This is a never ending loop that makes you age faster due to continued fat gain and lower levels of HGH.
The relationship between HGH and overweight was first described in a research article in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism in 1991. The scientists behind this study pointed out that, on average, for men aged 21 to 71 with a normal Body Mass Index (BMI), the production rate of HGH decreased by 14 percent with each decade of life. In comparison, each unit of BMI reduced the daily HGH secretion rate by 6 percent.
This means that the drop in HGH secretion rate with an increase in BMI from 21 to 28 corresponds to the average drop going from age 21 to age 45. In other words, adult men whose BMI classifies them as obese (i.e., 27 units and above) have HGH levels that correspond to men who are at least 20 years older. This leads to high-speed aging and the increasing prevalence of age-related diseases in younger people.
Even though the 1991 study involved only men, women are not immune to fat-driven HGH loss and rapid aging. In fact, variable levels of estrogen and other steroid hormones during menses and menopause often accelerate fat gain. This leads to the loss of HGH and even more fat gain.
Top Four Solutions
Of course, reducing belly fat is the easiest advice to give and yet the hardest result to attain. Long-term failure of most strategies for belly fat loss undermine this otherwise sound advice. It is therefore not a good starting point by itself.
This is where the connection between belly fat and HGH can be exploited to your advantage. The key is to restore the hormone levels first, which then causes loss of fat. The four simplest ways to raise HGH levels are as follows:
Solution 1: Get HGH replacement therapy. This is the fastest and most effective solution. Unfortunately, it requires medical treatment with a prescription drug (HGH), is very expensive, and is not covered by most insurance plans. For those who can take advantage of this option, fat loss is easy and automatic.
Solution 2: Natural enhancement of HGH is a more likely strategy for most people. These final three solutions are therefore available to everyone who wants to stimulate their own internal production of HGH. One of the highest spikes in HGH levels every 24 hours comes about two hours after you go to sleep at night. Certain amino acid supplements, taken on an empty stomach at bedtime, can significantly boost this spike. These amino acids are called secretagogues because they induce the secretion of HGH from your pituitary gland. The top two are L-arginine (2-3 grams) and L-lysine (1 gram).
Other amino acids that enhance nighttime HGH levels include L-glutamine and L-tryptophan. (The latter may also be replaced with 5-hydroxytryptophan, or 5HTP.) Many supplement companies offer products that are formulated specifically as HGH secretagogues, so the right amino acids are easy to find at most nutrition stores.
Solution 3. A high-intensity weightlifting workout will cause a spike in HGH levels. You can boost this effect with HGH secretagogues, especially L-arginine and L-lysine. In addition, L-glycine will enhance the results of your HGH-boosting workout. Most supplement formulas do not include this particular amino acid, even though good research backs up its use for enhancing exercise.
As with nighttime secretagogue supplementation, amino acids for a workout boost must be taken on an empty stomach to get optimum results. Ideally this would be about 1 to 1.5 hours before your workout.
Solution 4. Now for the most overlooked HGH-boosting and fat-reducing strategy of all. It involves meal spacing. When you eat a snack or meal, HGH levels rise about 2 hours later. At first HGH works with insulin in muscle building. Then, when insulin starts to disappear about 4 hours after you eat, HGH levels rise even further. HGH then drives the use of fat for fuel.
An enhanced HGH spike for fat loss therefore occurs more than 4 hours after you eat. To take advantage of this HGH spike your meals have to be spaced at least 5 hours apart.
This is what happens during a small fasting period between meals during the day. An even bigger boost in HGH occurs between dinner and breakfast the next morning, as long as you do not snack in between. A 12 hour overnight fasting period works wonders for boosting HGH levels and fat loss.
The concept of fasting to boost HGH and belly fat loss can be taken advantage of even further by what scientists call intermittent fasting. Studies have shown that an HGH boost from intermittent fasting once or twice per week provides incredible benefits to health, including fat loss. Age-related disorders can be stopped and aging can even be reversed. You can see how important intermittent fasting is by finding the thousands of pages that come on an internet search for this phrase.
Faster Belly Fat Loss
Intermittent fasting refers to a fasting period of 24 to 34 hours one or two times each week. Belly fat loss goes faster using this pattern. All measures of anti-aging also speed up. One appealing aspect of intermittent fasting is that it is easier than dieting every day of your life. Indeed, just one 24 hour fasting period provides powerful results all by itself. It does not mean, however, that you can trade fasting one day for eating junk food the next. Eating poorly is never a good idea, no matter how many other good things you do for boosting HGH and accelerating fat loss. Once you boost HGH levels by intermittent fasting, you want to maintain the benefits permanently for good health, fitness, and youthful body image.
Intermittent fasting seem simple. Nevertheless, you have to know what you are doing to get optimum results. The fat loss benefits and other good consequences of boosting native HGH levels depend on doing it right.
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