How to get rid of stubborn stomach fat and boost your youth hormones

Knowing how to get rid of stomach fat especially the stubborn fat on your lower abs is primarily all about strong discipline with the foods you eat and staying in a consistent calorie deficit. However there may be other factors that are holding you back from being able to burn fat efficiently and these could be hormone related.

When it comes to burning stomach fat hormones can play a significant role and if you do any research on this topic two important ones are human growth hormone (HGH) and testosterone.(T)

This guy is a little older than me but is in tremendous shape. He is a great example of what can be achieved as we get older with diet and the right type of training.

A quick overview of HGH and Testosterone

Human Growth Hormone or sometimes referred to as the “youth hormone” is produced in the pituitary gland and has a number of complex functions two of which are the regeneration of muscle tissue and the metabolizing of fat within the fat cells.

Testosterone also has a important role in the body and is involved in various systems in such as skin development, kidney function and of course muscle development and fat metabolism which it is probably best known for.

So as you can see having high levels of these in your body are very beneficial for getting rid of stomach fat and developing your body.

The problem is we produce less of these hormones as the years tick by. Both these hormones are produced less and less the older we get and is probably one of the  main reasons that we seem to gain weigh more easily especially over 35 and struggle to get it off.

For example research has shown that by the age of 60 HGH levels can decline to around 25% of the levels that are produced by young adults. The same happens with testosterone where levels can drop from a normal level of 18.0 nmol• L when we are young to a low of 12.0 nmol• L at the age of 60. Low levels of both these hormones means decreased muscle mass and higher amounts of adipose tissue.

When you see figures like that you can see why the rich and famous are pumping themselves with HGH and Testosterone supplements to keep the aging process at bay. I have to say being less than 20 years away from 60 this is not music to my ears but the good news is you can slow down this process and keep boosting both of these hormone levels without the need for expensive supplementation.

How to get rid of stomach fat and stay lean as you get older.

Now there are certain changes you can make in your lifestyle that will help preserve and even boost both of these hormone levels such as eating certain foods, performing regular intermittent fasts and getting good quality sleep. However for the purpose of this article I want to focus on exercise because when done right this is an excellent way to keep boosting both your T and HGH levels.

In fact if you start using the following strategies I guarantee you will see a big difference in how quickly you can build muscle and also burn fat.

Note – Before I go over a couple of these strategies to dot this let me explain this information  is not just aimed at men but is also relevant for the ladies who want to get the best results from their workouts. Also ladies please don´t be concerned about small increases of these hormones especially testosterone. The levels of  T in the female body are a lot less than those in men (On average, an adult male body produces about ten times more than an adult female) so little increases won´t result in  more masculine features but help you get a leaner and more toned physique.

How to boost HGH through exercise and get rid of ugly stomach fat .

From all the reading I have done it seems that high intensity styles of training are extremely effective for creating a good GH response.

This means including interval workouts such as sprint training either on the treadmill or outside. If you want challenge yourself even more then do the sprints on an incline or hill. A favourite workout of mine is to sprint 60 seconds then walk slowly for 60 seconds and repeat this for 10 intervals.

If you haven’t done this form of training before or not for a long time then it is best to keep the sprints shorter and with a less than all out pace until you feel more confident and can start to raise the intensity. Also by building up the speed over time you allow the body to get used to working this way and so reduce the chance of injury.

Another great form of intense training is Metabolic Resistance Training (MRT) to help burn high levels of fat and one of the reasons it does this is because of the GH increase it stimulates. MRT if you are not sure is a cross between weight training and circuits. It normally involves doing small circuits of resistance exercises or a mix of resistance, dynamic and body weight movements using medium to heavy weights with little rest so the intensity is cranked right up. Like the interval workouts they are amazing for burning fat with the added bonus of building up lean muscle mass.

Here is an MRT workout from one of my fitness mentors Craig Ballantyne whose fat burning program Turbulence Training introduced me to this type of training a few years ago

If you want more workouts like this that will help you burn more fat and transform your physique then I highly recommend Turbulence Training Metabolic Resistance Training.

 How to get rid of stomach fat by boosting Testosterone

So with your HGH level nicely boosted its time to work on out flagging testosterone levels.

To achieve this you need to think about going heavy with your weights so that you can only perform at maximum 2-6 reps. Rest levels would be around 2 mins so you could recover properly.

However this strategy only really is effective if you use multi joint exercises such as squats, upper body presses, deadlifts  and upper body pulling movements eg. Pull-ups. This means avoiding isolation exercises like tricep pushdowns or lateral shoulder raises.

Here is a sample workout

Superset1                                                                                            Sets     Reps

Deadlifts /Incline Dumbbell Chest Press                                             5           2-6

Superset 2

Squats/Pullups or Lat Pulldowns                                                          5          2-6

Along with the extra testosterone response you also get the benefit of harder more defined muscles because Heavy weights also increase “true” muscle tone..A really toned muscle is hard to the touch. It takes hard and strong contractions to create this residual tone and strength training with low reps is the way to do this.

This low rep heavy weight training is one I have been using as part of the visual impact muscle building program I have been following and have seen not only increased strength gains but sharper definition when going through a cutting stage to reduce body fat.

Note – This strategy will benefit both men and women and if there are any ladies reading this  a little concerned this may bulk them up then be rest assured it will not as you are not training the muscle to fatigue. In fact there is a visual impact course for women that show you exactly how to train to create a firm yet feminine physique using weights and high intensity interval training.

Bear in mind training starting to train with heavy weights is not for beginners and I would recommend that you get at least 6 months experience and maybe some professional advice before attempting compound movements with increased weight.

Summary

To get the best of both worlds I recommend doing both forms of training during your weekly workouts. The way I do this is too have 2 workouts where I go heavy with low rep ranges and 2-3 other workouts that are focused on intensity using MRT and sprint based intervals.

Lower levels of HGH and Testosterone are inevitable as we get older but by adding this type of training we can really slow down the rate at which this occurs and keep our bodies looking and feeling younger for much longer. I am not anti anybody who uses genuine and natural supplements to help with this issue and there may come a day when I will follow this route. However for now I think I can still get the results I want by using these training strategies and following an appropriate diet and lifestyle.

I know these styles of training can seem a little daunting if you haven´t done them before but trust me if you want to know how to get rid of stomach fat that won´t seem to budge then it is time to get out of your comfort zone and start seeing the kind of fat loss results that make it all worthwhile.

 

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