" Copyright © 2007 David Grisaffi All rights reserved. You may copy the electronic file for this ebook and distribute it at will, with the full permission of David Grisaffi. This book is FREE and may not be resold. Published by David Grisaffi and Personal Fitness Development in the United States of America. Editor: Lee A. Howard (lee_allen_howard@yahoo.com) A WORD OF CAUTION: DISCLAIMER This book is for reference and informational purposes only and is no way intended as medical counseling or medical advice. The information contained herein should not be used to treat, diagnose, or prevent a disease or medical condition without the advice of a competent medical professional. This book deals with in-depth information on health, fitness, and nutrition. Most of the information applies to everyone in general; however, not everyone has the same body type. We each have different responses to exercise depending on our choice of intensity and diet. Before making any changes in your lifestyle, you should consult with a physician to discover the best solution for your individual body type. The author, writer, editors, and graphic designer shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any damage or injury alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.
The Stubborn Fat Solution
By David Grisaffi, CHEK Corrective Exercise Kinesiologist Golf Biomechanic Certified Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach www.FlattenYourAbs.net
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Contents
Part 1: Stubborn Fat: Does It Affect You? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Fat Cells Are Genetically Programmed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Placement of Fat Deposits in Your Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Primary Factor in Failing to Lose Fat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Solution to Stubborn Fat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Your Hormones and Stubborn Fat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Why Dieting Alone Doesn’t Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Crucial Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 2 2 3 4 4
Part 2: The New Beginning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Differences Between Men and Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Two Types of Enzymes That Affect Fat Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Other Contributors to Stubborn Fat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Identifying Estrogenic Compounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6 7 7
Part 3: The Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Your Hormones Can Contribute to Stubborn Fat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Estrogenic Foods Also Affect Men . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 How Dieting Affects Fat Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Don’t Panic—There’s a Solution! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The Stubborn Fat Reduction Plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Overview of the Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Stage 1—Eat Anti-estrogenic Foods and Estrogen inhibitors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Stage 2—Additional Foods That Promote Anti-estrogenic Hormones. . . . . . . 12 Stage 3—Foods That Serve as Cofactors and Promote Liver Detoxification . . 13 A Three-week Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Stage 1, One Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Stage 2, One Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Stage 3, One Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 The Importance of Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Increasing Your Activity Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Incorporating a Formal Exercise Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 A Simple Circuit Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The Real Secret to Stubborn Fat Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 About David Grisaffi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Firm and Flatten Your Abs by David Grisaffi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
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Stubborn Fat: Does It Affect You?
EVERYONE walking the face of this earth has an abundance of
fat cells throughout their bodies. In fact, if you’re a healthy adult with normal body composition, you have approximately 30 billion fat cells. This is an astronomical number when you think about it. Did you ever wonder why you have so many? Have you ever wondered what those fat cells are for?
Fat Cells Are Genetically Programmed
The answer is, fat cells are part of our genetic code and they enable us to use stored energy when food is scarce. This survival mechanism works very much the same today as it did 10,000 years ago. However, there is an abundance of food in modern society today, and we no longer need to store so much fat to survive. When you consume too many calories, your body goes into storage mode for the “lean times,” so to speak, but the lean time never comes. So your body simply stores those extra calories as fat. When you eat fewer calories than your body demands, your cells release stored fat for energy. Pretty simple equation; however, not all fat is the same.
Placement of Fat Deposits in Your Body
The placement of fat deposits on our bodies varies depending on each person’s genetic influences, lifestyle choices, and
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Stubborn Fat: Does It Affect You?
nutritional intake. Men tend to store their body fat around their bellies and chest. Women tend to store it around their hips, buttocks, thighs, and the backs of their arms. A complete discussion of hormones and fat storage is beyond the scope of this article, but let it suffice to say that certain hormonal processes do determine body fat distribution.
The Primary Factor in Failing to Lose Fat
Many people who attempt to lose body fat fail to account for one major factor, a stumbling block to long-term success. They approach fat loss and fitness with great enthusiasm and determination and, with this attitude, they lose body fat and feel great. Even so, they just can’t seem to get rid of all the fat they want to. They lose fat successfully for a time, but ultimately get stuck just before all of the fat is completely gone. This is commonly known as a plateau, and this phenomenon causes many people who were previously successful to lose their enthusiasm and return to their old ways. When old habits take over again—and this happens to the majority of dieters—the body fat comes back with a vengeance. This is due to programming of the fat cell. Each time you try to lose body fat again, it seems to take longer and require more effort.
The Solution to Stubborn Fat
So what is the real solution? It’s simple: you must understand how fat cells work and how to move past the plateau phenomenon and lose the last bit of body fat—what we call “stubborn fat.” I have worked with many clients and I would say most of them have a good amount of stubborn body fat. This fat is literally programmed to be very difficult to lose. It seems to remain on our bodies no matter what we do, hence the phrase stubborn fat. Most modern diets and weight loss programs seem to work in the beginning, but they never really address this crucial part of fat loss—the last bit of stubborn fat.
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Stubborn Fat: Does It Affect You?
Your Hormones and Stubborn Fat
Stubborn fat develops when your hormonal pathways are broken down. Age does play a role in this: fat deposits increase and become more resistant to fat loss methods as you get older. This you have little control over, but some things that lead to stubborn fat development are under your control. Yo-yo dieting is one of them. Losing weight on crash diets and then regaining it—often known as the “rebound effect”—only increase stubborn fat in the long run. A decrease in exercise and activity level also compounds the stubborn fat problem. This is why people who crash-diet on low calories and refuse to exercise often have the worst stubborn fat problems of all. Our ancestors really never had to deal with this problem because they moved and engaged in physical labor as a regular part of daily life, whereas technological conveniences and the modern lifestyle have caused many of us to become lazy and inactive. Stubborn fat is metabolized extremely slowly and resists the hormonal process that takes place when the fat burning process starts up. To burn fat, the adrenal hormones (better known as adrenaline and noradrenaline) attach to the fat cell receptors and essentially “open them up” so the fat can be used in the energy pathways. There are two kinds of receptors in your fat cells: one is alpha and the other beta. The beta receptors are much more active and respond to adrenal hormones. To lose body fat, the adrenal hormones switch on and the body begins to use fat as energy. However, in the case of people with stubborn fat, this does not occur, so no body fat is lost. According to my good friend and colleague Ori Hofmekler, author of The Warrior Diet, stubborn fat has a lower ratio of beta receptors to alpha receptors. Therefore, your body’s hormonal “fat dissolver,” adrenaline, is unable to enter the fat cell and open the door. Hofmekler also points out that “to make these matters worse, stubborn fat has more estrogen receptors, which cause even more stubborn fat.” If all this sounds bad enough, what makes it even worse is that if you indulge in the typical modern diet and sedentary lifestyle,
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Stubborn Fat: Does It Affect You?
this often results in insulin sensitivity. (For more information, read my past article on “Insulin Sensitivity.”) On top of everything else, your fat tissue becomes so incredibly resistant to your attempts to lose it, it seems like you will be stuck with it forever.
Why Dieting Alone Doesn’t Work
Diets fail because they only look at the caloric reduction side of the equation. You need to understand the other variables in the equation—exercise and lifestyle. You must understand the deeper issues you are really dealing with. Getting rid of stubborn fat is not nearly as simple as just slashing calories and dieting. Stubborn fat is the result of a complex interplay of biological and hormonal processes—all of which are affected by how you eat, how you move, and the type of lifestyle you lead.
The Crucial Question
Now that you understand why you have stubborn fat, right down to the hormone and receptor level, the question is: How do you alter your nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle to get rid if this resistant body fat? The answer is revealed in Part 2. Read on…
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The New Beginning
Differences Between Men and Women
WHEN it comes to the physical make-up of men versus women,
many differences are obvious. Men, on average, are 10–15% larger than women, weigh 20% more, and are 30% stronger (especially when considering upper body strength). Testosterone is one of the major hormones active in men’s bodies. Testosterone stimulates muscle enlargement and bone growth and also raises the level of red blood cells in a man’s blood stream. Men also produce more HGH (human growth hormone). What you may not know, however, is that all of these factors combine to make oxygen much more available to a man’s cells than a woman’s cells. That means a man could be working at 50% of his capacity during physical activity, but a woman would need to work at 70% of her capacity to keep up. It’s not as easy for her cells to absorb oxygen. This is due partly because women have a smaller percentage of lean tissue (muscle, organs, etc.) and a much higher percentage of body fat. Though this is detrimental in a short sprint, a higher percentage of fat means that women can power their cells longer from their body’s reserves without stopping to eat or drink in order to refuel. This may translate into greater endurance. Studies comparing men and women in running, swimming, and speed skating have shown that the differences in
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The New Beginning
time versus distance decreased between men and women as the length of the event progressed. Hundreds of studies have showed some interesting differences between men and women in nearly every area. Looking through the research, you would discover all kinds of facts such as how much more likely women are to wear a seatbelt than men (two times more likely), to how often they are the sexual initiators in a monogamous relationship (65% of the time). As interesting as those facts may be, let’s concentrate on the differences between men and women that affect women’s physical fitness. These differences are primarily found in the functioning of a woman’s hormones and the construction and function of her fat cells. These two factors influence everything from the way a woman’s metabolism functions to how likely she is to suffer from stubborn fat and other health-related diseases such as osteoporosis.
Two Types of Enzymes That Affect Fat Storage
Although the construction of male and female fat cells is basically the same, they differ vastly when it comes to size and function. To begin with, women’s fat cells are five times larger than men’s! In addition, not only are women’s cells capable of holding more fat, they are genetically programmed to do so. It all comes down to enzymes:
Lipogenic—Fat-storing enzymes Lipolytic—Fat-releasing enzymes
Even though these enzymes are present in both men and women, women’s bodies have two times the number of lipogenic (fat-storing) enzymes, and only half the number of lipolytic (fatreleasing) enzymes. This is the genetic legacy of women’s role as the childbearing gender of the species. Nature wanted to ensure that women carried enough fat cells to nurture their growing babies and to breast-feed them after they were born. A baby inutero requires the mother to burn at least 300 extra calories a day, and breast-feeding can require as much as 500 extra calories.
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The New Beginning
In addition to supplying the normal caloric needs of a baby, our foremothers also stored extra body fat in case of drought or famine. This extra fat was stored in the hips, thighs, and buttocks. Therefore, the females who survived famine and drought to pass down their genes were the women whose bodies were adept at storing fat. Skinny thighs in the past were a serious liability, serving only to increase the risk of death when food supplies became scarce. These enzymes tend to be balanced in a healthy person. Too much of either type develops an unbalanced system and leads to insulin resistance, a prime contributor to stubborn fat.
Other Contributors to Stubborn Fat
Other contributors to stubborn fat are estrogenic compounds called xenoestrogens. These chemicals are a byproduct of fertilizers, plastics, soy isoflavones, certain herbs, and petroleum products. These compounds in our food and water supply mimic estrogenic functions and aid in binding to estrogenic fat receptors. This produces “induced aromatase influence.” Aromatase is an enzyme that helps convert androgens (male hormone) to estrogenic compounds. When this occurs, it enhances the production of estrone, which is the main culprit in stubborn fat gain in both men and women. Look at many children today and you can see that they have taken on some very feminized features such as breast fat.
Identifying Estrogenic Compounds
To benefit from a program that reduces stubborn fat, you must first recognize that estrogenic compounds are all around us (and in us). To combat this problem, you should look at the food you consume and the liquids you drink, as there are many culprits that cause stubborn fat gain. You move in the direction of gaining stubborn fat when you develop bad eating and lifestyle habits, which cause insulin resistance, a toxic overburden on the liver, and elevated estrogen. These all contribute to fat that will not go away. To
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The New Beginning
open these cells, you should start by heading down the food chain. Minimize or eliminate all refined foods, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables (preferably organic), and exercise. In Part 3, you will learn more specifically about how to get this stubborn fat out of your life forever.
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The Solution
Your Hormones Can Contribute to Stubborn Fat
AS YOU KNOW from reading parts 1 and 2, your hormones can
be a liability when it comes to getting rid of stubborn body fat. For example, the hormone estrogen has a unique relationship with the fat cell. Fat cells can release signals that enable your body to synthesize estrogen and to regulate the reproductive cycle. In turn, estrogen affects fat cells. An influx of extra estrogen into the body from food sources can cause fat cells to grow and become stubborn. A similar situation occurs during pregnancy and in mothers who are breast-feeding, as these cause the fat cells in the body to swell so that they are able to absorb and store more fuel. Estrogen tells them that they need to stock up on extra fat, so the fat cells prepare to do so. This is why many women gain weight when starting birth control pills or when entering menopause when levels of progesterone fall and estrogen becomes the dominant hormone.
Estrogenic Foods Also Affect Men
Most of the time, women have a more difficult time losing body fat than men. However, men are quickly catching up in this day and age because of estrogenic foods they consume in our modern Western society, rife with environmental pollution and refined foods. Ironically, one reason women have a harder time
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The Solution
with fat loss than men is because, at any given time, women are more likely to be on a severely restricted diet to attain the coveted thinness that’s been established as a standard of beauty and attractiveness in our culture.
How Dieting Affects Fat Storage
Unfortunately, severe and prolonged dieting shuts down the metabolism, sending the body into starvation mode. The fat cells begin sending out even more fat-storing enzymes and a significantly smaller amount of fat-releasing enzymes. Because the fat cells are afraid of being starved to death and depleted of their stores, they will hold on to the fat they have to the best of their ability, causing the body to start burning lean muscle mass to get the amount of fuel it needs. Lean muscle mass, located in the skeletal muscles and the organ systems, is the metabolically active part of the body. This means that after the diet is over and your body is out of starvation mode,..."
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