the butt issue to be continued; nutrition and your ass

im shure most of the readers of this blog, or dare i say all, are down with primal/paleo eating. so im not going to waste space by getting into the no grains/lowfat dairy/legumes/too much fructose mantra and endorsment of MEAT OF ALL KIND :)

lets just say that even though we might work out to the max and eat clean paleo there might still be some wonderment among us women about why oh why is there still junk on our derrieres. a girl might display a fullon sixpack coupled with a jiggly (i mean overly jiggly - some jiggle is hot and needs to stay) lower section. so what gives? there are a few points to discuss here so lets start with the overly obvious:

estrogen:

estrogen is fine and good and necessary for us girls (and even to you guys) but in its normal amounts. this industrialised world and SAD are giving us an overload, though.
i already gave soy the oneover just a couple of days back, so let me just say that soy in everything and anything nowadays is contributing highly to the excess estrogen problem. we also have chemicals (certain herbicides) on our veggies, hormones in our CAFO meat, plastic that we use to store our food in (yes even the BPA-free ones) that all contribute to give us a significant overload of estrogen. so what do you do?
- go organic and avoid ALL processed food
- avoid estrogen-triggering plants like those that are high in diosgenin and B-sitosterol (soy, yams, some traceamounts are found in most roots); estrone or estriol (liquorice, hops, apples, green beans, grains); isoflavones with estrogenic activity (most legumes belong here).
- avoid CAFO meat 
- avoid plastic containers for your food or drink
- consume testosterone boosting foods: YAY FOR FAT AND GRASSFED/FREERANGE MEAT AND EGGS, also some veg have such properties - for example garlic, tumeric, oregano, thyme, rosmary, sage, onion, celery, radish, almonds, pine nuts, stinging nettle and ginseng can be potent androgens. there has been some research indicating some plants to have estrogen-balancing properties: broccoli and all vruciferous plants (although needs to be avoided if there is any doubt about thyroid function), cabbage, omega 3 oil, citrus fruits, CLA, coffee and tea for example.
- some plant extracts block the aromatase enzyme that is used in estrogen formation in our bodies: chrysin from passion flower, apigenine from chamomile, indoles from cabbage, resveratrol, quercetine (onions, garlic), cycads, cactus flower extract, epilobium plants, oenothein A and even vitamin C. so consider taking some of these as supplements. research has proven chrysine, cactus flowers, cycades, yohimbine bark and oenothein A to be most potent aromatase inhibitors.
- also it would be good to give your liver some downtime and aid with milkthiste, dandelion root and ginger and by cutting the alc for a while. excessive alcohol consumption blocks the liver enzyme that breaks down estrogen.




OK, lets say that you are doing everything you can do to cut extra estrogen out of your life but you would like to go from a normal feminine butt to a tight fitnesschick derriere (which means goin lets say from 15% bf to 12% ors mth). when fatloss goals get to that stage, there are a couple of things to consider: in the end, when hormones are in tune, fat cells are fat cells and they just do their jobs. what is essentially different in the fatcells us girls have in our buttocks and thighs, is their adrenoreceptor distribution and bloodflow. adrenoceptors control fat cell metabolism and blood flow into and out of the fat cell. adrenaline and noradrenalin bind to these receptors and give out a signal to either expend free fatty acids or hold on to them. there are two kinds of adrenoreceptors on our fat cells. beta - and alpha receptors (these do have subclasses: alpha 1 and 2 ; beta 1, 2 and 3 but only alpha-2 and beta-2 interest us). beta-receptors release fat for energy use - increase lipolysis - and also increase blood flow in and out of adipose tissue and alpha-receptors inhibit those processes. we women have about 10 times more alpha- that betareceptors in our ass and thigh fat cells. plus, the lower body adipocytes are profoundly insulinsensitive, so any insulinproblems you have will show up on your hips. so here is some advice:

- aerobic exercise stimulates beta fat cells to release fat for use as energy. the best policy would be to either do your cardio fasted to maximise insulinesensitivity or to end an HIIT session with a steadystate one, in order to avoid the possibility of freed fatty acids in your blood being redeposited back on your butt.

- lean muscle mass increases insulin sensitivity, so keep up the good work

- increase your testosterone and growth hormone with supplements, weightlifting, HIIT and IFing

- carb-restriction and high fat diets inhibit the alpha-receptors and ofcourse increase insulin sensitivity

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11889199
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10516247