Getting Fat Makes You Old

Belly fat and aging are linked through the master hormone for almost everything related to health and longevity: human growth hormone (HGH). Unfortunately, the age-related loss of HGH is made worse by gaining fat.

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.

Research published in the scientific literature in 1991 first showed the connection between HGH and overweight. Researchers showed that men between the ages of 21 and 71, who were not overweight, typically lose HGH at a rate of 14 percent every 10 years. This compares with a reduction of HGH by 6 percent with every unit of Body Mass Index (BMI) in those who are overweight.

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.

The Four Top 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.

The link between belly fat and HGH, fortunately, provides several more effective solutions. They all revolve around raising HGH levels, which then drives fat loss. Here are the top four:

Solution 1. HGH replacement therapy. This involve a prescription treatment from a medical doctor. Although this is the most straightforward solution, it is very expensive and not generally covered by health insurance. However, those who can take advantage of this strategy lose fat quickly and automatically.

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).

Two additional amino acids are known to help, L-glutamine and L-tryptophan (or its derivative, 5-hydroxytryptophan or 5HTP). All four of these amino acids are commonly available at most nutrition stores, sometimes even in prepared formulas as HGH secretagogue products.

Solution 3. HGH levels will also spike tremendously after a high-intensity weightlifting workout. This workout-induced spike can be boosted with the same amino acid secretagogues as above. Good research shows that the addition of L-glycine will enhance the results of your workout even further. Most supplement formulas do not contain this amino acid, so you usually have to buy it separately.

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. The least known and perhaps most effective strategy for boosting daily HGH spikes involves when you eat. HGH levels after a meal peak out between 2 and 4 hours after you eat. Early in this period HGH works with insulin to convert food into muscle building. After the 4 hour mark, when insulin has dropped considerably, HGH works more to burn fat as fuel.

Fat metabolism due to this HGH spike therefore peaks out more than 4 hours after a meal. Ideally, this means that your meals should be spaced at least 5 hours apart to take maximum advantage of this pattern.

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.

Accelerating Belly Fat Loss

The best scientific results and the most supportive testimonials on intermittent fasting involve a 24 to 34 hour fasting period once or twice per week. One of the truly appealing aspects of this approach is that it removes a lot of worry about what to eat on non-fasting days, because the beneficial effects of a single fasting period are so powerful. This does not mean that intermittent fasting gives you free license to eat junk food. However, it does mean that you can lose fat, reverse and slow down the onslaught of aging, and enjoy great health and fitness just by using this simple strategy to boost recovery of your own HGH to youthful levels.

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.