Metabolic Health
How to Reduce Abdominal Fat and Increase Lean Muscles with Two Practical Steps
Understanding the health risks of visceral fat and the benefits of lean muscles and improving them by considering practical tips
Why Reducing Visceral Fat and Increasing Lean Muscles Matter
Metabolic disorders such as type II diabetes, heart diseases, cancers, and neurodegenerative diseases kill millions of innocent people, causing suffering for individuals and their loved ones.
In addition, these diseases adversely affect the economy by increasing the cost of healthcare globally. Therefore, dealing with these diseases with medical intervention is crucial.
However, it is vital to find resourceful ways to prevent them with sustainable lifestyle changes. The known culprit is our growing waistline passing the threshold with constant feeding, emotional stress, and sedentary life.
The human body is complex. Our physical structure depends on four anatomic constructs (bones, skin, muscles, and fats) to remain flexible and intact for a lifetime.
While bones and skin are critical, in this article, I focus on maintaining lean muscles and optimizing stored fat as they determine our metabolic health.
I provided three tips for postural health in this piece. I will cover bone and skin health in other articles.
We need strong and flexible muscles for healthspan (quality of life) and lifespan (longevity). We also need stored fat for survival.
However, too much visceral fat accumulation, especially in the abdominal area, is the root cause of numerous metabolic disorders. In addition, too little fat, such as under 3%, might also cause health issues.
Even though some people aspire to lose abdominal fat and gain lean muscles for aesthetic reasons, the primary purpose of this goal is to achieve optimal health for our well-being and longevity.
As we are individuals, there is no single body composure covering everyone. Some people prefer six-pack abs, some a shredded body, and some just lean muscles.
I like the third one. Many biological, genetic, and psychological factors, including gender differences, might affect our structure and fitness.
Here I present the healthy lifestyle approaches to reduce visceral fat and improve lean muscles as a big picture with a two-pronged approach.
1- Practical Tips for Balancing Metabolic Hormones
Fat loss and muscle gain revolve around balancing hormones requiring behavioral shifts.
As this is a comprehensive point, I frame this step under five broad headings providing practical tips for each critical item.
A — Prevent insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance is a well-known cause of metabolic disorders. A healthy metabolic profile revolves around making the body insulin sensitive.
When the body becomes insulin sensitive, it can use stored fat and can build muscles efficiently, preventing the risks of metabolic disorders.
I provided three tips to prevent insulin resistance and increase insulin sensitivity.
B— Make the body leptin sensitive.
The body can also become leptin resistant preventing the satiety signals to the brain. Leptin resistance might cause overconsumption of food, leading to excessive calories and unnecessary fat accumulation.
A viable solution is to make the body leptin sensitive. I provided two tips to make the body leptin sensitive.
Making the body leptin susceptible can also allow it to become more insulin sensitive.
C — Increase growth hormone naturally.
We can increase growth hormone naturally via three lifestyle habits.
One of the ways is restful and restorative sleep. Understanding the role of circadian rhythm in releasing growth hormones is essential.
The second option is intense workouts such as resistance and high-intensity interval training. These extreme workouts also have other benefits, such as defeating chronic stress, mild depression, and brain fog.
The third option is time-restricted eating which also initiates autophagy to clear bad proteins, damaged cells, harmful bacteria, and viruses from the body.
Both intense workouts and fasting require consultation from qualified healthcare professionals as they stress the body excessively.
D — Optimize stress hormone (cortisol).
From my experience and observations, one of the secrets to reducing belly fat and gaining lean muscles is optimizing the cortisol hormone.
This hormone is tricky as it makes us feel good when released, but it might cause harm in the long run when it gets elevated. Like growth hormone, the best way to optimize it is to have restorative sleep.
The next option is to recover from the effects of intense workouts. And the third option is to rest by having breaks during the day and scheduling fun activities.
E — Balance sex hormones.
Hormonal profile changes as we age. The change applies to both males and females. Some sex hormones decline, so they cause metabolic disorders.
While there are numerous interrelated sex hormones, the critical one for men is testosterone, and for women, it is estrogen. Hormone research made significant progress over the last few decades. Scientists achieved to create bio-identical hormones to replace them safely for both men and women.
Even though lifestyle factors play an important role in hormonal balance, some people might need medical intervention.
Therefore, seeking help from qualified medical professionals, especially endocrinologists, who manage the diagnosis and treatment of diseases related to hormones, is crucial.
All these hormonal points revolve around healthy lifestyle habits such as customized nutrition, tailored workouts, quality sleep, rest, and fun.
I outlined the critical roles of these hormones in an article titled Hormonal Intelligence: Sharpen It to Achieve Optimal Health.
2 — Practical Tips for Re-wiring the Brain for Sustainable Habits
The body and the brain are inseparably connected, communicating through the signals of hormones and neurotransmitters. Psychosomatic health and medicine gained momentum to produce sustainable solutions for healthspan and lifespan.
This step is also comprehensive. To make it digestible, I framed my content with bullet points. Interested readers might check linked articles for an explanation of the items.
The critical fact is that the brain, both the neo-cortex and the old brain, work on patterns. The reason for the brain to use patterns is assumed to save energy for survival.
Without biological power, survival is impossible for all living beings. This fundamental need exists in our genetic code. Therefore, habits play a critical role in our survival and well-being.
However, building habits require significant effort and time as the brain needs to create the patterns via the neurological process.
In an article, I introduced three practical steps to sharpen the mind for lasting health and happiness.
They are 1) physical and biological resilience, 2) mental flexibility and emotional regulation, and 3) meaningful social and spiritual connections that can help the brain re-wire for healthy habits and happiness.
Eliminating bad habits and replacing them with good ones require significant effort and time.
I provided three valuable insights from cognitive and metabolic research to keep the brain active and support the body. Two of them are biological, and one is psychological.
The biological ones are insulin sensitivity and cellular cleansing to sharpen the brain’s chemistry.
The psychological one is mindfulness practices which can improve attention and focus by empowering the neo-cortex (thinking brain).
Here are the critical points to reinforce wiring the brain to form new memories leading to healthy habits and contributing to sustainable weight management and optimal muscle retention.
1 — Choose small and manageable micro habits for fitness.
2 — Pay full attention and focus on each task.
3 — Intensify experiences by adding multiple senses and emotions.
4 — Create meaningful connections of activities.
5 — Deconstruct information into smaller parts.
6 — Perform active listening and sharp observations in the process.
7 — Explain a process, concept, or object in the third person.
8 — Create visual maps of objects and events.
9 — Practice daily chores as neurobic activities.
10 — Leverage meditation and other mindfulness practices.
I explained each point in this article. In addition, ketosis can increase brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which improves our cognitive skills and contribute to healthy habit-building. Therefore, I practice time-restricted eating, ketogenic diets, and intense exercises to increase BDNF.
Takeaways to Reduce Belly Fat and Increase Lean Muscles with Healthy Lifestyle Habits
Here is a summary of the key points from this article.
1 — Prevent insulin resistance.
2 — Make the body leptin sensitive.
3 — Increase growth hormone naturally.
4 — Optimize stress hormone.
5 — Balance sex hormones.
6 — Increase physical and biological resilience.
7 — Improve mental flexibility
8 — Practice emotional regulation.
9 — Enhance meaningful connections.
10 — Increase brain-derived neurotrophic factor.
Conclusions and Takeaways
The body and mind are intricately connected.
Therefore, to improve our physical capacity and performance, we also need the power of the mind. Psychosomatic health research proved the importance of body and mind connection for sustainable health and lifespan.
Building habits might take a long time and significant effort.
However, it is essential as the brain and body move with the help of established mental patterns in the neural pathways.
Without movement, no learning happens in the neocortex. Without learning we cannot build habits.
Healthy habits are essential for our success. Building a routine requires focus, attention, commitment, and persistence despite internal and external distractions.
Choosing tiny and manageable habits and gradually mastering them can make them sustainable.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
I aim to increase the hormonal intelligence of my readers and write about various hormones and neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, GABA, acetylcholine, norepinephrine, adrenaline, glutamate, and histamine.
One of my goals as a writer is to raise awareness about the causes and risk factors of prevalent diseases that can lead to suffering and death for a large portion of the population.
To raise awareness about health issues, I have written several articles that present my holistic health findings from research, personal observations, and unique experiences. Below are links to these articles for easy access.
Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, and Major Diseases.
I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Phosphatidylserine, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients to improve metabolism and mental health.
Disclaimer: Please note that my posts do not include professional or health advice. I document my reviews, observations, experiences, and perspectives only to provide information and create awareness.
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Finally, After Burning Her House, Georgia Found Enlightenment
Hilarious Tips to Prevent Brain Atrophy and Keep the Gray Matter Giggling
8 Psychological Points I Had to Unlearn and Relearn the Opposite
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