Here is the original piece on BioSignature Modualtion:

Men’s Fitness readers are a canny bunch. You know that it’s impossible to spot reduce those love handles. Every expert you have ever read has told you that spot reduction is impossible and that fat is lost from all over the body and never from one localised place. Only a dummy who buys those “electro stimulation for lean abs” kits on the Shopping Channel would ever think otherwise.

Yet stop and think for a minute. Never automatically buy into anything a so-called expert tells you, let’s use a bit of logical reasoning. Some of you will want to drop fat from the belly, other from the love handles. And no doubt there are some of you with the dreaded man boobs – you guys have got bigger problems than ugly fat deposits, squatting to pee and needing cuddles after sex to name but two. Now if all fat is the same and you can’t selectively “burn it off”, then why on earth does it sit its lardy self at different speeds, in different quantities, on different parts of our bodies? If all fat is equal then it would be laid down in a nice even layer everywhere on everybody.

Which raises the subject of the second aspect of fat distribution that I’d like you stop and ponder awhile on. When you see Betty, sorry I mean Benny, sashaying across the football pitch with his training bra firmly holding his mighty “pecs” in place, what do you automatically think to yourself? If it’s “this poor chap has localised body fat distribution patterns consistent with female hormone issues, most notably the aromatisation of testosterone into estrogen” and /or “Benny is turning into a bird” then full marks and go to the top of the class. It shouldn’t then take a genius to figure out that if we address Benny’s hormonal issues then his man boobs should thankfully become a thing of the past. And if we can apply this theory to one area of local fat distribution, then we can also apply it to all the other areas too. And hey presto, spot reduction is therefore possible.

Nature versus Nurture – we are slaves to both

Any disproportionate distribution of body fat is caused by a combination of your own genetics and unique biochemistry interacting with your environment. In other words, nature and nurture combining. This is because different genotypes mean differing hormonal reactions and this in turn means a different distribution of body fat. The lesson here should be obvious – he who controls hormones controls body composition.

BioSignature Modulation – you can control your hormones

The credit for formulating the system that has allowed us to dissect fat distribution patterns, their hormonal causes, and the ways to then modulate the hormonal profile so as to optimise body fat composition (spot reduce in other words) goes to Charles Poliquin. This hormonal optimisation system, known as BioSignature Modulation, is, in the hands of a skilled practitioner with experience of fine tuning body composition, the single most effective way to get in shape because everything is tailored to the individual’s unique biochemistry. Modulating endogenous hormonal levels takes skill and all aspects of an individual’s physical and mental influences need to be scrutinised – gym and diet are important yes, but the chain being only as strong as its weakest link cliché holds very true also. An optimal hormonal profile is only achieved via a balanced approach that covers every permutation of the correct and highly individual-specific protocols for exercise, nutrition, supplementation with herbal and other related products, sleep, digestion, relaxation, and any other lifestyle factor that can impact upon physical, emotional, and mental energies.

Lessons to be Learned

Always question what you are told and think through the logic in everything that is “supposed” to happen to your body. Look to the real reasons as to why your body behaves differently from that of your friends, and remember that the optimal hormonal profile for both muscle building and spot reduction is within your control.

About the Author:

Glenn Parker is a personal trainer and BioSignature coach with Nick Mitchell’s London based Ultimate Performance Team (www.UPFitness.co.uk)

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They say that the camera never lies. Let me tell you that it is about the only truly reliable medium by which to be 100% certain of your real fat loss progress.

The mirror plays tricks on you – every mirror ever owned by a woman adds 20lbs and every mirror ever owned by a man suddenly turns him into Conan!

The weighing scale is no friend either. If you are lucky enough to have a great personal trainer (cough, cough!) then you may not actually lose all that much body weight despite losing a heck of a lot of body fat. On our 6 week rapid fat loss programmes many of our male clients lose only about 5-10 lbs of overall body weight despite losing 20lbs plus of fat! This is because their body composition has made a paradigm shift towards holding muscle at the expense of fat. They may weigh almost the same but they definitely look and feel a whole lot better!

He did this is in 6 weeks! What can you do?

The other solid option for measuring fat loss progress is if you work with an experienced personal trainer who really knows how to use a pair of calipers. Charles Poliquin says that it takes about 3,000 measurements to become proficient with calipers so do make sure that if you use them you are working with a competent practitioner. Moreover, if your coach gets out a pair of cheap plastic Accumeasure type calipers tell him / her not to waste your time. To ensure proper accuracy they need to be using medical grade calipers of the type put out by Harpenden. In fact the absolute best person to gauge your body fat losses would be a good BioSignature Modulation expert. We will delve into the magic of BioSignature in a later Fat Loss Tip.

So when it comes down to it, the simplest and best method for assessing your continued fat loss progress is to take regular photos. As I said earlier the (un-photo shopped)camera never lies, and you would be astounded by how small improvements creep up on you unseen and accumulate into remarkable body transformations!

Who can fail to be motivated by visible fat loss like this!

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Blueberries May Help Banish Belly Fat

You’ve probably heard me rant and rave about blueberries. I eat them about six out of seven days a week, I gave them a “star” in my book “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth“, and I’ve spoken at length about their high antioxidant content, their low sugar content, and their ability to boost memory.

Well, get ready for some hot news: Blueberries may also help banish belly fat.

A new study by researcher E. Mitchell Seymour, MS, of the University of Michigan shows that rats that ate a diet high in blueberries lost abdominal fat- the kind linked to increased waist size and increased risk for diabetes and heart disease. This happened even when the rats ate a high-fat diet. As an extra added bonus, the blueberry eating rats also had improved glucose control (meaning their blood sugar was more stable).

The researchers suggest that blueberries- with their high antioxidant content- may somehow alter the way the body stores and processes sugar, great news for those at risk for both heart disease and diabetes. “Our findings in regard to blueberries show the naturally occurring chemicals they contain, such as anthocyanins, show promise in mitigating these health conditions,” said researcher Steven Bolling, MD, of the University of Michigan,

In the current study- presented at Experimental Biology 2009- rats were bred to become obese were fed either a low-fat diet or a high-carb diet, both of which were enriched with whole blueberry powder (about 2% of their total caloric intake).

After three months the rats fed the blueberries had improved glucose control and improved insulin sensitivity. Better glucose control and improved insulin sensitivity are both strongly related to lowering the risk for diabetes.

I find blueberries one of the easiest foods to incorporate into your diet. In season or not, you can always get them frozen, and I like to eat them right out of the freezer (mixed with frozen cherries). I put some FACE 2% yogurt on them, sprinkle with some slivered almonds, flaked unsweetened coconut and some probiotic powder and have them as a nightly “dessert”. It’s the ultimate “anti-aging” treat!”

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The health of your gut and proper digestion are intrinsically linked to your overall health and the proper function of your immune system. It has actually been estimated that the gut is responsible for over 80% of your immune system response and a gut health check should always be the first thing checked whenever an ongoing illness or a negative health condition hits.

Over on our main London personal training website we are lucky enough to have published a new article focusing on “gut health and the immune system” by Ohio based personal trainer and BioSignature Modulation coach Anthony Castore. Anthony is as smart as he is strong and powerful in the gym (in other words, very) and meticulous in his attention to precise detail. He has studied nutrition, fat loss personal training, BioSignature programs, and of course gut health, with some of the leading brains in the business such as Charles Poliquin and Dr Eric Serrano and it shows in the protocols and explanations given in his new article.

I won’t spoil your fun by rehashing Anthony’s words here, but my take home points on enhancing gut health for the immune system are:

1) Focus on establishing and maintaining healthy bacteria via a pro biotic (I like the pro biotic product put out by Welsh nutritional supplement company Aliment) and a pre biotic (most easily found in a good fiber supplement such as Poliquin Performance’s Primal Fiber series).

2) Establish your stomach HCL acid levels and where necessary add a product such as Poliquin Performance HCL to your list of essential supplements. In fact I have a piece on this in May’s Men’s Health magazine.

Gut health is absolutely essential to the support of a healthy immune system and let’s not forget just how critical that is to both living longer and living beautifully! You can train like a Mr Universe bodybuilder and diet for fat loss until the cows come home but you will never make any real progress until you are healthy and functioning properly.

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Fat loss can be a lonely business. Achieving your peak physical condition doesn’t exactly widen your opportunities to socialise, and temptations are around every corner (or in every biscuit barrel and sweet tin). We all have ongoing internal dialogues and sometimes the good voice is strong, and sometimes it is weak and willing to succumb to whatever vice lies in our path and throw the fat loss out of the window. If you are anything like me you will be a master of self justification. How many times have I heard my personal training clients and / or myself utter such self defeating phrases as:

“Just one won’t hurt”

“I am low on carbs, I need the energy”

One for the bodybuilders – “I feel flat, I need to get some glycogen in my system”

Would you shy from your fat loss regime if you were accountable to this man?!

Pfah! Having a cheat / reefed meal is not necessarily the end of the fat loss world, but having an unplanned one almost always leads to a real and significant falling of the dieting wagon. One way to avoid this very common pitfall is to make yourself accountable to someone. This is one of the ways that a good personal trainer can earn their fees. My trainers always stay on top of all our personal training clients, and those clients in turn can expect to receive encouragement and praise if they have stuck to their fat loss plans, and something of a telling off if they let things slip too much. Those of you who know me will appreciate that “something of a telling off” only tends to happen once, after that most of my clients realise that we both have a lot invested in their success and that accountability to me to follow through on our work helps us achieve some often spectacular results!

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Excuses, excuses, excuses. These are the real culprits of 99.9% of all failed fat loss programmes. Getting big and muscular is very often a complicated process requiring a tonne of forethought and planning. Getting super lean is nowhere near as intellectually challenging, but boy does it require discipline and perseverance.

Take responsibility for your own fat loss and maybe you can look this good!

Only those who have the maturity and desire to take full responsibility for their exercise and nutritional choices have what it takes to achieve the ultimate ripped look. Long term fat loss, and superlative condition do not come easy – ask our personal training clients who bust their spleens week in week out in the gym in order to look as good as they do. Take a hard look at yourself, do you have the responsibility to act out your desires and reach your best ever condition?

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Charles Poliquin has often lectured that no one ever ate anything by accident. His hard line, zero tolerance policy on excuse making isn’t necessarily the correct approach for everybody’s fat loss strategies but it sure gets the message across. The blunt fact is that your mouth is not a vacuum and you are 100% responsible for everything that you eat.

Charles Poliquin, a man who knows a thing or two about fat loss!

You don’t need to, and should refrain from, hoovering your food as if it will disappear if you don’t shovel it down quickly enough. It’s not going anywhere and maybe if you take your time you will allow your stomach to feel full and you won’t end up eating too much!

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Ignorance should never be an excuse. The lack of nutritional education in the world never ceases to amaze me, after all we are what we eat. Every morsel of food that passes your lips has an impact not just upon fat loss and your cosmetic body composition, but also a profound and often long lasting impact upon your health. I make nutrition and supplementation a vital part of all our personal training advice and it has stood me in great stead when it comes to getting real world results.

There are many fantastic nutrition books out there ranging from the popular and well know “South Beach” diet series through to the always fascinating offerings of men such as Johnny Bowden and Michael Eades. Healthy, nutritious food does not have to be as boring and unpalatable as plain dry chicken breasts and broccoli.

Fat loss programmes can be short, spartan bursts of intense effort, but once you have reached your goals you need to maintain all your hard work and the way to do that is to make it as easy as possible for yourself by knowing how to consistently make nutritious and dare I say delicious food choices.

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Long term fat loss requires patience, discipline, and a constantly positive mindset. The essence of what you are trying to achieve with your fat loss goal is a body transformation. If this happened easily then no one would bother to read my blog or visit my London personal training centres.

There will ALWAYS be obstacles along the way of any journey, and if I may be super cheesy I’d like to paraphrase SylvesterStallone (oh my God I hear you cry!) in the movie “Rocky Balboa”:

“It’s not how many times you get knocked down that counts, it’s how many times you get back up”

Sly still knows his fat loss!

Mark my words, you will slip up but one occasional slip up won’t derail your fat loss efforts. Letting one slip up eat away at you so that it becomes one giant slide is what needs never to happen. By staying focused on the long term, what after all is one bad meal in a nutritional programme of a thousand meals, and maintaining the healthy mindset that it is YOU who you are doing all this for will see you succeed in all of your fat loss goals.

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(pardon the terrible pun!)

It is a bit of a cliche, but we drill into our personal training clients that breakfast really is the most important meal of the day.

And no, breakfast is NOT a bowl of Special K. Try to remember that the first 30gms of protein you eat in a day goes to the support of your immune system. This should tell you that you must eat protein first in the day. “Protein” incidentally is a Greek word that means “of primary importance” – these Ancients knew a thing or two! Without a properly functioning immune system you can kiss goodbye to fat loss, muscle building, and far more importantly good health!

I know that many of you you can’t stomach breakfast, so please try to slowly add a small amount of food. Two boiled eggs and a small amount of natural, fat free, organic yogurt would be a great start to the day for many of of those who have gone years with nothing better than an early morning cup of coffee. Of course there are reasons for an early morning lack of appetite and distaste for food – it almost always has to do with impaired digestion and is something that we aim to fix immediately with all our London personal training clients.

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