Where do Singaporeans commonly store fat?
At our fitness center, my staff and I put a big emphasis on making sure that we collect the right amount and the right kind of data on our personal training clients so that we can maximise their results by customising their training and nutritional programs.
One of these data sources is not just the amount of body-fat that they carry, but in which locations on their body they carry it.
While there is no such thing as "spot reduction" i.e. "I will do sit ups to tone my abs," there is a relationship between where you store fat and what is going on inside your body.
How does it work?
Imagine you have a friend who is "skinny" on the upper body, but she carries a lot of fat on her hips and buttocks. Does that mean she is underweight from the waist up, but obese from the waist down?
No, it means something inside is signaling her body to store fat in certain areas.
That fat storage pattern is an indicator that he or she is not clearing out excess female hormones well. Why this happens could be from multiple causes. A poor ability to detoxify those excess hormones, lifestyle choices like drinking and eating from heated plastic containers, or a poor digestive tract (where much of the work of detoxifying excess hormones is done).
Once we improve those conditions, this friend will start to burn fat, and burn it preferentially at her "problem areas".
In all there are 12 different body fat sites that we measure. Not only does this give us a good indicator of overall fat percentage (we consider 10% a good reading for men, and 17% a good reading for ladies), each site has a relationship to a certain hormone pattern or lifestyle. After all, the body does not lie.
The information that helps us determine which area is the most problematic comes from Olympic Coach Charles Poliquin's Biosignature method, one of the best ways to get information on your body without invasive techinques.
This method, in conjunction with our detailed questionnaires and health history interviews, gives us a good idea what methods and changes would give our clients the best bang for their buck.
With hundreds of active clients at one time, and more than a thousand per year, each being measured on average, once per month, we have a huge amount of data on the well being of the average person in Singapore.
Now I will share with you what we found to be the most common fat distribution pattern in Singapore, and some steps you can take to get rid of all that ugly, unwanted fat!
The top three most common sites for fat storage that we have found are.
The Pectorals (chest area)
The Supra-Illiac (sides of waist, also known as love handles)
The Umbilical (belly button area)
What do these sites indicate?
The pectorals indicate that too much male hormones are being wasted and possibly being converted to female hormones. In men this leads to the dreaded "man-boob" look and a increased risk of prostate issues, and for ladies and men it leads to a lower level of fat burning and lean muscle building effects. No, ladies will not end up like Rambo. Instead they will end up leaner, firmer and healthier.
The way to improve this is to:
Take a zinc supplement, zinc blocks the conversion of male hormones to female. Alcohol depletes zinc so if you drink, you need even more zinc.
Cut out excess aerobic exercise
Increase our red meat intake (not junk processed meat, but real, healthy meat).
Do interval training and strength training instead of hours on the treadmill. Long aerobic work shifts your hormones away from muscle building and towards fat storage.
The No.2 and No.3 sites combined together often indicate that the person is eating too many carbohydrates (especially the junk, refined kinds like white bread and white rice) and they are eating too infrequently (usually just 2 large meals per day). This leads to problems with blood sugar management and increased risk of diabetes and pre-diabetes symptoms.
If the umbilical are is especially high, it is also an indicator of a high overall stress load on the person resulting from insufficient sleep, food intolerance or emotional/work stress.
The keys to reducing areas 2 and 3 are to
Get rid of refined carbohydrates. Stick to unprocessed carbohydrate sources like veggies, a bit of fruit, and a bit of natural starches like brown rice and sweet potatoes.
Eat more regularly (3 meals, with a good breakfast of protein and healthy fats, along with one or 2 non-sugary snacks),
Get to bed early (even if you have to wake up earlier) because most of your body's recovery is most active, according to Chinese medicine principals, from 11pm to 5am.
Remove commonly problematic foods from your diet. These are wheat, soy, dairy, eggs and peanuts.
There we have it, simple steps to beat Singapore's most common fat storage pattern!
Coach Jonathan Wong is a Singapore personal trainer and performance expert. He is also a fitness author and a member of Singapore Men's Health Advisory Panel.
For the best personal training and fitness boot camp program in Singapore visit www.coachjon.com
