Do you have restricted blood circulation ? If you wish to get rid of stubborn fat, you must understand the hot-face-cold-belly problem and why you must fix it first.
Try this:
Touch the fat on your face (cheeks) and feel the temperature around there. Better yet, if you can measure it – do that!
Now touch the fat on your belly and check for the temperature there. Compare the two. If the temperature around your belly is colder than the face then we have a problem. A hot face-cold belly problem means that the blood flow to your belly is restricted. This makes stubborn fat a lot more stubborn unless fixed.
Blood Circulation is How You Access Fat Tissue
Before we can fix the restriction, we must understand why restricted blood flow is restricting your results.
- Blood carries hormones which our bodies need in order to break fat into free fatty acids. You must break fat before you can burn it. Think of it like setting up a campfire at the beach, you must bring broken branches or paper as fuel to burn. If you have them, but can’t carry them to the fire (via blood circulation), then you can’t burn them. Capish?
- Oxygen is also carried in the blood, and is needed to oxidise fat. In other words, if we want to burn broken fat then oxygen must be present. Going back to the campfire example, there is no such thing as fire without oxygen.
If your belly is colder than your face, it means the blood flow is restricted. That really means that hormones (such as HGH and Adreanline, both vital for fat breaking), as well as oxygen, struggle to reach the stubborn fat around your belly. It is like driving a car and getting stuck at a red light on an empty road. Moreover, restricted blood flow is one of the defining properties of stubborn fat.
The alpha-2 connection is important!
Alpha-2 Receptors (the same receptors making belly fat a bit more stubborn than it needs to be) are known to cause vasoconstriction, or narrowing of the blood vessels, leading to less blood flow where they are active. This in itself is a big part of the problem.
To remind you a big chunk of the design behind the official BellyProof program is dedicated to attack the issue of fat-resistance (by inhibiting alpha-2 receptors). We do it in a number of ways by understanding the deep connection of alpha-2 receptors to Insulin and Estrogen and working to bring those hormones into balance strategically before the workout.
Increase the Heat
The full solution would involve both improving blood circulation on the surface level, as well as addressing the core issue of alpha-2 receptors.
However, a simple thing you can do to partially address the problem is to increase the heat. This in itself doesn’t change alpha-2 receptors activity but it does override the problem in part by stimulating blood circulation into areas where they are restricted.
- Internally – You can take supplements to increase blood flow all around your body. This is not super effective but it can help. Stuff like Arginine or Citruline increase blood circulation. We can recommend some foods (like pumpkin seeds) but the problem is that food intake will spike Insulin which in itself will make the problem worse before exercise time – which is why supplements work better as you can get just the blood flow increases without the Insulin spikes.
- Externally – Heating creams and gels can also help. Massage these before your workout straight onto the areas of your body where you have stubborn fat. You can also apply direct heat to the tissue (hot water bottle on your belly? shower before training? there are options!).
- The BellyProof way -> while there are many ways to help blood circulation, one of the best way is via reduced Insulin. Sustained levels of reduced Insulin can dramatically improve abdominal blood flow. This is where the LION (Low Insulin Optimized Nutrition) method can really come in handy. You can ready about it here.
- On-going testing – we have done an insane amount of testing, using a thermal camera. We tested what works and what doesn’t in terms of artificiality increase heat on the surface – you’d be surprised at the results.Here’s a sneak peak:
Remember, blood circulation is important but you still need to optimize your fat breaking and fat burning cycles to benefit from it. You can read more about it on the main page.
