Flatten Your Belly with CLA
There is one popular supplement you may want to add to your efforts to reduce belly fat. CLA or conjugated
linoleic acid is popular because it works.
CLA is most abundant in protein-rich dietary sources such as meat and dairy products. It's also available in
supplement form for those who question a high protein diet for cholesterol reasons.
CLA will not on its own reduce belly fat but in conjunction with your exercise program it will help to flatten
your belly.
To flatten your belly you need to build the muscles that hold your mid section together in a compact
package.
You need lean strong muscles. And that is where CLA can help. Studies have shown that the use of CLA
can increase the conversion of fat to muscle. You will not see as big a weight loss but you will see a
flatter stomach as you increase muscle mass.
The most important plan to flatten your belly is 3 pronged. You must eliminate sugar, reduce the amount of
fatty foods you eat and exercise. Reducing the fatty food intake is a real problem for most of us.
There was a study conducted at University College London that looked at the hormone Peptide YY - also known as
PYY - a hormone that regulates hunger.
It is released into the blood stream in the stomach when eating protein, but nothing really starts to happen
until it reaches the hypothalamus; a small region of the brain that drives a wide variety of behaviors, including
eating, drinking, pleasure, anger and embarrassment. Another good reason to eat slowly and give your brain a chance
to send the I'm full message.
If you are struggling to reduce calorie intake, in order to flatten your belly, it might be very beneficial to
find a way to naturally trigger PYY production and sidetrack the desire to eat.
When the average Western diet is compared to the estimated diet of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, two
differences stand out clearly: We consume a lot more carbohydrates than they did, and much less protein. The carbs
do not raise the PYY level.
"We've now found that increasing the protein content of the diet augments the body's own PYY, helping to reduce
hunger and aid weight loss."
That quote comes from Dr. Rachel Batterham, the lead researcher for the University College London team. The
quote appears in a press statement, released by Cell Press, the publishers of the journal Cell Metabolism in which
the study was recently published.
So, eat a little protein with each meal, take your CLA with each meal, and continue to take that daily walk. The
weight will come off and you will flatten your belly. Once you start the exercises to strengthen your
abdominal muscles you will really see a change. But like most things, it does take time. You did not
build that belly over night even though it may seem to be a sudden change. You have years of abuse that
contributed to that belly bulge. The best thing about CLA, it seems to pull stored fat from the belly area to
convert to muscle.
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