If you've got man boobs, it means you've got extra fat on your chest.
That's why losing man boobs has a LOT to do with controlling the body’s most powerful fat storage hormone.
Different hormones in your body regulate fat storage—testosterone, growth hormone, estrogen, cortisol, leptin, insulin, and others, but if I had to pick the one hormone that has by far the most important role in fat regulation, it would be the hormone insulin.
In this article, I'm going to show you…
- why insulin plays such a big role in giving you man boobs;
- why insulin plays such a HUGE role in making it near-impossible for you to ever LOSE your man boobs (it PROHIBITS your body from burning any chest fat);
- and I'm going to show you 4 ways you can lower your insulin levels right down, giving your body the green light to burn off the excess fat in your chest so you can finally lose your man boobs.
Let's start with the basics…
What Does Insulin Do?
Insulin takes sugar out of your blood, and stores it in your liver and muscles in the form of glycogen. That’s why people with diabetes, who either don’t produce any insulin (type I diabetes), or their cells don’t respond to insulin (type II diabetes), end up with too much sugar in their blood.
When your liver and muscles are fully stocked up with glycogen, insulin instructs your liver to convert any further sugar in your blood into fat in the form of triglycerides. These triglycerides are then stored in fat cells, which is how you get fat.
And Here's What Most People Don't Know…
High plasma insulin levels is the biggest signal for your body to stop burning fat
There would be little point in insulin going to the trouble of storing all of that fat in your chest, only for your body to quickly break up the fat and release it back into your bloodstream again.
But fear not, because insulin is a clever little bugger with multiple talents.
Insulin doesn’t just store fat, it also inhibits the breakdown of fat, which means it makes sure all of that excess fat STAYS stored in your chest.
Your body needs two enzymes to release and burn fat – hormone sensitive lipase (HSL), which your body needs to release fat stored in fat cells, and CPT-1, which your body needs to burn the released fat. Insulin blocks BOTH of these enzymes.
So as long as your insulin levels are high, your body is physically incapable of breaking down fat.
You can exercise till you're blue in the face, or restrict your calories all you like, as long as your insulin levels are high, that fat in your man boobs is going NOWHERE!
The problem isn't the occasional rise in insulin after a meal, the problem is chronically elevated insulin, where your insulin levels are high all day and all night, so your body can never burn any fat.
Fat people who have a hard time burning fat, and especially guys with stubborn man boobs, have chronically elevated insulin levels.
So What Gives You Chronically Elevated Insulin Levels?
Insulin resistance gives you chronically elevated insulin levels.
When you eat too many carbs, eat too much food in general, and don’t work out enough, your body releases more and more insulin to shuttle those sugars out of your blood and into your cells.
Your cells being constantly bombarded by insulin, eventually start to become insulin resistant, meaning they don’t respond to insulin very well.
But your body still needs to get rid of all that sugar in your blood, so all it can do is release more and more insulin to try and force more of the sugar from your blood into your cells.
So when you have insulin resistance, you end up with chronically elevated levels of insulin in your blood.
Because of all the extra insulin hanging around in your blood, your body has a hard time burning any fat.
The more insulin resistant you are, the more insulin is hanging around in your blood, and the more difficult it is for your body to break down and burn fat.
Studies also show that the more insulin resistant you are, the lower your testosterone levels, which means the harder it will be for you to get rid of your man boobs.
How Do You Make Those Insulin Levels Go Down So You Can Burn Fat, Boost Testosterone, And Lose Those Man Boobs?
Insulin sensitivity is the opposite of insulin resistance.
To keep your insulin levels down, you need to boost insulin sensitivity.
When your cells are insulin sensitive, it means your body needs to release smaller amounts of insulin to do the crucial job of moving glucose from your blood into your cells.
The more insulin sensitive you are, the less insulin there is in your blood, and the easier it is for your body to burn fat.
Not only that, but the less insulin hanging around in the blood, the higher your testosterone levels, and the easier it is to lose those darn man boobs.
The more insulin resistant you are, the less insulin sensitive you are, and vice versa. So reducing insulin resistance is the same thing as boosting insulin sensitivity.
4 Ways To Boost Insulin Sensitivity To Give Your Body The Green Light For Burning Off Those Man Boobs
The Defensive Approach
Method #1:
Carbohydrates are the #1 macronutrient responsible for unopposed insulin secretion and subsequent insulin resistance. That’s why to lose man boobs I recommend going on a low carb diet. Avoid sugar, grains, and starchy veggies like potatoes.
This is the most important thing you can do to boost insulin sensitivity. If your diet is crap, nothing else will help you.
The Offensive Approach
A good defense is the most important thing you can do, but if you want fast results, you're going to have to put in some offensive maneuvers as well.
Method #2:
High intensity training, the likes of whole-body weight training and HIIT are very powerful at boosting insulin sensitivity. Studies comparing high intensity training to endurance training have shown high intensity training to be better at boosting insulin sensitivity than endurance training.
Method #3:
Another great way to boost insulin sensitivity is via intermittent fasting. You become insulin resistant when you are constantly overeating and eating high carb food, where your cells are constantly bombarded by insulin. With intermittent fasting on the other hand, you give your body long periods of time where the need for insulin is totally minimized, giving your cells a chance to recover their natural sensitivity to insulin.
Method #4:
Yet another thing we can use to deal a powerful offensive blow to insulin resistance, is turmeric…
What Makes Turmeric So Powerful At Skyrocketing Insulin Sensitivity?
Turmeric boosts insulin sensitivity via multiple different mechanisms:
1. Turmeric activates glucose uptake by the liver
A 2009 study found that curcumin, the most widely studied component of turmeric, was 400 to 100,000 times more effective than the anti-diabetic drug Metformin at activating glucose uptake by liver cells.
Increasing glucose uptake by cells is what insulin does, so curcumin is either replacing insulin, or making insulin more effective at its job. Either way, this means less insulin is needed by your body, thereby boosting insulin sensitivity and allowing your body to burn fat.
2. Turmeric inhibits glucose production by the liver
The same study also found that curcumin inhibits glucose production by the liver. This further reduces how much insulin is needed by your body. Since your cells are not bombarded by insulin so much, they become more insulin sensitive.
3. Turmeric helps convert glucose to its storage form, glycogen
Turmeric also makes you better at converting glucose into its storage form, glycogen, with studies showing that curcumin supplementation leads to more glycogen storage in both the liver and in the muscles.
This is a REALLY cool thing about turmeric, here's why:
More glycogen stashed away in your muscles means bigger muscles, and better exercise tolerance, where you have more energy, you can push harder in your training, train for longer, and train more frequently.
Also, when you get better at converting glucose to glycogen, you get less glucose floating around in your blood, and less need for insulin to shuttle that glucose away into your cells. This is yet another way curcumin leads to better insulin sensitivity.
4. Turmeric boosts the fat-busting hormone, adiponectin
A 2012 study found that curumin boosts adiponectin levels. The people in this study who took curcumin were found to have a 23.5% rise in adiponectin levels, while those given a placebo saw adiponectin decrease by 1.2%.
Adiponectin is an important fat-busting hormone. It…
- works with leptin to depress appetite in your brain;
- boosts fatty acid breakdown;
- stimulates glucose utilization in the liver and muscles;
- has even been shown to completely reverse insulin resistance in mice.
Studies show that lean people have higher levels of adiponectin than fat people and people with insulin resistance and diabetes.
Turmeric boosts insulin sensitivity SO MUCH, that in this study, it prevented diabetes in 100% of subjects!
In a 2012 study of 240 pre-diabetic patients (the same study as the adiponectin study above) the subjects were randomly assigned to receive either curcumin or placebo capsules for 9 months. By the end of the study, 16.4% of subjects in the placebo group were diagnosed with type II diabetes, while none were diagnosed with type II diabetes in the curcumin-treated group.
They also measured insulin resistance in this study, and found that insulin resistance increased by 6% in the placebo group, while in the curcumin group it decreased by 20%, meaning curcumin boosted insulin sensitivity by 20%.
——
There are a whole load of other mechanisms via which turmeric boosts insulin sensitivity, but I think you get the picture.
So Here’s The Bottom Line, And Here's What You Need To Do To Lose Your Man Boobs
All the science mumbo jumbo aside, the bottom line is insulin is HUGE. It’s the most important fat storage hormone there is, so if you want to lose weight or lose man boobs, you need to totally flat-line, kill and obliterate those insulin levels.
Too much insulin is bad. When you are insulin resistant, you have too much insulin floating around in your body.
You need to make your body as insulin sensitive as you can. Boost insulin sensitivity, and it will get easier to get rid of that excess body fat; your testosterone levels will go up too so it gets easier to lose your man boobs and it gets easier to grow muscle.
Curcumin in turmeric is so good at boosting insulin sensitivity, that one 2011 study claimed its effects were comparable to the anti diabetic insulin sensitizing drug, Rosiglitazone.
We already know that turmeric can help you lose man boobs by blocking estrogen and reducing chronic inflammation. And now we know that turmeric also improves insulin sensitivity, making it a triple-action man boob busting super-herb.
So if you have man boobs, there’s really no excuse, if any one ingredient can help you on its own, it’s turmeric, and you’ve got to at least give this herb a try.
To get started, check out this article on different ways you can take turmeric:
https://chestsculpting.com/how-to-take-turmeric-to-get-rid-of-your-man-boobs/
My favorite method though, is to take a good turmeric supplement. If you pick the right supplement, not only is it effective at shrinking man boobs and tightening up those puffy nipples, but it’s also far more convenient than just adding turmeric to your food.
I do advise adding turmeric to your food, but it’s a lot of work getting in enough turmeric to make a big impact fast. If you want to see big quick changes in your chest, add some turmeric to your food, and start taking a good supplement that has worked for others.
You can check out the supplement that’s working for me and is working for my clients by clicking the following link.
Click here to check out the turmeric supplement that I'm currently using (U.S. Only)
If you live outside the U.S., click the following link to learn 5 must-have criteria for the best turmeric supplements, so you know how to pick the good ones:
https://chestsculpting.com/5-must-have-criteria-for-a-great-turmeric-supplement/
I have the hewis & shelby. Brand. How often should I take it?
Hi Stephen
The manufacturer recommends taking 2 tablets a day with food. I would start at this dose, try it for a month and see how you get on. If you want a stronger dose, there’s no harm in taking 2 tablets TWICE a day.