Archive for September 1st, 2010

posted by ChrisChew on Sep 1

For people who are naturally underweight, putting on merely just a few pounds can be a tremendous task. If you are one of them, you will be wondering what to eat or do to increase your weight.

You must have realized by now that there are no magic pills or supplements for you to put on weight quickly. After all, you would have had experimented with those so called weight gain supplements now and then haven’t you?

Increasing your weight does not happen overnight and it will require a very firm and dogged commitment from you. However, if you are determined enough to work on it, you will surely be able to put on some handsome muscular weight in due course.

Your focus should be on increasing your muscle weight and not about gaining body fat no matter how desperate you are about putting on a few pounds. This is because as we all know, too much body fat is unhealthy and besides, as you get older, your metabolism will slow down and you may even become obese at a later stage in your life.

So if you are truly serious about increasing your body mass weight, then you must be on a diet rich in healthy calories and protein. Eat these foods regularly and augment it by a regular weight training program to put on muscle mass size. If you don’t know how to train with weights to increase your body mass, then hiring a good personal trainer may be a good idea.

When you are training with weight bearing exercises, then you will also need to consume nutritional supplements to feed your muscles in order for them to grow faster and bigger. Protein supplement is a must have in this case.

Basically, you will need to supplement your diet with whey and casein protein. Whey protein is quickly absorbed into your bloodstream and thus is ideal to take them first thing in the morning when you get out of bed, before and just after your weight training and gym workout.

Casein protein is a slow release protein and is released into your bloodstream more slowly and thus is ideal to take it before bed so that it can feed your body throughout the night when you are sleeping.

Remember, they are only supplements and therefore you still must eat good balanced meals rich in all sorts of nutrients, especially protein and good carbohydrates preferably 5 to 6 meals a day.

If you are above 30 years old, you may want to supplement with testosterone enhancers. This is because as we get older, our body’s natural production of the muscle building hormone testosterone gets lesser and lesser. This will thus affect your muscle growth.

Please note that I am not asking you to go for hormonal therapy unless you have a medical problem in this area. I am also not suggesting you jab yourself with artificial hormones such as steroids.

There are many natural herbal testosterone releaser supplements which you can purchase from most pharmacies and drugstores without prescription because they are safe. These are not drugs or medicines, but are made from natural herbs to help your body to produce more of your own natural testosterone to adequately help you to gain muscle weight.

If you follow this guide and eat the right food, supplement your diet and workout with weights, will surely pack on pounds of muscles month after month and soon, you will be underweight no more because you will become a handsome beach hunk.

Chris Chew is a sought after fitness consultant who counts models, actors and other celebrities as his clients. Read his free articles at Weight gain supplements and Build muscles testosterone supplements

posted by ChrisChew on Sep 1

Believe it or not, cosmetic and plastic surgeons have reported year on year rise in the number of men seeking surgeries to remove male boobs or medically known as gynecomastia. This means that more and more guys suffering from male breast syndrome is seeking treatment to get rid of their embarrassing breast condition. However, is surgery the only way to get rid of man boobs?

Unknown to most people, the gynecomastia syndrome affects up to 40% of men in varying degrees. This is especially so during puberty age when hormones are particularly active. However as the boys grew up and their hormonal output stabilizes, most of them will outgrow their gynecomastia symptoms as their male boobs size returns to being normal. The problem is that for the unlucky ones, their male breast problem stays with them even as they reach adulthood.

Cosmetic surgeons usually use liposuction to remove the fat from the male breast to make it look flatter and more aesthetically pleasing. But this only solves part of the problem because more complicated surgeries may be required as the symptoms may involve enlarged mammary glands with angry puffy nipples.

So for this type of symptoms, it is not merely the extra fat in the breast area that has to be removed but hormonal adjustments and therapies may be required because of the patient’s hormonal imbalances in the form of having too much estrogen over the male hormone testosterone.

So to get rid of gynecomastia effectively, the hormonal imbalances must be addressed adequately. That is to increase testosterone and reduce estrogen production naturally, failing which, testosterone therapy may be required.

So how do you increase your body’s natural production of testosterone? Well, start with an intensive exercise workout program. This is because testosterone production commensurates directly with the level of muscular stress during your workouts. In other words, the more intensive your workouts, the more testosterone you will naturally produce.

Therefore, train with weights using compound exercises to stimulate more muscle stress. Compound exercises are movements that involve two or more joints such as squats and dead lifts. Workout your entire body instead of just concentrating on your glamour muscles like your biceps.

Also, do more incline bench presses as this exercise hit your upper chest harder and thus will help you to have a broader chest and will help you to hold up your chest better giving the illusion of a firmer chest.

If you are a drinker, give up alcohol completely as alcohol is known to depress testosterone production and thus having the estrogen to wreak havoc. Also, avoid soy products as soy protein are also known to raise estrogen levels.

The best part about raising your testosterone level is to increase your sexual activities. This is because having sex increases your production of oxytocin which in turn increases the production of endorphin and thereby raising your testosterone level naturally.

Having enough sleep is also another way of increasing your testosterone production. When you sleep, your body is repairing itself from the day’s stress and many hormones including human growth hormones and testosterone are released for this purpose. Furthermore, insufficient sleep causes a spike cortisol production which depresses testosterone production.

So if you want to reduce your male breast and get rid of gynecomastia, then you must adjust your hormonal imbalances by raising your testosterone production and decrease the effect of estrogen. The option for surgery should only be considered as a last resort because of inherent chances of complications and irreversible damages.

Chris Chew is a sought after fitness consultant who counts models, actors and other celebrities as his clients. Read his free articles at How to cure gynecomastia and Testosterone enhancer supplements