How To Get Lean Legs

As a result of the Robb Wolf podcast (robbwolf.com/podcast) last week which focused on lowering estrogen levels, leading to leaner legs, a bunch of questions came up which I’d like to deal with here.

To summarize, Estrogen is metabolized by the liver. The liver converts excess estrogens into compounds that can be excreted by the body. There are three pathways through which estrogen can be metabolized. The pathways are basically viewed as follows:

1) 2-OH – healthy
2) 16-OH – unhealthy and can lead to cancer
3) 4-OH- unhealthy

In this case, metabolites carry the toxins out of the body (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolite) Because the 2-OH pathway is the healthiest and safest, it needs to be enhanced. If simply enhanced, there’s still an inherent risk in oxidation of the metabolite, that can cause problems. Thus, there needs to be a high level of antioxidants in the blood stream for prevention of oxidation.

Further, one needs to ensure the following need to be in order for the process to be effective:
1) Improved GI Health. Make sure you have good gut flora and plenty of fiber in the diet to prevent the enzyme B-glucouronidase from unbinding estrogens that are being excreted and returning them into the blood stream.
2) You need to be on a high protein diet to make sure Cytochrome P450 (helps the liver detoxify estrogens) stays active. High protein diets also supply plenty of the appropriate amino acids needed in liver detoxification.
3) Your liver must be healthy because, well, your liver has to process the toxins. Many Americans have liver-related issues preventing the benefits of an estrogen detoxification

Suggested Products for the process:
1) Estrium, which is a very complete product for estrogen metabolism. It has Aromatase inhibitors, which will keep your body from converting your testosterone to estrogen (not good while trying to lower your estrogen levels). It also enhances the c2 pathway and includes agents helping in the final stages of detoxification.

2) Dimension 3 includes primarily dim and curcumin. Dim, a plant compound found in cruciferous vegetable (although you’d have to eat many pounds of broccoli, daily, for this process to work) focuses on enhancing the c2 pathway. Curcumin (a principle ingredient found in the Indian spice, Tumeric) provides a nice dose of antioxants to make sure the c2 metabolites do not oxidize.

3) Hormone Protect is a combination of dim and sulforphane. Sulforphane is also found in cruciferous vegetables, and has been found to share anticancer, antidiabetic, and antimicrobial properties. However, for our needs in lowering estrogen, it also helps with the phase 2 part of detoxifying of the liver. Phase 2 is the conversion of fat soluble toxins to water soluble toxins so they can leave the body. Without it, the toxins will just continue to circulate and eventually re-absorbe: not healthy and a complete waste of time.

In summation, here are a small list the common symptoms associated with high estrogen levels: carrying excess fat on your thighs, and having very heavy PMS symptoms. If you experience any of these the above listed products will aid you in your journey to a healthy lean body. By lowering your estrogen levels, your legs will become leaner and those PMS symptoms have will lessen.