What Can We Learn from Our Fat?

Many people have hormonal issues that make their fat loss efforts difficult: poor insulin sensitivity, a sluggish thyroid, estrogen imbalances, low androgens.

Charles Poliquin is a strength coach who does a lot of research on where people store fat on their bodies and why. Most of this research is based on 30 plus years of working with top professional athletes and most recently, everyday folks like you and me. Biosignature Modulation is a system he developed in which he measured a client's skin folds and compared the results to what their bloodwork revealed about their hormonal status. According to Poliquin, a Biosignature practitioner can accurately determine what's going on hormonally inside a person's body by taking twelve specific skin folds. Using this data, a practitioner can address these imbalances through dietary recommendations, exercise and natural supplements. For example, a man who tends to store fat on his pectoral muscle will often times indicate an underproduction of testosterone. It's important to note that while this may seem to be all about body fat percentage, it is more focused on where you store fat and why.

For me, it was refreshing to hear him talk about the dietary protocols that he's experimented with over the years and has implemented with great success. Charles has extensive knowledge of nearly every vitamin, mineral and botanical out there and how to use them to treat hormonal imbalances. It reinforced much of what we already know about the components (sleep, whole food diet, low stress, physical activity) of a healthy lifestyle. He came across as part strength coach (Mark Rippetoe-ish), part scientist (Robb Wolf-ish) and part French-Canadian hippie (Daniel-ish)

Mike and I came away with a new-found appreciation for the nutritional value of the foods we eat and how it greatly affects our well-being. For the next few months we'll be experimenting on ourselves with the Biosignature protocols we each received. We'll keep you posted...

To read more on Biosignature Modulation check out Charles Poliquin's website and this brief article in Oxygen Magazine.