Lean Legs: The Estrogen Connection

Are you comfortable wearing short shorts!? If you answered “no” this is what probably brought you here in the first place! Our hormones, in particular estrogen plays a major role in losing fat from your legs. Although both testosterone and estrogen are present in both men & women, estrogen is considered the female hormone and testosterone the male hormone. Estrogen is responsible for all the female sex characteristics – it’s responsible for breast development, fuller hips and it’s also responsible for women not having as much body hair as men, thank god for that one! It also plays a role in where fat gets stored!  Guess where that is?  Thighs, hips, lower abs!!

While it’s normal to produce certain amounts of estrogen, poor nutrition/lifestyle and excess exposure to something called xeonestrogens (these come from man-made chemicals, which mimic estrogen in our bodies), increases the fat storing form of estrogen. So how do you reduce your estrogen’s and get leaner legs?

1. Reduced exposure to xenoestrogens: Plastic bottles and tupperware, pesticides and herbicides and commercially grown meats will all increase xeonestrogens in your body! Go through your toiletries and throw out any that have the ingredient ‘paraben’. Here’s a tip – I use Kiehls products!!
2. Drink green tea: It improves liver detoxification of estrogen, reduces aromatase and lowers levels of damaging estrogens and protects against estrogen-specific free radicals and carcinogens.
3. Eat more cruciferous vegetables: Help rid the body of bad estrogens. Broccoli contains Sulforaphane which is a specific enzyme that has been shown to metabolise xenoestrogens rapidly. Other cruciferous vegetables include spinach, cabbage, kale, brussel sprouts and cauliflower.
4. Go Organic: Especially with your protein sources. Meats pumped with hormones will, yep you guessed it, increase bad estrogens in your body!
5. Don’t Skip Leg Day: Make them a priority and you’ll see significant fat loss not just in your legs but all over your body! I like training legs twice a week – one hamstring dominant workout and one quadricep dominate workout and then a HIIT workout on the weekend with plenty of sled pushing & dragging as well as the Assault Bike.