Is Estrogen the cause for men or females being fat?

[nandi12]

As I mentioned above, there is not a ton of research on nolvadex and body fat. I posted one of the studies above and I think the one Macro was probably alluding to is this one:

Appl Radiat Isot 1998 May-Jun;49(5-6):643-5
Body composition measurements using DXA and other techniques in tamoxifen-treated patients.
Ali PA, al-Ghorabie FH, Evans CJ, el-Sharkawi AM, Hancock DA.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9569566&dopt=Abstract

The conclusion of that study was:

"...this retrospective study indicates that tamoxifen may lead to increase in fat content in women who are subjected to this treatment. We conclude that this observation is probably related to the agonistic oestrogenic effect of Tamoxifen on body fat. To our knowledge this deleterious effect has not been reported before and it should be taken into consideration when comprising different types of anti-oestrogenic drugs. Furthermore, patients should be warned about this side-effect when they are prescribed Tamoxifen therapy."

Considering the potential for hyperlipidemia, the reduction in circulating IGF-1 levels, and the increase in body fat, it might not be the best strategy for fat loss.

All this is said with the proviso that this research was carried out in women, the women were probably taking the nolvadex longer than you intend to, and the research was retrospective. The latter is important because it means the conditions under which the women took the nolvadex were not controlled. There were no comparisons with placebo and we don't know how shitty the women's diets were. Retrospective studies can be very misleading.

 

[SOLID]

this info sucks. No pun intended nandi. I was planning on running 40mg/ed of Nolva in hopes of loosing lower chest fat. Now I hear I may add more? Why cant things every be easy. Especially since I just ordered 5 boxes.

 

[Quiet Storm]

i guess arimidex or femara would be a much better choice as it is tried and true, its just not as easy on the wallet

 

[DrJMW]

The estrogen effect on alpha-2 receptors is just icing on the cake of obesity. Insulin resistance, low HGH levels, and low Testo levels are the main culprits, not to mention lousy genetics (which contributes to the above), lousy diet, lousy exercsie regimens. So, estrogen is the least of the problems.

 

[nandi12]

Dr. JMW is certainly right about that. The connections between estrogen levels or administration and alpha 2 adrenoreceptors is not very well established as far as I am concerned. There have been some animal studies showing estrogen causes an increase in alpha 2 receptor density but no studies as far as I know showing that modulating estrogen levels can change the expression of alpha 2 receptors in live human fat cells.

The strongest connection between estrogen and adipocytes I feel is the evidence showing that estrogen promotes preadipocyte differentiation.

If a person wanted to try nolvadex for fat loss there are some things that might help, at least in theory. Combating the elevated blood triglycerides is the first thing. A low fat diet coupled with fiber or psyllium supplementation generally helps lower lipids.

The second strategy is to offset the effects of blood lipids on fat accumulation. Obese people are often insulin resistant. Elevated free fatty acids in the blood interfere with insulin signalling. They aslo appear to blunt insulin's ability to block glucose production in the liver. Both effects lead to higher blood glucose levels and elevated insulin.

Insulin promotes fat storage in two main ways. It increases the activity of lipoprotein lipase, the enzyme responsible for allowing fats to enter cells. Insulin also lowers the activity of hormone sensitive lipase, the enzyme that promotes fat mobilization so it can be used as fuel.

So fat people are caught in a viciuos cycle: being fat makes them prone to insulin resistance, and that in turn leads to more fat accumulation. By improving insulin sensitivity you can lower insulin levels and take the brakes off of fat burning. ALA might really help in this regard.