Butts and guts tell a story!

There is a straightforward way for people to assess both status and progress in their overall health. It does not involve measuring tapes and fancy body fat percentage pods. It's home-based! When you're at home, get naked and stand in front of the mirror (side view), breathe normally, and examine the outline of your gut and your butt. They tell you everything you need to know. 

What does a protruding gut tell you? First, is it gas or fat? If you're farting all the time and when you tap it, it feels like a balloon, then it's gas. If it feels like an air mattress or pillow, it's fat. Easy!

If gas, then you are overfeeding the bugs that live inside your gut; when these bugs feed, unlike us, they don't poop; they fart, and you get bloated. Bugs get overfed when you overeat stuff you can't digest, such as vegetables. They also overfeed when you eat lots of carbs. 

If it's fat, then you either have a slow metabolism (thyroid or sex hormone deficiency), and your insulin (the only hormone that builds fat) is constantly high, which occurs because you are overconsuming carbs. Sex hormones matter, so get tested! Your metabolism is slow if you're a man or woman with low testosterone; women need optimal testosterone levels, too. If you're a peri or post-menopausal woman and your estrogen is low, then your belly and body start looking like that of a man because estrogen sends fat to the sexy areas where it belongs: glutes, breasts, and thighs. 

What else happens when your gut is sticking out? Well, it increases the pressure inside your tummy. Hence, your chest has less space for air, forcing you to bend your upper spine and drop your shoulders to create more space so you can breathe enough air in, which takes about an inch of height; the bent posture makes you less attractive and accelerates upper spine arthritis and neck pain. People have difficulty assuming a good posture when their belly is sticking out. 

Now onto the butt! A flat butt reflects the loss of lower body lean mass, so it's not a good thing. It means significant gluteal muscle atrophy and likely underlying pressure injury-related resorption of the ischial tuberosity (the pelvic bone you sit on all day long), sadly an outcome of our information and technology age:

• We sit at work.

• We sit in the car.

• We sit watching Netflix.

• We order in.

• We no longer go out; we do remote work or scroll on social media.

Our ancestors had firmer butts than us, for sure. In California (one of the least pedestrian-friendly states), people drive even if the destination is one block away. We have a flat-butt epidemic here with people stuffing their butts with fillers and implants in a lame attempt at health and virtue signaling. 

Lower body skeletal muscle responds to strength and stamina training, so you must load the muscle and increase the reps. Stair master, biking, lunges, gotta do something. But one of the best ways for both men and women to improve their lower body strength, stamina, and flexibility is to have more sex. Have some good hip-thrusting sex, and you'll feel soreness in your butt two days later. Whether you are 20 or 80 years old, you have to figure out a way to have sex if you are physically able to. 

Another cool little trick is to push your heels against each other while you stand in line at the grocery store or pharmacy; this will flex your glutes while restoring a more physiologic posture. Believe it or not, the pursuit of sex and sex appeal push people to go beyond their limits concerning self-improvement. The habits that give you a sexy body are the same ones that give you a healthier heart. 

Do you want to know how healthy you are? Forget the body fat percentage pods, and stop counting your steps on your Apple watch. Just check out your butt and your gut. They don't lie.