An excerpt from one of Lyle's books.
Several years ago, Dan Duchaine introduced the world to yohimbe, a natural compound that inhibits alpha-2 receptors.
Although not perfect orally, regular use (0.2 mg/kg of bodyweight) seems to help. Unfortunately,
yohimbe (especially the bark) tends to cause side effects: sweating, a racing heart, and other
problems. Yohimbine HCL (the drug form) eliminates many of these problems but poor blood
flow to fat cells still limits its usefulness.
Given enough time, yohimbe will build up in the tissues and exert a greater effect (it's also
likely that yohimbe improves blood flow to the fat cell). Recently, there have been a slew of
topical yohimbe creams that purport to isolate the alpha-2 inhibition to the fat cell; you rub them
on your stubborn fat areas and then go do cardio.
As it turns out, there is a dietary way to inhibit alpha-2 fat cells: raising blood fatty acids.
When you lower carbohydrates to 20% of total calories or below, blood fatty acids increase (as a
side-benefit, the catecholamine response to exercise is also increased when carbs are lowered this
much).
After 3-4 days of exposure to fatty acids, alpha-2 receptors become inhibited naturally
(without the side effects of oral yohimbe). Combined with aerobics, this is a potent way to get rid
of stubborn fat. It also explains the previous observation that low-carbohydrate diets make
mobilization/loss of women's stubborn fat easier: between the lowering of insulin and the fatty
acid mediated inhibition of alpha-2 receptors, those fat areas were easier to get rid of. Of course,
decreasing carbohydrates fits in nicely with our goal of lowering insulin in the first place.
