If you’re frustrated because you can’t seem to lose weight, even though you believe you’re doing everything right, your hormones might be interfering with your weight loss. In many cases, people simply don’t realize how much they’ve eaten, which is why an exercise and food diary is so important. In some cases, however, the problem can come from hormonal imbalances. You can realign most imbalances naturally to help weight loss begin again.
You have far more hormones than just sex hormones.
Most people think of estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone when they hear the word hormones, but there are far more than just those three sex hormones. Hormones are messengers that trigger a variety of responses. Most hormones have another hormone that does the opposite job. For instance, glucagon increases blood sugar levels, while insulin decreases it. Leptin is the satiety hormone that tells you that you’re full and ghrelin is the hunger hormone that keeps you eating. Too much of one type of hormone can affect all areas of your body, including your weight.
If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll produce more ghrelin and less leptin.
Since ghrelin makes you hungry and leptin makes you feel full, you can see how an imbalance in those two can negatively affect weight loss. To rebalance, you need to get more sleep. Too much insulin can cause insulin resistance. That makes it harder to open the cells to uptake glucose and causes even more insulin to rush to the rescue. It makes the problem worse. Excess insulin can cause the accumulation of belly fat. Higher amounts of insulin allow the body to store fat better, which accumulates on the belly.
An excess of the stress hormone cortisol can also lead to belly fat.
Just like excess insulin, there’s a link to an excess of cortisol and belly fat. You can control both cortisol and insulin by exercising regularly. It doesn’t have to be strenuous, although you’ll burn more calories when you do a HIIT workout or lift heavier weights. Cortisol is part of the fight or flight response. It prepares the body to do both. Exercise mimics fighting or running, so it burns off the stress hormones. Changing either one can help you lose weight.
- Cutting sugar and food with added sugar from your diet can make a difference in hormones. A high-sugar diet affects insulin levels, cortisol, and the thyroid. It can slow metabolism and add to weight gain.
- Sex hormonal imbalances can occur during menopause. Eating a Mediterranean-style diet and exercising can help. Cutting out coffee and food with added sugar, increasing fruits and vegetables, and consuming healthy fat also helps.
- Stress can affect all the hormones in your body. Learning ways to reduce stress levels can improve weight loss. It may be one reason yoga helps and is a reason exercise works.
- Dehydration increases the risk of hormonal imbalances, particularly cortisol levels. Hydrate frequently. Water and green tea are good. Green tea aids in weight loss and contains L-theanine, which helps reduce stress hormones.
For more information, contact us today at Rising Fitness Gym