Hormones, Wellness, and Weight loss.
Let’s discuss FOUR hormones that can stall your weight progress, affect your wellness and what you can do about it. Learn how what they are, how they work, and how your lifestyle can affect their balance.
Hormones are powerful chemicals within the body that are a critical part of your inner wellness and homeostasis (optimal environment). They impact every aspect of your life.. how you feel, how you act and react, and especially how you look. Balanced, hormones are your body’s best friend. They maintain your health. However, if they are shifted or fluctuate, that hormone dysfunction can make you malfunction. You’ll feel lethargic and depressed, gain weight, have poor skin and constant cravings for bad unhealthy food, and your health and wellness will be crap.
Insulin. Let’s break this down into super simple steps. Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas that allows your body to use glucose (sugar) from carbohydrates in the food that you eat for energy or to store for future use. Insulin helps keeps your blood sugar level from getting too high (hyperglycemia) or too low (hypoglycemia). Insulin increases and decreases according to what you consume, particularly carbs. All carbs are broken down into glucose. Sugary and processed forms are broken down rapidly. More complex carbohydrates, (grains, tubers, quinoa, etc) are broken down more gradually. This breakdown, prompts the arrival of glucose into the blood stream which signals the pancreas to make insulin. A BIG sugary load of the processed type floods the blood causing your pancreas to pump out extra insulin to drive that glucose (sugar) into the cells. This extra dose of insulin to compensate for the extra heaping processed sugar load make your blood sugar levels dip lower than they were before. This will actually cause hunger pains and what you consume next will be effectively stored as fat. Eating processed and high sugar foods consistently will make you become less sensitive to insulin and require more to transport it into cells (mimicking this sugar load and extra insulin scenario). This is insulin resistance.. have you ever heard of Type II Diabetes.. well, you are now on your way. Insulin resistance causes fatigue, mood swings, memory loss, and weight gain. Choosing the right foods will allow your insulin levels to start to fall the right way. If you add in one serving of oatmeal, for example, in place of that sugary donut in the morning, your body can enjoy a sustained release of energy fueling you for the day. Exercise is also another way to drive down insulin levels.
Estrogen. Estrogen is a wonderful hormone, in just the right amount. Estrogen collaborates with progesterone. Both need to be in balance. In the right ratio, the two together will effectively have the body burn fat for energy, assist metabolism, act as a natural antidepressant, and promote healthy sleep. Certain foods in the standard american diet, environmental toxins, stress, and nutritional deficiencies can all cause us to become estrogen dominant. This excess in estrogen leads to weight gain, cellulite, and certain female oriented cancers. It will also cause hypothyroidism (slowing of your thyroid function). Even fluid balance is affected. Estrogen abundance will cause retention of water. Estrogen dominance will cause anxiety, brain fog, low sex drive, and poor blood sugar regulation.
Some simple ways to decrease estrogen excess include:
- Decreasing and trying to cut out processed foods and foods rich in sugar. Using alternatives, such as stevia (which is 300x more sweet than sugar) will make a big impact on your estrogen wellness.
- Increasing whole, plant based foods that contain good fiber and protein. Fiber from natural foods like whole grains, fruits, vegetables move estrogen out of the body. Without this dietary fiber, estrogen builds up and increases the hormonal burden on your body.
- Decreasing alcohol and caffeine consumption. More than two cups of coffee a day will increase estrogen. Further, alcohol inhibits the liver’s ability to metabolize estrogen. Simply, when the liver can’t break down estrogen, it stays in the body making you gain weight.
- Hydrate healthfully. Drinking out three liters a day will cleanse your liver and kidneys, allowing efficient estrogen excretion.
- Be mindful of plastics. Microwaving plastics releases BPA (an estrogen compound) into the food causing more estrogen to be produced. Try to by containers, water bottles, and canned goods that are BPA free.
- Soothe your stress. Enough said.
Cortisol. Made by the adrenal glands, cortisol has several very important roles. It helps regulate blood sugar, carbohydrate, proteins, fats metabolism, and muscle function. Cortisol is meant to be utilized in acute (very short) instances. For example, swerving to miss that adorable puppy that ventured onto the road, your heart is racing. That is the surge of cortisol that is meant to facilitate your quick reaction. Chronic stress, is unnatural and keeps your cortisol running on high. Your body is flooded with cortisol and it only leads to higher insulin levels and an increased cravings for sugar and fats. This is particularly detrimental because cortisol loves to stock and save all those comfort foods on your waistline. It’s favorite spot, your abdominal area. Even though it is difficult to live stress free, it is imperative for you to incorporate stress relieving techniques. Chronically elevated cortisol will cause a drop in serotonin, leading to depression, irritability, thinning skins, elevated blood pressure, memory loss, muscle wasting, hot flashes, and excessive facial hair. You health and wellness depends on getting your stress and cortisol in check. Trying your best to choice what you stress over, like the things you actually have control over, will help you find balance. Sometimes when stress seems like it will never end, and your battling cortisol, you an actually keep cortisol from wrecking your body by eating regular whole, plant based meals. Green leafy vegetables, berries, mushrooms, and exercise all help to keep cortisol in check. Stop using the standard “pick me up” of caffeine, sugar, alcohol, and over the counter drugs because they are actually facilitatingstress instead of managing it. Having better health habits in place will keep your body from being thrown out of whack by cortisol will allow you to look better, feel better, and live better.
Leptin. The fat cells in your body actually produce a hormone called leptin. When at appropriate levels, leptin acts as an appetite suppressant and keeps your metabolism running on high. Basically, its that signal that tells you to stop stuffing your face with cake. When levels are low, your body stores fat so of course you want to keep these running on high. Three easy ways to give leptin a boost: sleep enough, eat slower, and get plenty of zinc. Leptin is produced when you sleep so skipping sleep and late nights can definitely lower these levels. Eating slower gives your body a chance to start feeling full and for those leptin levels, it takes about 15-20 minutes for your body to receive the signals. Stopping mid meal, having a glass of water is a great trick to curbing holiday overeating or restaurant gluttony. Zinc deficiency results in decreased leptin so for women try to meet the 9 mg daily recommendation.
So plain and simple.. your hormones are powerful chemicals that are a critical part of your inner wellness and homeostasis. They impact every aspect of your life.. how you feel, how you act and react, and especially how you look. Balance is crucial for you to look better, feel better, and live better.
