Hormones are the chemical messengers that regulate all of the bodily functions throughout your body. Your hormones are responsible for making sure you get the right things you need to function properly and stay healthy.
HORMONES AND WEIGHT GAIN
There are 7 hormones that control your metabolism, hunger, and ability to store or burn body fat. They can literally make or break your ability to gain and lose weight. I should mention the hormones I’m talking about have absolutely nothing to do with your baby making hormones. If one hormone is off balance they will snowball and affect the other I’m speaking from experience… These are the hormones, what they do and how they affect you and other hormones…
7 HORMONES THAT CAN CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN
LEPTIN – Leptin tells your brain that you’re full and regulates metabolism so you burn more fat when your body needs to. For fat loss, you want sleep so plenty of leptin so your brain knows to keep the metabolism burning hot… The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism concluded sleep duration influences leptin production, because “sleep modulates a major component of the neuroendocrine control of appetite…” a leptin imbalance adversely affects other hormones like cortisol…
CORTISOL – Cortisol is a stress hormone. It’s responsible for temporary adrenal burst for ‘flight or fight responses.’ It it’s also released when you’re feeling stressed out: stuck in a traffic jam, freaked out about finances, or because you’re not getting enough sleep. You can also experience stress internally if you exercise too much or eat too many toxic, processed foods. Chronic exposure and elevated cortisol levels triggers your body to store fat and breaks down muscle. A 1997 the journal Sleep, published a study titled “Sleep Loss Results in an Elevation of Cortisol Levels the Next Evening.” The study found that cortisol levels should occur in the morning so the effect can taper off throughout the day… and high cortisol levels could increase stress more, further impairing your ability to think clearly, cope with life events, sleep, and properly metabolize food. All of which can slow your metabolism down and having you tossing and turning well into the next night…
GHRELIN – Ghrelin kinda sounds like ‘grumbling’… as in, my tummy’s grumbling. Which is exactly what ghrelin does… it signals your brain to EAT RIGHT NOW. Normal ghrelin levels make you feel hungry. Too much ghrelin causes cravings to cheat and binge eat. Women who get little to no sleep and or have reproductive hormone fluctuations are more susceptible to have higher levels of Ghrelin production. Excess Ghrelin can be responsible for cravings and mood swings. But lack of sleep affects ghrelin in non-emotional people. A study in the Journal of Sleep Research showed one night of sleep increased ghrelin levels and hunger in healthy normal-weight men.
ADIPONECTIN – This anti-inflammatory hormone helps regulates several metabolic processes including breaking down fat. Inflammation can occur from over-exercise, eating toxic, acidic foods, and trying to heal an injury . Whenever inflammation occurs, this hormone slows the metabolism, stops fighting fat and starts trying to repair, heal and undo the damage. Studies show optimal levels can reduce your risk for insulin resistance and developing diabetes… If you experience symptoms of aches, pains, or acidity, you’re body is being triggered to store fat, too… because adiponectin affects…
INSULIN – Insulin is one of the most powerful hormones that affects your ability to gain or lose fat. Increased insulin levels prevents the metabolism from burning fat entirely and triggers you to store more of it. Eating too much of the wrong sugars, literally causes your fat cells slam shut like a Venus fly trap… trapping fat in your tissues. Every time you eat sugar you’re triggering insulin production. Plus, insulin affects other fat fighting hormones. A study in The Journal of Applied Physiology concluded chronic sleep loss increased hunger and sugar cravings, and directly contributes to weight gain, insulin resistance and diabetes.
GROWTH HORMONE – Your body makes this “fountain of youth” hormone that is release only during deep stage 4 sleep. Among its benefits, growth hormone (GH) aids in muscle synthesis and repair , boosts energy and improves fat metabolism. Light sleepers and people who awake often during the night might not be making optimal GH — a 1991 study in the Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience showed fewer hours of sleep means your body makes less GH. Muscle mass can only be increased during repair. If you’re not getting enough GH your muscle mass can deteriorate further reducing your metabolic rate.
THE 5 FACTORS
There are 5 factors that you must balance, to ensure normal hormone production. The hormones that are affected and how they react differently to different things varies and is determined by your bioindividuality (your genes, lifestyle, goals and personal preferences). To lose weight, it’s best to keep these 5 factors balanced… otherwise you won’t experience optimal health and weight loss . The 5 factors are….
FACT: IF ANY ONE OF THE 5 FACTORS IS OFF,
YOU STOP BURNING FAT AND START STORING IT
FOR EXAMPLE, SLEEP
You might be familiar with the unfortunate aftermath of a terrible night’s sleep… tossing and turning, barely getting any sleep before your alarm goes off. Then you wake up and have a bowl of cereal, a bagel or yogurt with your triple shot latte… Only to find your energy boost fading away hours later and craving snacks or energy drinks to keep you going.
A recent study found that just one bad night of sleep increased a participant’s cravings for junk food and decreased several hormones in the frontal cortex responsible for regulating the metabolism, hunger, cravings, and the ability to make rational decisions.
When you’re not getting enough of one or more of the 5 factors, your body will slow your metabolism and one or more of the 7 hormones mentioned above, will be released to try to correct the problem. When hormones are released to correct any of the five factors, it can cause a ripple effect throughout the other hormones.
It doesn’t matter if you diet or exercise like a champion… if you’re not drinking enough water or you’re too stressed… you can experience hormone imbalances that will trigger your body to gain weight. It can start subtly with one drink or one bite of the ‘wrong’ thing but over time of chronic exposure to the wrong foods and doing the wrong exercises can cause hormone imbalances that can literally turn you into a fat storing machine… I’m speaking from experience. (!!!)
YOU GAIN WEIGHT
Your body needs food, water, exercise, sleep and low stress to get the energy it needs to heal, deal , and recover from the things you’re exposed to daily. Your body needs energy (calories), nutrients and water daily to function properly – which is why you need to eat and drink consistently throughout the day, to get the essential nutrients needed to function, and stay healthy, energized and happy… basically, you have to eat the Right way for your body type. Food and water are the 2 factors that affect your hormones the most – which makes sense because your hormones are responsible for making you feel hunger, so you’ll eat… and because you can’t live for more than a few days without water.When you feel hungry, you’ll eat. True hunger is normal and can wait. But, people choose food based on their feelings. When your body really needs something – because it’s deficient or because you’re emotional or stressed – you’ll feel a sense of urgency to eat and a craving will occur. A small imbalance among the factors – or other hormones – typically triggers more ‘hunger’ (false hunger) or specific cravings, with the hopes that you’ll choose the right sources of nutrients and/or water needed to restore things back to optimal levels.
CHOOSE RIGHT – Get the nutrients and energy (calories) needed to stay balanced… feel good, healthy, energized, happy and easy to lose weight
CHOOSE WRONG – Become nutrient deficient, toxic, impairing your ability function normally and lose fat… feel funky, frumpy, sad, tired, and struggle to lose lbs.
HOW HORMONES MAKE YOU GAIN WEIGHT
Often times people eat ‘healthy’ but they’re making the wrong choice for their body type or body’s true nutritional requirements. The foods and drinks people choose to relax, relieve stress, sleep and get energized for their day (or workouts) are typically toxic, nutrient-deficient sources, further impairing their natural ability to feel hungry, relax, sleep and lose fat….
For example, most people feel tired and they drink coffee… But just one acidic cup of coffee can prevent you from getting enough solid hours of sleep you need. Feeling tired can trigger a craving for sugar… or more coffee. Not getting enough sleep increases the stress on you mentally and physically. The shift in your mood triggers another craving. If you choose the wrong thing again, the cycle will repeat, further unbalancing your hormones and causing your body to store more or more toxins and fat.
For example, most people feel tired and they drink coffee… But just one acidic cup of coffee can prevent you from getting enough solid hours of sleep you need. Feeling tired can trigger a craving for sugar… or more coffee. Not getting enough sleep increases the stress on you mentally and physically. The shift in your mood triggers another craving. If you choose the wrong thing again, the cycle will repeat, further unbalancing your hormones and causing your body to store more or more toxins and fat.
Excess body fat and toxins, serve little purpose for your body. Your fat cells have nothing better to do, than soak up toxic build-up like sponges. Over time, toxic buildup within your cells will begin to adversely affect your hormones, too.
When you have enough toxins, fat, and hormones working against you, it can be virtually impossible, to muster the will power needed to stay motivated or stick to a diet … also, any time your body senses this ‘danger’ it stops prioritizing fat burning.
That means the longer you stay stuck in this cycle… the more your body is programmed to become a fatstoring machine. If the cycle continues long enough, your immunity and health will begin to fade. You’ll become more susceptible illnesses and experience different symptoms and side effects of deficiency and toxicity.
When you have enough toxins, fat, and hormones working against you, it can be virtually impossible, to muster the will power needed to stay motivated or stick to a diet … also, any time your body senses this ‘danger’ it stops prioritizing fat burning.
That means the longer you stay stuck in this cycle… the more your body is programmed to become a fatstoring machine. If the cycle continues long enough, your immunity and health will begin to fade. You’ll become more susceptible illnesses and experience different symptoms and side effects of deficiency and toxicity.
HOW TO RESET YOUR HORMONES
Answering this question took me about 2 years to figure out… I needed to… Nobody else could ‘fix me’ and I was suffering, I have a pituitary disorder that had all 7 of my hormones so out of whack I couldn’t function. I was doing everything ‘right’ but continued to gain weight. I was a hormonally imbalanced, toxin-storing, weight gaining nightmare… even though I was already a nutritionist and personal trainer(!!) I can’t easily tell you how to balance your 5 factors, without personally asking you a bunch of questions to determine your body type. I’d also have to know what you’re eating, to see if you’re eating things that could be dead wrong for your 5 factors….
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