3 Fat Blocking Hormones
3 Hormones that Block your Fat-Burning Efforts
Despite getting plenty of exercise and cutting calories, many Americans are not able to lose weight. We can’t just blame it all on “You’re eating too much, ” or “You’re not exercising,” or “You’re getting old,” or “You are a woman and going through ‘the change'”.
Weight loss is not about “moving more and eating less” or about counting calories. Healthy weight loss is about understanding how the body stores and burns fat. The body will not store fat and burn fat at the same time. If it is given the option, the body will easily slip into a fat-storing mode. The strategy behind healthy weight loss is learning how to block the fat-storing while simultaneously triggering the fat-burning in the body.
There are three primary hormones that are used by the body to store fat. They are the hormones: insulin, estrogen and cortisol.
Insulin:
This hormone is made by the pancreas. Insulin is helps to regulate blood sugar in the body. After eating a meal, the breakdown of food causes an increase of the sugar in the blood. The function of insulin is to lower blood sugar after meals. It will cause the cells of the body to absorb sugar as fuel. What absorbed sugar that is not utilized as fuel is then converted into fat and cholesterol and stored. In the presence of insulin, you will not be able to burn fat. Sugar triggers insulin.
A lack of insulin in the body (Type I) or the body becoming less sensitive to its own insulin (Type II) leads to the development of Diabetes. Diabetic medications either seek to replace insulin in the body or increase the effectiveness of the body’s own insulin. Weight gain can be a side-effect of diabetic medication. Losing weight while dealing with Diabetes is possible, but must be done with care.
Estrogen:
Estrogen is responsible for the female characteristics, menstrual cycle, and changes of the uterus and breasts. It provides the fat layer around the female body, especially around the outer thighs. Estrogen gives the woman the female figure.
There are multiple sources of exogenous (coming from outside of the body) estrogen. In America, we fatten cattle, chickens, and other animals via hormones. We give them estrogen and growth hormones to make them fatter. Even farm-raised fish are fed hormones. If hormones can cause turkeys to look “butterball” sized, and you eat that turkey, is it possible that some of the residue from the hormones could leach out into your body? Is it possible that your body could also become “butterball” size?
Due to the presence of hormones in our food supply, we are seeing girls develop larger breasts and star their menstrual cycles at an increasingly younger age. I have also observed women gaining weight when they go on the birth control pill, as well as on hormone replacement therapy (which is the hormone estrogen).
If you are gaining weight on an estrogen-based drug, talk to your doctor about alternatives.
Cortisol:
This important hormone is produced by the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands acts to counter the stress response and cortisol is part of that stress response.
One function of cortisol is anti-inflammatory. It helps to reduce inflammation in the body. The word cortisol is very similar to the drug “cortisone”. When the body’s ability to keep up with inflammation is not enough, cortisone may be used. Cortisone is the synthetic version of cortisol and is often injected into painful areas of the body (often joints) to help reduce pain. Cortisone has some pretty serious side-effects.
Another function of cortisol is to release sugar from the liver and muscles into the bloodstream to serve as an instant fuel source during times of stress. Because of the stressful times that we live in the adrenal glands are often found to be working overtime. Prolonged periods of stress can cause over-production of cortisol (as the body is struggling to keep up with the constant stress load) to an insufficient production of cortisol (as the adrenal glands “fatigue” and eventually “collapse”).
Note that Cortisol is classified as a fat-burner; however, it indirectly takes body-muscle proteins and turns them into fat around the stomach (a byproduct of the body’s stress response) by forcing insulin to deal with the excess sugar in the bloodstream.
The stubborn, hanging belly fat has been linked to an excess production of cortisol in the body.
Weight Loss Hormone Strategy
The body will go down the fat-storing route any time that even one of the three fat-storing hormones is stimulated. The strategy for losing weight is to understand how these hormones work and to not trigger them. It is also helpful to understand and trigger the six fat-burning hormones.
The Health and Wellness Center
Chiropractic, Body Shapes Weight Loss,
Allergy Elimination, Posture Rehabilitation
Loveland, Colorado
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