Part 2- It's 10:00am, DO You Know What Your Hormones are Up To?
Hey there! Welcome back to - ‘It’s 10:00am, Do You Know What Your Hormones are Up To?’ Part 2. If you missed Part 1 read it HERE.
So we left off having learned how chronic high blood sugar causes chronic insulin release resulting in insulin resistance. This encourages an increase in fat storage which increases levels of cortisol. High levels of cortisol of course are going to increase INFLAMMATION and chronic inflammation leads to an increase in DISEASE . WHOA! - that is a lot of increasing happening there!
This sounds like a wild ride already but today I will throw a couple more hormones into this scenario. Let’s start with LEPTIN.
Leptin is a hormone released by our fat cells. It is sometimes referred to as the satiety hormone, it’s job being to inform the hypothalamus how many fat stores are on hand and regulate the appetite accordingly. The body is setup to maintain an adequate amount of fat ensuring that in case of famine, you have a good chance of surviving on your fat stores until food becomes plentiful again. When there is not enough fat stored hormones will signal the brain to slow down metabolism and increase appetite as well as fat stores. Ideally, when there is too much fat stored, leptin will signal for a decrease in appetite and an uptake in metabolism. This all occurs to keep the body in balance. It is a delicate see-saw ride of hormones which can derail if just one hormone gets out of whack.
Now let’s look at our modern world and how our modern lifestyles often don’t support this delicate state of balance. Let’s say our standard American diet has left us with more pounds than we desire. A popular method to deal with this is to reduce calorie intake and exercise more. This may work in the short term, you will lose some weight until your body and hormones catch on to what is happening. FAMINE! (aka restricted calories) STRESS! Levels of the hormone leptin are lowered due to fat loss and the following occurs -
The hormone CORTISOL increases - encouraging fat storage
The hormone GRHELIN an appetite regulator - goes up increasing hunger
Low levels of LEPTIN slow metabolism, calorie burning decreases
Neuropeptide Y, a hunger signal, increases desire for sugary carbohydrates and decreases feelings of satiety
You have created a perfect storm - an out of control appetite, a slowed metabolism and fat storing hormones ready to get to work!
The minute you break your restricted calorie diet due to hunger and cravings, your body breathes a sigh of relief and converts all those calories to FAT so that the next time this happens (aka low calorie diet) you will be better prepared with MORE FAT on hand (actually on hips, thighs and belly!) to handle the perceived starving times! You are left with more fat cells than before which creates more leptin than before and this cycle creates LEPTIN RESISTANCE.
Yes, you may have been wondering -
Why doesn’t everybody stay within normal fat levels all of the time if that is leptin’s job, to keep this all in balance?
Well, just like chronic high blood sugar creates insulin resistance... chronic overeating, frequent blood sugar spikes, stress and an abundance of body fat, can lead to leptin resistance. Your brain no longer hears the signal sent from leptin that your fat stores are adequate so your body doesn’t respond as it should by decreasing your appetite. More fat gets stored, more leptin is created, weight loss efforts are seemingly hijacked by your out of whack hormones.
So you can see how your hormones are the crucial players in weight maintenance. While our modern world will try to sell you a low calorie, low fat diet with plenty of exercise on the side for weight loss... it really boils down to carefully balancing that see-saw of hormones!
“The single most potent trigger of hormonal dysregulation is chronic carbohydrate consumption and subsequent blood sugar surges.” Nora Gedgaudas in Primal Body - Primal Mind
So, let all that information swirl around in your brain for a bit and in the conclusion of this series we will dive into the steps you can take to actually get those hormones balancing on that see-saw!
It’s Your Life - Choose Health!