Number 6 on the list is Leptin. Leptin in your fuel gauge. It is secreted from your fat cells and tells the brain how much fat you have on your body to burn. Leptin’s message to the brain can be confused or even ignored if you regularly over eat or under eat. This leads to leptin resistance. The body will then continue to gain fat, or at least not lose excess fat.
The best way to keep leptin working correctly is to not eat on the extremes. Keep in mind, though, that it very easy to over eat when the diet consists of mostly refined carbohydrates since these are less satisfying than protein, fats and whole food complex carbohydrates.
Second on today’s list is Human Growth Hormone or HGH. This is the hormone that helps you build muscle and burn fat at the same time. That is important because the body doesn’t like to do both of these things at once. It prefers to do one or the other. HGH works closely with cortisol and adrenaline to keep you lean, strong and youthful. The bad thing is that HGH becomes almost nonexistent in the body when there is a lack of sleep and very little physical activity.
That being said, the best ways to get and maintain optimal HGH levels are to get plenty of sleep and exercise in short, intense bouts of no more than 30-40 minutes at a time. A good diet with adequate protein helps support healthy levels of HGH too.
The next hormone is Adrenaline. We mentioned this in conjunction with stress. It is the “gas pedal” for the body and prepares it for activity and fat release. Adrenaline actually influences all the other hormones – especially HGH, cortisol, and testosterone – to go into fat burning mode. But as with most of these hormones, there needs to be an optimal mix of all of them to get the desired effect.
Exercise is the best influencer of adrenaline. Again, high intensity, short duration exercise causes adrenaline to secrete quickly and prompts other hormones to start to burn fat too.
The last two for this week are Testosterone and Estrogen. Testosterone is generally thought of in men and estrogen in women, although both genders have some of these hormones. The level of each is the difference. Testosterone helps give men their V shape. In women, the hormone balance is more complicated, but the right mix of testosterone, estrogen and progesterone helps women have an hour-glass shape.
Estrogen is the feminizing hormone and affects both genders. Estrogen has a stronger influence on females than males, but men still need some estrogen to be healthy. Unfortunately, with all the pesticides, plastics, and hormones in food, estrogen is becoming more dominant and causing an imbalance. This is changing the shape of men and women – and not for the good.
Decreasing levels of estrogen and a shift in hormonal balance cause women to gain belly fat after menopause. Too much estrogen in men of any age causes extra upper body fat, especially in the upper back and chest area.
Interestingly, sleep plays a vital role in keeping testosterone and estrogen levels optimal. A good diet which is high in plant matter and exercise are important in hormone balance. Also, limiting toxins goes a long way to keeping estrogen levels stable.
There are 5 more – Progesterone, Incretins, Neuropeptide-Y, Irisin, and MOTS-c – which are more obscure and you may not have heard of before, that finish the hormone cascade and influence metabolism and fat loss. You are now beginning to see how much is involved in fat loss and why it is more complicated than just eating less and exercising more (which isn’t really the best solution anyway).
If you need appropriate exercise and diet strategies, we are here to help. The Canton Fitness Center has options for every level of client and every fitness goal. How can we help you? Check out our website at www.CantonFitnessCenter.com for more information.