Seven different hormones can cause weight gain. Once you understand how they work in your body, you can turn off their power to make you overweight.
We gain weight often can seem to be due to what is happening in our lives that cause us stress. Sometimes, even though we watch what we eat and exercise, we feel like our weight gain is out of control.
Let’s look further at how you can work with your body to turn off your weight gain hormones and have the body you desire.
6 Ways to Turn Off Your Weight Gain Hormones
Here are proactive steps you can take to jumpstart weight loss.
1. Eat plenty of protein to balance your hormones
Ghrelin is made in the digestive system, and it is called the hunger hormone because it increases your appetite when your body needs the energy to use. Being able to suppress ghrelin’s effects would help us turn off this weight gain hormone.
Research published in the American Diabetes Association found that ‘Ghrelin administration stimulates GH secretion and causes weight gain by increasing food intake and reducing fat utilization in rodents.’
The researchers looked at lean and obese people’s levels of this weight hormone. They found that ghrelin was found in lower concentrations in obese people than thin people.
To turn off your ghrelin hormone so you won’t gain weight, eat a diet high in protein and avoid high-fat foods. Protein helps suppress ghrelin production in the digestive system to keep you from eating more and gaining weight.
2. Remove sugar from your diet
Sugar is sneaky because it shows up in many forms in many foods. Getting rid of it entirely can be a challenge in label reading. However, it may be the best thing you can do to turn off your weight gain hormone insulin.
Insulin is most closely associated with diabetes, which affects millions of people worldwide. The pancreas produces insulin to help digest sugars that you eat. High insulin levels in your blood can affect your likelihood of weight gain.
Insulin helps glucose to be absorbed by the cells and stored as energy, which is why you can gain weight when you have more sugar in your diet. Storing energy in fat cells is not what you need to turn off weight gain.
3. Eat less dairy (hormone free dairy might not do the trick)
Hormone-free dairy products aren’t necessarily a safe means of avoiding extra hormones that cause weight gain.
The dairy industry has responded to public pressure to provide hormone-free dairy products to consumers. Research shows that eating animal hormones may trigger early development in teenage girls and boys.
Nutritional and medical experts have realized that the milk that cows and other animals provide is meant to grow and raise their own young, not humans. Avoid these non-human hormones that can mess with your own.
4. Avoid soy products that can cause imbalanced hormones
Women undergoing menopause experience a natural decrease in the estrogen that their body produces now that they can no longer bear children. As a result of the decreased estrogen, body fat increases. Soy products contain phytoestrogen, which can block the normal human estrogen in the body.
Estrogen has a role in the production of leptin. Leptin is one of the most important hormones to reduce weight gain because it regulates satiety. Satiety is how satisfied we feel when we eat. If we don’t feel satisfied or sated, we will continue to eat, even if we don’t need to eat.
Researchers studying the role that estrogen has on leptin levels found that ‘In humans, serum leptin concentration was higher in premenopausal women than in men, and in postmenopausal women, it was lower than in premenopausal women but still higher than in men.’
The same researchers found that in premenopausal women, serum leptin levels were significantly higher in the luteal phase or the later part of their menstrual cycles.
This research suggests that increasing estrogen levels through dietary changes could help increase leptin production, which can help turn off weight gain.
5. Improve hormone health by reducing stress and caffeine intake
The stress hormone cortisol is released when frustrated, overwhelmed, or feeling stuck. Stress eating is natural, and people who binge, especially on so-called ‘comfort foods,’ are likely to engage in a destructive behavior pattern that will lead to weight gain.
Rather than allowing your stress to dictate when you eat, seek to reduce sources of stress in your life to reduce cortisol levels in your body.
If work is overwhelming, delegate parts that someone else can handle. If your home life is stressful, sit outside in nature for 5 minutes while breathing deeply to relax and recharge.
Caffeine levels can also increase the level of cortisol that releases into your body. Turn off the weight gain by reducing your caffeine intake, and the hormone cortisol will be reduced as well.
6. Eliminate grains
Grain consumption links to thyroid hormone production that slows down. Reducing your intake of grains in your diet can help regulate your thyroid hormone levels and turn off weight gain.
The thyroid is one of the most important factors to consider when examining weight gain. Check with your medical professional to have your thyroid levels checked if you suspect that a low-functioning thyroid gland causes your weight gain.
Nine Other Lifestyle Changes To Help Regulate Hormones
What can you do for better hormone health besides changing your nutrition? Try these things.
1. Regular meal times
Eating your calories in smaller, more frequent meals helps regulate your body’s glucose levels that affect the secretion of insulin and cortisol. These hormones stabilize your appetite, so you don’t overeat. Staying in tune with your body and eating when you’re hungry gives your body a break. It relieves your digestion hormones, so they don’t get overworked, leading to weight gain. Create good eating habits, such as:
- Sit down at the table to eat-Avoid walking around or eating in your car.
- Chew slowly-Take appropriate bites and chew your food slowly. Enjoy the experience of eating.
- Schedule your meals-Try to eat at the same time every day.
- Be mindful of flavors-Enjoy the flavor and texture of your food.
- Don’t add condiments until you taste the food-Taste your food before adding salt or other seasonings.
2. Exercise helps boost hormones
Exercise regulates adrenaline and cortisol, two stress hormones. It also helps stimulate the production of endorphins, peptide hormones that relieve pain and give you a feeling of general well-being.
3. Get enough sleep
Not getting enough sleep upsets your hormones levels. Lack of sleep releases stress hormones causing you to overeat, increasing your blood pressure, and making you feel exhausted.
4. Reduce your stress
When you’re stressed, your body releases adrenaline and cortisol into your bloodstream. These fight-or-flight hormones speed up your heart rate and increase your blood pressure. Living with constant stress upsets the balance of these hormones causing
- Anxiety
- Weight gain
- Depression
- Loss of focus
- Decreased immunity
- Auto-immune disorders
5. Stop smoking
You know the fact. Smoking isn’t healthy. Not only does it cause cancer and other diseases, but smoking upsets your body’s estrogen and testosterone levels. This imbalance can decrease fertility in women.
6. Stay hydrated
When dehydrated, toxins aren’t properly filtered out of your body. This puts stress on your body and throws off your hormonal balance. Drinking plenty of water helps your body deliver hormones via your bloodstream to your organs. This flushes out the toxins in your body and keeps your cells working properly.
7. Avoid certain foods
Skip sugary or processed foods. These foods are full of useless calories that affect the production and secretion of hormones in your gut and nervous system. Processed and fast foods have a lot of salt, fat, and sugar. Research shows that eating these foods can
- Shorten your life
- Age your body quicker
- Put your brain at risk
- Cause you to gain weight
8. Getting enough light exposure
Exposure to light affects your hormones. Getting enough light helps your body regulate the circadian rhythm function, which allows your sleep and waking cycles. Being exposed to sunlight helps you sleep better at night. You wake up with more energy since you’re well-rested. Being exposed to blue light from your electronics, especially at night, can suppress natural melatonin secretion, so you can’t sleep.
9. Makeup (surprisingly) can impact hormones
Did you know that some makeup contains harmful substances that affect your estrogen levels? These hormone disruptors, Xenoestrogens, block estrogen production, so they can’t work as they should. Chemicals called phthalates also disrupt your hormones. These are in hairsprays, nail polish, and hair straighteners.
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