Mandy Hopper

Balancing Hormones, Balancing WeigHt

are your Hormones making you Fat?

Although most of us live oblivious to the impact the little substances known as hormones have on our bodies, the fact is that we can’t live without them. Hormones control our digestion, sleep, growth, weight gain, weight loss, pregnancy and mood — among many other things.

So needless to say, without managing and getting our hormones in check, we simply will not be able to lose weight or achieve the body fat levels we desire.

Let’s have a closer look at some of the major hormones acting in the body that affect our muscle and fat stores.

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i nsu li n

One of the major problems our bodies face in life is getting food from the outside, into the body’s cells to use for energy. This is exactly the role that insulin plays — so it’s obvious just how import-ant it is. When we eat carbohydrate foods, such as bread, rice, sugar and pasta, these are broken down in our digestive system to the most basic version of sugar — glucose. This glucose is then absorbed into the bloodstream to be transported around the body to all the body’s cells.

But there’s a problem. Normally glucose is too big to fit through the cell membrane. If glucose doesn’t get into the cell membrane, it can’t give energy to the cell, and the glucose molecules will build up in the bloodstream, causing major problems in our bodies. This is where insulin comes in. Insulin is like a doorman that helps the glucose get into the cells. When the body senses that we’ve eaten some carbohydrate food and we have glucose in the bloodstream, insulin is released from the pancreas to help get that glucose out of the bloodstream and into the cells. Then the cells have energy to do work, the body functions normally, and everything runs smoothly for us.

WHat can go Wrong?

Insulin is one of the most important hormones for managing weight and body fat levels.

Here’s why —

* Without insulin, blood glucose doesn’t get into the cells and our cells have no energy to do our body’s work.

* Without insulin, blood glucose stays in the bloodstream — our biggest problem. Despite be-ing our most essential source of energy, glucose is the bloodstream is extremely toxic. This is why diabetics, who have prolonged high levels of blood glucose, have damage to their kid-neys, eyes, heart and limbs.

* When blood glucose stays high, we don’t burn our body fat. The body constantly gets the mes-sage “I’ve just eaten a lot of carbohydrates. I don’t need to use up my stores of body fat, be-cause I have plenty of energy (glucose) in the bloodstream.” This will constantly work against our efforts to burn some of that stubborn body fat we don’t need.

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insulin resistance

People who carry more fat around the waist (visceral fat) are more at risk of suffering from insulin resistance. Although it’s a difficult condition to detect, it is estimated around 25% of people in Aus-tralia suffer insulin resistance. Signs and symptoms of insulin resistance include; fatigue, brain fog, headaches, weight gain and mood imbalances.

So what affects insulin levels? There’s two ways our insulin might not work the way it’s supposed to. Firstly, the body may just not produce enough insulin. This is the more rare case and is what happens in Type 1 diabetes. Secondly, the body produces enough insulin, but insulin gets lazy. It doesn’t do its job as the doorman very well and sometimes it does let the glucose in, sometimes it doesn’t. This is known as insulin resistance. In this case, insulin levels and glucose levels increase in the blood, without either of them doing their job properly. An increase in blood insulin levels can affect cortisol, another hormone we will look at later.

Blood glucose levels quickly rise.

Cells become resistant to insulin and glucose

cannot enter cell.

Blood glucose and insulin levels stay high.

Blood insulin levels quickly rise to cope with

blood glucose load.High GI carbohydrates

eaten.

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HoW can insulin increase Body Fat?

Insulin is released based on the level of blood glucose. Controlling our blood glucose levels is a use-ful way to control insulin. Carbohydrate foods with a high glycemic index release a large amount of glucose into the blood within a short time. This means a lot of insulin has to be released to deal with all the glucose that has suddenly arrived in the bloodstream. Generally this is bad news for our bodies. Blood glucose levels shoot up, insulin levels shoot up, and our bodies can’t use all that energy within a short time. So the other job for insulin is to put the extra blood glucose into fat stores for use at a later time when we might actually need it. If we eat more carbohydrate foods than we need, this can also happen.

When insulin levels get high, it also affects other hormones that have important roles in how much fat we store and how hungry we feel as well. These hormones are cortisol, leptin and ghrelin. We’ll talk about these hormones more later, but basically their function is to make us feel more or less hungry. When insulin is high it affects these hormones in a negative way, increasing our ap-petite and cravings for sugary and starchy foods which leads to increased caloric intake and even-tually, increased fat storage.

HoW do i optimise insulin levels?

From all this evidence we can distil some points to help us manage blood glucose and insulin lev-els and optimise our body fat levels.

1 If eating carbohydrates, eat Low GI. When we eat Low GI carbohydrates, the glucose from those foods is slowly released into the bloodstream, allowing enough time for normal levels of insulin to cope with making sure all the glucose gets safely into the cells for energy. See the table below for a few examples of High GI carbohydrates, and their healthier, Low GI counter-parts.

High GI (Simple) Carbohydrates Low GI (Complex) Carbohydrates

Sugar Quinoa

Honey Basmati or Brown Rice

Rice Cakes Legumes

White Potato Sweet Potato

Breakfast Cereal Rolled oats

Corn Chips Vegetables

White and Wholemeal Bread Wholegrain bread

Pumpkin Buckwheat

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2 Ensure you are getting 7–8 hours of sleep each night. New research is indicating an im-portant link between not getting enough good sleep, and a risk of insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes1. A lack of sleep can influence hormone levels and cause increased fat storage and muscle loss.

3 Get plenty of exercise, especially strength-based training. There is overwhelming evi-dence that one of the best things you can do for insulin resistance is exercise. Strength based training is particularly useful, because glucose has the rare opportunity to enter straight into muscle cells and be used. This can help lower blood glucose levels, and consequently, blood insulin levels.

4 Eat a diet high in protein, healthy fats and Low GI carbohydrates. The benefits of Low GI carbohydrates we mentioned before, but did you know that eating proteins and healthy fats at the same time as carbohydrates can lower the overall glycemic index of the meal? Another reason to include these healthy foods in your diet.

5 Avoid High GI, processed foods that are high in sugar and low in nutrients. These foods give no benefit to our bodies and contribute to high blood glucose and insulin levels. Eating these foods in excess can lead to weight gain and Type 2 diabetes.

6 Add cinnamon to your meals. Cinnamon naturally contains powerful extracts that help to improve the cells sensitivity to insulin. Not to mention its naturally sweet and delicious flavour means you can add less sugar to your meals.

7 Eat a healthy breakfast high in protein and healthy fats. A good start to the day means your body gets a head start on the right foot. Healthy proteins and fats promote satiety (feel-ing full) so you’ll be less likely to succumb to that chocolate bar mid-afternoon!

1 Rains, J. L., & Jain, S. K. (2011). Oxidative stress, insulin signalling, and diabetes. Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 50(5), 567-575.

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We could call cortisol the ‘stress hormone’. This stress could be from emotional sources, physical sources, training stress, dehydration, anxiety, or sleep deprivation. When our bodies are under stress, cortisol is released from the adrenal glands which are situated above the kidneys, to help initiate our ‘flight or fight response’. One of the functions of cortisol is to start breaking down fat, glycogen (a kind of glucose that is stored in the muscles) and even muscle tissue itself, to convert to glucose, which will help give our cells more energy if we need to fight or run. You might think this would have a positive effect, breaking down fat so we can use the energy. However, in this day and age, our sources of stress don’t usually need to be physically fought or run from. This means that all this extra energy the body is making for us just sits in the bloodstream again.

WHat can go Wrong?

Prolonged high levels of cortisol can really have a negative effect on the body. Everyone knows how unpleasant it feels to be stressed. High levels of cortisol put our bodies in a vicious cycle of preparing for stress by filling the bloodstream with glucose, and then taking all that excess glucose that doesn’t get used and storing it as fat. Because cortisol is responding to stress and makes the body think it is in an emergency situation, it will sacrifice any tissue it has available, including mus-cle tissue. Which means cortisol is a hormone that can literally turn muscle into fat.

An imbalance of cortisol can have a range of negative effects, including —

* Cortisol can work to increase appetite, to ensure there is enough energy for our body to deal with the stress. So high levels of cortisol can means increased hunger and craving for sweet, salty, fatty foods – what we commonly call comfort foods2.

* Cortisol can cause increases in negative mood states such as depression, anger, tension, and anxiety, and can result in eating more and making poorer food choices.

cortisol

2 Epel, E., Lapidus, R., McEwen, B., & Brownell, K. (2001). Stress may add bite to appetite in women: a laboratory study of stress-induced cortisol and eating behavior. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 26(1), 37-49.

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Cortisol initiates a ‘stress’ response in the body. Fight

or flight.

The body breaks down muscle, glycogen and fat to make glucose

available for energy.

Cortisol increases appetite so we eat more

to get more energy.

High levels of blood glucose lead to high levels

of insulin.

Cells gradually become insulin resistant over long

exposure to insulin.

Insulin resistance places stress on the body. More

cortisol is released.

* Cortisol affects the circadian rhythms, or your sleep cycle. It can cause disrupted sleep and an inability to ‘switch off’, waking up in the middle of the night, and difficulty waking in the morn-ing. This can result in fatigue until lunch, and then a surge in energy late at night. As we men-tioned before, disrupted or poor sleep can increase hunger levels and result in excess food in-take.

* High cortisol elevates blood glucose and is seen as a risk factor for insulin resistance. This also encourages the depositing of fat around the mid-section. So more stress equals more belly fat3.

* Cortisol negatively affects testosterone levels in both men and women, resulting in loss of sex drive, muscle mass, increased fatigue and body fat. (Testosterone is an important hormone for women too, and does not result in excess muscle mass or ‘bulkiness’).

* High cortisol levels can increase gut permeability, which mean more water enters the diges-tive system. This can cause discomfort and diarrhoea and exacerbate gut issues and food in-tolerances.

* Heavy dieting and excessive exercise are both stressors which increase cortisol. This is why the ‘EAT LESS, TRAIN MORE’ method of fat loss doesn’t work.

cortisol and insulin interaction

3 Talbott, S. M., & Kraemer, W. J. (2007). The cortisol connection: why stress makes you fat and ruins your health-and what you can do about it. Hunter House.

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HoW do i control my cortisol levels?

Cortisol is the ‘stress hormone’, so it’s obvious that controlling stress is a big factor in lowering cor-tisol levels. Here are some pointers to help manage cortisol levels and balance the effect of corti-sol on body fat.

1 Reduce stress. Take time out for yourself. Meditate, do yoga, go for a walk or listen to music. Gentle physical activity can be a great stress reliever. But find something that you enjoy and adds meaning to your life.

2 Ensure you are getting 7–8 hours of sleep each night. Good sleep is essential for good health.

3 Avoid using electronics for 2 hours before going to bed. When we are using electronics, the backlights from the phone, TV or computer shine in our eyes and give our brains the signal it’s still daylight. Plus they keeping up with the news on Facebook or our favourite TV show keep the mind racing! Dimmed lights and dark rooms encourage sleep and help the brain switch off and get some restful sleep.

4 Reduce your caffeine intake. Caffeine is a stimulant that, in excess, can reduce sleep quali-ty and length, and keep you ‘on edge’ during the day.

5 Avoid sugary and processed foods. Despite being healthy, these foods give a fast release of glucose and a huge dose of energy. This can keep us ‘hyped up’ and make it difficult to relax.

6 Eat a regular, balanced diet high in protein, Low GI carbohydrates and healthy fats to keep energy levels balanced throughout the day. This kind of diet keeps the blood glu-cose levels and energy levels stable.

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The name for our next hormone leptin comes from the Greek word leptos, which means ‘thin’. So can you guess what this hormone does? Leptin works together with insulin, and it’s released from the fat cells to let our body know that we our full4. So it’s an appetite suppressing hormone, which tells our brain “Stop eating! I’m full!” when we’ve had enough. In the normal state, leptin is what prevents us from putting on weight and storing fat. Its counterpart is ghrelin, the hormone that tells us we’re hungry.

WHat can go Wrong?

As you can see from its appetite suppressing role, leptin is normally our friend. It helps let our brain know that we’ve eaten, and the body has enough fuel and fat stores for now to continue until the next meal. Issues arise when our leptin stops working, or we become leptin resistant. Leptin is the messenger hormone between the brain and our fat cells, so in leptin resistance the link between the brain and fat cells is impaired and the body can’t tell when it is full. The leptin has no influence on the brain and as such the brain begins to believe the body’s fat stores are low, even though we may actually be overweight. Without leptin there to tell the brain that we’re full, the brain says ‘Eat more, the energy stores are running low’. Effectively, our metabolism then slows down and appe-tite increases — we eat more and gain more weight.

We saw in our discussion on insulin how important that hormone is for managing our weight and fat stores. Leptin and insulin have been shown to be highly correlated in scientific studies. This means that if your insulin levels are healthy, your leptin will work in an effective way to help you feel full when you’ve eaten enough. But if you’re insulin resistant, not only will your insulin fail to function and control blood glucose, but your leptin will also fail to tell your brain that you are full. So while your blood glucose levels are still high, your brain will be saying “I’m still hungry!” causing you to eat more and increase blood glucose levels even further.

lepti n

4 Rains, J. L., & Jain, S. K. (2011). Oxidative stress, insulin signalling, and diabetes. Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 50(5), 567-575.

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Research has shown that leptin may also play a role in ‘stress eating’ when we are exposed to a stressful situation5. This explains why some of us simply cannot touch food or forget to eat when we feel stressed (leptin has increased and appetite has decreased), while for some people, a stress-ful situation has them reaching for the comfort food (leptin has decreased and appetite has in-creased).

There has been some evidence to show that high fructose corn syrup, an ingredient in sugary pro-cessed foods, can contribute to leptin resistance by affecting insulin resistance. A recent study has also shown that wheat consumption may affect the ability of leptin to access it’s receptor in the brain6.

Basically, leptin resistance, or lack of leptin, has been shown to lead to an increase in appetite and an increase in fat storage and has a major impact in obesity. It’s safe to say that we want to prior-itise managing leptin so that this powerful hormone works on our side.

interaction oF insulin and leptin resistance

5 Tomiyama AJ, Schamarek I, Lustig RH, et al. Leptin concentrations in response to acute stress predict subsequent intake of comfort foods.Physiology & behavior. 2012;107(1):34-39. doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2012.04.021.

6 Jönsson, Tommy, et al. “Digested wheat gluten inhibits binding between leptin and its receptor.” BMC biochemistry 16.1 (2015): 3.

Cells become resistant to insulin after prolonged exposure to high blood insulin levels.

As cells become insulin resistant, they also become resistant to leptin. The brain no longer gets the message that the body is full.

In the insulin and leptin resistant body, appetite increases, blood glucose increases, and fat stores increase unchecked.

As fat stores increase, more leptin and insulin enter the bloodstream, exacerbating the insulin and leptin resistance.

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HoW do i improve leptin sensitivity?

1 Ensure you eat a diet high in protein, healthy fats and low GI carbohydrates. This is one the best way to manage insulin levels and stay healthy, and therefore essential to main-taining leptin sensitivity.

2 Avoid sugar and processed foods. Because these foods negatively affect insulin, they can negatively affect leptin as well. So it’s always best to avoid these nutrient poor foods.

3 Participate in a regular strength training program. As strength training has profound pos-itive effects on insulin and blood glucose levels, it positively affects leptin as well.

4 Eat a breakfast high in protein and healthy fats as it promotes satiety and allows a steady rise in blood sugar. As we mentioned before, healthy and carefully planned meals help to control blood glucose and insulin levels, and this gives leptin a big helping hand too.

5 Minimise Omega-6 consumption and choose healthy Omega-3 oils instead. Omega-6 oils founds in corn, soybean and sunflower oils as well as margarine, while being sources of the healthier unsaturated fat, if consumed in excess can affect the function of leptin7.

7 Phillips, Catherine M., et al. “Leptin receptor polymorphisms interact with polyunsaturated fatty acids to augment risk of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome in adults.” The Journal of nutrition 140.2 (2010): 238-244.

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Estrogen (or oestrogen) is most commonly known as the major female sex hormone, the chemi-cal that helps make a woman, a woman. Most estrogen is produced in the ovaries with some also being produced by the fat cells. Actually both men and women have both estrogen and testoster-one, but in a woman the predominant hormone is estrogen, and in a man the predominant hor-mone is testosterone. Estrogen plays an important part in the body of a woman by controlling sex-ual development.

Estrogen acts on the brain to control food intake, energy usage, and where fat gets stored. A pre-dominance of estrogen will cause fat to be deposited on the hips and thighs, whereas if estrogen decreases fat will tend to be stored in the belly area.

Estrogen acts on the muscles, liver, fat and immune system to affect insulin sensitivity and the amount of fat stored in the body. Therefore, estrogen plays an important role in keeping our in-sulin functioning properly and making sure we have enough stores of essential vitamins and nu-trients in the body.

Estrogen also plays an important role for men in the small quantities it is present, by balancing the effects of testosterone, promoting bone strength and fertility. Similarly, testosterone in small amounts plays an important role for women, providing energy, libido and healthy muscle mass.

WHat can go Wrong?

Within the male and the female body, estrogen and testosterone are held in a tight balance rela-tive to one another in order to function properly. Estrogen and testosterone act like they’re on a see-saw. If estrogen goes up, testosterone goes down, and vice versa. So there’s a need for tight control in this system to help it function optimally.

Some problems include —

* Estrogen deficiency promotes dysfunction of the metabolism, which can lead to obesity, the Metabolic Syndrome, and Type 2 Diabetes8.

estrogen

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* A lowering in the levels of estrogen can cause a lowering in the mood of women, leading to de-pression and anxiety. Low estrogen has also been associated with binge and emotional eating9.

* Because estrogen can be produced by fat cells, if the numbers of fat cells increase, estrogen levels increase. This can cause metabolism and detoxification issues, nutrient imbalances, di-gestion issues, increased cancer risk and weight gain.

* Toxic man-made chemicals known as xenoestrogens mimic the effect of natural estrogen in the body. Xenoestrogens come from the environment around us and it has been shown they may leach from plastics. Just like regular estrogen, they can cause us to hold onto fat in the lower back, tummy, back of the arms, hips, legs and buttocks. But there’s a nasty side effect. The body binds these toxic estrogens to fat cells in an attempt to keep the toxins away from your vital organs. Because these toxins are then bound to the fat cell, it becomes very hard to eliminate these fat cells, resulting in what we call ‘stubborn fat’.

* Studies have shown xenoestrogens are stored in the fat of fish, birds and other animals which can then be passed through the food chain as we eat them.

* An excess of estrogen from xenoestrogens can lead to reduced sex drive, cold hands and feet, mood swings, irrtability, PMS, depression and anxiety.

tHe relationsHip BetWeen insulin, leptin and estrogen Balance

8 Mauvais-Jarvis, F., Clegg, D. J., &Hevener, A. L. (2013). The role of estrogens in control of energy balance and glucose homeostasis. Endocrine reviews, 34(3), 309-338.

9 Klump KL, Keel PK, Racine SE, et al. The Interactive Effects of Estrogen and Progesterone on Changes in Emotional Eating Across the Menstrual Cycle.Journal of abnormal psychology. 2013;122(1):131-137. doi:10.1037/a0029524.

Estrogen balance is disturbed

Weight gain and increase in fat cells

More fat cells produce excess estrogen and

leptin

Body enters a state of insulin and leptin resistance,

and estrogen imbalance

Estrogen levels increase or decrease

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HoW can i maintain tHe rigHt estrogen Balance?

As you can see, problems arise when we have too much estrogen and when we have too little es-trogen. The key is finding the perfect estrogen balance for our bodies. Some tips to keep in mind include —

1 Maintaining a healthy body weight and body fat percentage. Maintaining a healthy weight and especially a healthy level of fat in the body ensures that estrogen stays nicely balanced at its normal levels.

2 More fibre, more veggies, and easy on the animal products. Because toxic xenoestrogens can be passed through animal fats, we should focus on a diet that has just moderate amount of low-fat animal products. A high fibre diet with plenty of vegetables ensures excess estrogen is excreted properly by the digestive system.

3 Try to choose organic, free range or hormone/antibiotic/steroid free meats. By choos-ing these products, you can steer clear of some of the nasty chemical hormones that end up in our food supply.

4 Avoid heating food in plastic containers or storing foods for prolonged periods in plas-tic. Because xenoestrogens can end up in our food and then in our bodies after leaching from plastics, it’s best to avoid particularly heating foods in plastic containers. Choose BPA-free plas-tics to store foods in10.

10 Meeker JD, Sathyanarayana S, Swan SH. Phthalates and other additives in plastics: human exposure and associated health outcomes. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 2009;364(1526):2097-2113. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0268.

HoW it all comes togetHer

In the previous discussions of each of the hormones individually, you may have noticed they seem to interact a lot. In fact these hormones are dependent on each other and are inextricably linked when it comes to determining our weight, appetite, and body fat stores.

Insulin is the major player when it comes to metabolism and energy usage. The basic mechanism of our food being turned into energy for our body to use is dependent on insulin. When the cells start to be-come resistant to insulin, the process moves quickly to the body also becoming resistant to leptin. Because the whole system is unbalanced, it doesn’t take long to spill over into other systems. With leptin re-sistance, even though weight gain is continuing exponentially, even as you eat more and more, you never feel full, because leptin cannot get its satiety message to the brain.

As weight increases, the numbers of fat cells increase, causing an im-balance in estrogen levels also. Cortisol can affect the process at any point, either at the beginning causing weight gain related to stress, or it can start to impact the process when estrogen gets out of bal-ance affecting mood and mental health.

All of these important and essential hormones work together to con-trol and influence our health, body and weight. Understanding and learning to manage our hormones in a balanced way is the key to switching off the weight gain signal and working towards a healthy body.

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tHank you!

As a thank you for downloading this eBook I want to offer you a free con-sultation to get you on the right track to sleeping well, having more energy, and feeling more awesome! As well as turning your body into a fat burning machine by optimising your hormones to get rid of those stubborn areas on your tummy, hips and thighs!

Book in by emailing mandy@atlasperformance.com.au

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