Everyone knows that diet and exercise are essential to weight loss, but what is it that they actually do. While diet and exercise are great, what you are actually controlling with these are your hormones. Hormones play a vital role in the way your body functions, what it keeps, what it lets go of, what it craves, and so on. So, in reality, healthy hormone levels is really what you want when losing weight. Imagine your body like a storefront and dieting is a grumpy employee. Well, it’s time to talk to the manager: your hormones.
Ghrelin is the hunger hormone, and you called it, exercise suppresses its levels and allows you to control what you eat more easily. But adversely, reducing calories increases this level. Pick your battles.
Insulin is how you maintain optimal blood sugar levels, which are important when recovering from workouts and build muscle, but when you pack in carbs, this insulin spikes and runs wild in your body, building unnecessary fat. Try and get your carbs from vegetables to ensure a healthy level of insulin.
On the other hand, Glucagon is the hormone that breaks up fat and carbs, so keep your carb intake down and boost your protein for maximum glucagon release.
Epinephrine and Cholecystokinin are hormones that suppress appetite and add fullness. Make sure your diet has a dose of healthy fat and work at interval training to work the epinephrine into effect.
Learn your body and you’ll do what is best for it.
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