You’ve tried every weight loss regimen in the book, and yet those pounds and inches don’t seem to be melting off. You’re sweating it out daily in the gym and have reduced your caloric intake, but you don’t seem to be losing as much as you are expecting to. What can you be doing wrong, or are you really doing anything wrong?
Even when you are actually following weight loss programs to a T, there is still a possibility that your efforts won’t produce the results that others are getting. This is because there is a chance that your hormones are sabotaging your weight loss program. There are few different hormones that can affect your battle with the bulge, and the levels of these hormones may affect how your body reacts to your weight loss efforts.
Hormones that are Responsible for Your Success or Failure
Which hormones should you point the finger at when you find your muffin top staying in place even after you’ve been working out and dieting for weeks now? There are quite a few that doctors feel can be considered the culprits when it comes to weight loss difficulties. These include such hormones like ghrelin, leptin, and insulin, to mention a few.
- Ghrelin – this hormone is what tells your brain that you are still hungry. The increased production of ghrelin will make weight loss rather trying since your body will constantly tell your brain that you are hungry. The sad part about this is that when you reduce your caloric intake, your body produces more ghrelin, and the elevated levels of this hormone will constantly tell your brain that you need to eat. Ghrelin however is said to reduce in levels when you engage in intense exercise. So, in order to lose weight effectively while dieting, exercise should be added to the mix.
- Leptin – this is a hormone that tells your brain to burn more calories and to stop you from eating. The good news is, leptin is produced by your body fat, so the more fat you have, the more leptin your body produces. The bad news is, if you have too much body fat, and too much leptin is released because of this, you end up with what is called leptin resistance. This makes your brain immune to the signals that this hormone sends it. The solution to such a dilemma is to enhance leptin sensitivity by increasing your anti-oxidant intake, getting ample sleep, and of course, to start losing excess body fat.
- Insulin – this hormone regulates how soon the glucose produced by eating carbohydrates should be burned by your body as energy. This also tells your body when this glucose should be stored for future use. An insulin imbalance usually translates to diabetes, that is, apart from the body’s difficulty in burning stored fat for energy. For you to burn fat effectively and to lose weight, you need to regulate your insulin production, and this does not mean that you reduce your carbohydrate intake. What you should do is to change your choices of carbohydrate sources, and you should get this more from vegetables and less from starches.
How do you know which hormones are affecting your weight loss efforts? A visit to your doctor and a few tests will let you know which ones are going haywire in your system, and whether or not you can repair such imbalances naturally or if you need some help doing so. Ask your doctor about these other options and if you need treatments to get your hormones back to their normal levels before you start trying to lose weight again. This way, your efforts do not go to waste.
