108 | 3 Hormones Assosciated with Weight Loss Resistance

Welcome back to another episode of the Real Health Podcast. We are in a season of the month of February talking about fat loss, specifically fat loss, not weight loss. We are, hoping to have conversations that are more built around recomposition, which is keeping our lean mass, if not building lean mass and cutting unwanted fat. Fat is very hard sometimes to lose without losing muscle with it. And so we have to prioritize certain things.

So last episode, we talked about prioritizing certain, you know, pillars in your life that support what we're about to talk about today, which is how hormones impact fat loss. Our mission with the Real Health Podcast is to add as much value in a condensed amount of time so that we can get real health out to real people, and we can make real change. You're not gonna hear a bunch of ads. You're not gonna hear a long podcast. This is typically under twenty minutes where we're gonna provide just a ton of value in a short period of time.

So without further ado, let's get going. Today we're gonna talk about three hormones that impact fat loss, three hormones. I'll go ahead and give them to you now and then we'll get into detail about them later. The first one is leptin, The second one we're gonna talk about is insulin. And the third hormone we're gonna talk about today is cortisol.

Now those are the main three. There are other hormones involved, obviously, in fat loss. Your thyroid hormones, for instance. Testosterone, estrogen. There's hormones in your stomach called ghrelin.

There's other hormones called glucagon. We're not gonna dive into detail of those hormones because I've done episodes and podcasts about your thyroid and about carbohydrates and the importance of balancing carbs with proteins and fats. Today, it's really gonna be on the big three. What most people need to know, is that these big three, leptin, insulin, and cortisol, if you can get these balanced, then you can start shredding fat. Let's talk about the first one.

It is the satiety hormone or what we would associate with satiation, being the feeling of of full. And we call this leptin. What does leptin do? So leptin is produced by your fat, so your adipose cells, your fat cells produce this hormone. And so then it goes to the brain, it signals to the brain, specifically a part of the brain called the hypothalamus.

It says, Hey, let's reduce hunger. Let's increase energy expenditure, so increase metabolism. And this is all designed when fat stores are sufficient. So this is a constant circulating hormone. Okay?

So in essence, it it it gives us this, like, parameter of like, for me, 185 to, like, like, is my sweet spot. Now I can lean out as much as 181, one hundred and 80 two, and I can get as big as about 190. But if we're looking at the range of like 182, one hundred and 80 eight, with 185 kinda being my sweet spot, that's a that is kinda my middle zone, where I just hang out at. Now why? Why is my body weight always kinda there?

Well, it's because of leptin. If my leptin levels get too high, which is too much fat on my body, it'll signal to my brain, hey dude, you got too much fat on you, slow it down in terms of eating, and will have a natural increase of energy expenditure. My metabolism will actually increase and I'll burn more fat. Leptin will help the hypothalamus signal to other hormones like your thyroid to increase energy expenditure. And when leptin levels are too low, then like when you're coming off a fast, I'm just a ravenous wolf, right?

I'm just pounding food. And it'll be about a good week where I'm eating so much I never feel hungry because my leptin levels are so low. So leptin hormone is always circulating and it keeps you in balance. It keeps you in this checkpoint. Now you can become, and this is the issue with leptin, you be you can become leptin resistant.

What is leptin resistance? Leptin resistance means that your brain no longer hears leptin, yet there's plenty of it in the body. Your brain is resistant to hearing the hormone leptin. So think of it this way. You're eating food, you ignore your hunger signals, you keep eating, you eat the wrong foods, you're inflamed, so inflammation, poor choice of food specifically like a lot of fructose, a lot of, sugars.

And sooner or later, you start restoring fats. Fat releases more of this leptin hormone, but because of the inflammation of your body, because of how long you've avoided maybe those hunger signals, your brain becomes resistant to that hormone. Okay? And as it becomes resistant to the hormone and your leptin levels are high, well, the brain actually thinks you don't have enough leptin. So then it drives, it doesn't drive you not to eat, it actually drives you to eat.

So then you get into this vicious cycle where even though leptin levels are high, your brain perceives that it's low, which drives hunger and and actually decreases energy expenditure, decreases metabolism. Your brain perceives you're starving, yet you are ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred pounds overweight. Leptin resistance is at the core of why people have the most difficult time losing weight. Their brain is resistant to the hormone leptin. It's also why overeaters keep overeating.

They've lost their hunger signal. Leptin resistance over time like chronic overfeeding, inflammation, high insulin levels lead to leptin resistance. And the brain no longer responds to those leptin signals and this makes you feel hungrier than you actually are, than you should be, and reduces energy expenditure, making fat loss more and more difficult. This is leptin resistance. So what are the strategies to reverse leptin resistance?

Number one, you're gonna reduce inflammation. How do you reduce inflammation? Through an anti inflammatory diet. You're gonna increase like omega three fatty acids. Why?

Because fish oils are fantastic strategies to reduce inflammation and you're gonna support your digestive system. Your gut is very important at helping reduce inflammation systemically. What else are you gonna do? You're gonna consume foods that are rich in antioxidants. So lots of carotenoids, vegetables, polyphenols, you know, turmeric and ginger, anti inflammatory foods.

So you're gonna live this anti inflammatory life. So number one, you're gonna reduce inflammation. Number two, you're gonna avoid excessive processed carbs and refined sugars, particularly fructose. And we talked about this last episode, even the episode before that, of how important it is to remove even fruit for a season because fruit contains fructose and that sugar can actually drive more leptin resistance. Avoid processed foods, particularly processed carbohydrates, and refined sugars.

That's number two. Number three, you have to heal by getting adequate sleep. There is research that shows poor sleep increases leptin resistance. Number four, start incorporating fasting. Fasting is one of the quickest ways to become leptin sensitive again.

So, the biggest hormone that we're gonna talk about today is leptin. Leptin resistance is at the core of weight loss resistance. And how do we reduce leptin resistance? We have an anti inflammatory diet, we avoid excessive, processed carbohydrates and sugars, we get adequate sleep, and of course we start incorporating fasting. All strategies that we taught you if you've spent any time listening to the Real Health podcast.

Number two, insulin. Insulin is the fat storage hormone. So the first one tells your brain you're fat. The second one stores fat. Insulin resistance is very similar to leptin resistance, where you've ignored some signaling, you've eaten poorly, okay, now we're leptin resistant, and now we're insulin resistant.

They usually coexist and the strategies are pretty similar, but we're gonna talk about some differences. Insulin regulates blood sugar, okay? And it really does it by shuttling like glucose into our cells for energy or for storage. And the problem is that chronically high elevated insulin, usually from excessive carbohydrate intake, is what promotes fat storage and inhibits fat breakdown. This is why we also subscribe to three meals a day.

Why three meals a day? Because we don't wanna keep spiking our insulin, and you get insulin spikes every time you eat food. So we say, hey, eat three meals a day, no snacking, wait four hours minimum between meals, and wait twelve hours between dinner and the next breakfast at minimum. Why? To create insulin sensitivity.

Insulin is a fat source hormone and if we can get insulin sensitivity or reverse insulin resistance, then we can actually start to burn fat. How do we improve insulin sensitivity? Okay, well number one, similar to before but we're going to lower our carbohydrate intake. So not just processed carbohydrates and not just sugars but lower carbohydrate intake altogether. Ketogenic diet is a great strategy.

We actually have a guide on our website at the realhealthco.com under our resources tab. You can actually download the ketogenic diet. The ketogenic diet is a fantastic strategy, reverse insulin resistance. So lower your carbohydrate intake. Number two, strength train.

Strength train is a great way where we can improve our muscles' ability to start to burn sugar or glucose, and this will drive insulin sensitivity. Strength train at least three days a week. Number three, similar to before, we need to fast intermittently. The three meals a day, four, four, 12 is a great strategy. One day a week doing a longer fast, maybe a twenty four hour fast or, you know, every quarter doing a two, three, four, five day fast are great strategies to incorporate into the discipline to drive insulin sensitivity.

And number four, magnesium. Magnesium is a fantastic nutrient that we're all deficient in and helps our bodies become more insulin sensitive. So what are we going to do? We're going to look at insulin, the fast storage hormone, and we're going to lower our carbohydrate intake. We're gonna strength train a couple days a week.

We're gonna start to incorporate fasting, and we're gonna we're gonna make sure we're supporting magnesium in whether it's Epsom salt baths or supplementation form. Number three, what's the third hormone? It was cortisol. Cortisol is known as the stress hormone. If you look at cortisol, it's released in response to stress.

It could be physical stress, it could be chemical stress, it could be emotional stress, it could be spiritual stress, but cortisol is released in regards to stress. And so cortisol actually helps mobilize energy. If you are stressed because your body is under a perceived threat and you release cortisol, well cortisol obviously is gonna put more glucose into your blood so that you have the energy to get away from that stressor, right? So this is an adaptive response, innate response that's been ingrained in our DNA since God created man. Cortisol as a stress hormone, how do you know if you have too much cortisol?

So this is kind of funny, but this is what we call the wall test. Okay? It's what I like to call the wall test. So what I want you to do is stand up, go to the nearest wall, and I want you to walk to the wall and have your toes and your nose touch the wall. Toes and nose touch the wall, okay?

Alright, stand up nice and tall, Open up your chest. The question is this. Does your stomach touch the wall? If your stomach touches the wall, you have excessive cortisol in your body. Belly fat is the number one sign of excessive cortisol, belly fat, visceral fat.

So we need to reduce our cortisol levels, our stress hormone levels, And there's a lot of strategies to help support stress. One, chiropractic care is one of the most effective ways to help your body get out of that threat or alarm phase. Start getting adjusted. Number two, prioritize sleep. Seven to nine hours a night helps lower cortisol.

Number three, manage stress through sauna and training and cold plunging and prayer and and meditation. Number four, avoid excessive caffeine because too much caffeine will constantly put a stressor in your body and spike too much cortisol. So if we have cortisol, we got belly fat, and that's what we're trying to get rid of, the stubborn belly fat. Why do we have belly fat? Too much cortisol.

How do we get rid of it? Get adjusted, prioritize sleep, manage your stress, and avoid excessive caffeine. Those four strategies will help start to immediately lower your cortisol levels. When we look at fat loss and hormones and how they play a role, it can be it can seemingly be difficult. Right?

Because it's like, hey, man. I've I've been doing this strategy for a week, a month. To heal your body, to lower your stress hormones, to help drive insulin sensitivity, lessen sensitivity. Again, this is gonna take months of diligent work. But I promise you, if you're faithful and and apply these strategies in your life, you'll continue to have a recomposition of fat to muscle and overall balance the landscape of your hormones that have a massive role in longevity, in perceived stress, and how you feel on a day to day basis.

As as, as we've been having, you know, some discussions over the last few weeks about resources, we just want to let you know again, if you want all of this written out for you, you can go to our resources tab at realhealthco.com, and we have a guide for you, and it is the three hormone guides, the three hormones associated with fat loss. You can download that guide and get all our content for free. No cost to you. Go to realhealthco.com and go to our resources page. I hope this added value to your life.

I hope it was helpful, And as always, thanks again for listening to another episode of the Real Health podcast. Our passion is to add value to your health care journey. Anything that we do, we want to do it within a community to help as many people as possible. Thanks for listening to episodes of The Real Health Podcast. If you could like, if you could subscribe, and you can share, it would help our mission to reach as many people with real health that produces real results for real people.