Hormones play a fundamental role in the functioning of our body and each one of them is responsible for a very specific job. While one makes us hungry, another does the exact opposite. While one tells our brain that we need to store fat just in case, another gives us a signal to start burning like there’s no tomorrow. \
The trick is to learn to activate the hormones we want and deactivate the ones we don’t. We always think this is really amazing and we can’t wait to show this article to our readers.
Fix The Hormones That Control Your Weight
The Hormone That Makes You Feel Hungry
Ghrelin is the “I’m hungry” gremlin. It is the hormone that sends a message to your brain that it is time to eat. Interestingly, reducing caloric intake stimulates ghrelin production, and even after 12 months of a low-calorie diet, its level remains high.
That’s one of the reasons that low-calorie diets don’t work in the long run. Our bodies just can’t get used to it.
What to do?
The good news is that intensive cardiovascular exercise can lower your ghrelin level.
Cardio exercise can be just about anything: jogging, weight training, boxing, boot camp, as long as your heart rate reaches a certain level. It is important to reach this level and there are many different tools you can use to read your heart rate.
But there is an easier way to find out when you have reached it. If you’re breathing hard and you can still speak but can’t sing, your heart rate is probably at the correct level.
The Hormone That Tells You To Eat Less
Fortunately, our bodies also produce hormones that tell the brain to use more calories and eat less, with leptin being one of them. It is produced by fat cells, which means that the fatter we are, the more leptin we have.
Which sounds great, but it’s a gimmick. After a certain point, our bodies receive what experts call leptin resistance, a condition in which the brain cannot read the leptin signal.
What To Do?
The solution is simple, foods rich in antioxidants increase sensitivity to leptin. The list of foods rich in antioxidants is very long and you will always find something you like.
Losing weight has the same effect, and ultimately the more weight you lose, the stronger the effect of leptin will be.
The Hormone That Absorbs Sugar
Insulin is very important for our well-being regulates blood sugar levels and helps us recover from exercise. Our body releases insulin when we eat carbohydrates and it helps cells absorb glucose.
This glucose is used for energy, but if we get more glucose than we need, the leftovers will turn into fat.
What To Do?
The solution is to get most of your carbohydrates from low-glycemic (GI) grains, vegetables, and fruits. The lower the GI, the more slowly glucose is released and the more time we have to consume it.
This does not mean that you need to follow a strict diet, you just need to replace high GI foods with low GI foods. For example, white rice can be replaced by brown rice or instant oatmeal with traditional rolled oats. It is simple.
The Hormone That Tells Our Body To Burn Fat
Adiponectin is also produced by fat cells and the beauty of this hormone is that it increases our sensitivity to insulin and stimulates our bodies to burn fat for energy.
It may sound strange, but it comes from fat and burning. And unlike leptin, the leaner we are, the higher the level of adiponectin.
What To Do?
You can increase adiponectin levels by moving more throughout the day and filling your diet with monounsaturated fats like fish, nuts, avocados, and olive oil. Eating low-GI carbohydrates with dinner also increases adiponectin production.
What advice do you plan to start with to burn fat and increase your hormones? Or maybe you have your own tricks? Tell us all about them in the comment section below.
