Add Purslane To Your Salad
Most people have no idea what purslane is. I didnt either until I discovered my problem with eating excess fructose and how it contributes to fatty liver, among other problems.
So I decided to up my omega-3s, particularly since an omega-3 fatty acid known as docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA, seems to reverse the harmful changes to belly fat produced by fructose. In fact, DHA doesnt just change one or two genes, it pushes an entire block of genes back to normal.
Purslane offers the richest of omega-3s and melatonin that you can obtain from a green vegetablemostly alpha linolenic acid , which can be converted into DHA. One chef calls it a miniature jade plant. I call it a super food, a weed worth eating, because its nutrient density strengthens synapses, or connections in your brain, and enhances memory and learning.
I grow it in my garden, then chop it in salads or add it to soups at the very end. You can grow it too, or buy it at your local farmers market, next to the sorrel and nettles.
Supplements That Can Help
- DHEA is both a natural hormone and a popular supplement that is a precursor to other hormones in the sex steroid hormone family. It helps to produce estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Studies show it can also increase bone density, decrease body fat, especially visceral fat, and help balance other hormone problems.
A growing body of evidence suggests that DHEA can be a valuable dietary supplement for older adults, especially the overweight or obese. DHEA is secreted by the adrenal gland and is a precursor to other hormones. 4
- Progesterone is also a natural hormone and popular supplement. Originally thought of strictly as a female hormone, studies have shown that the human prostate is very sensitive to it.
Progesterone inhibits an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone . Excess DHT binds to receptors on the prostate, potentially increasing the risk of prostate enlargement and/or prostate cancer. Dr. John R. Lee, in his many books, believes that it is excessive exposure to estrogen with low levels of progesterone that is the primary cause of BPH and prostate cancer. 5
- An Internet search for supplements for hormonal bellyreturns nearly five million pages. Undoubtedly, the vast majority are of dubious potential help and, in some cases, may actually cause harm.
Keep in mind the fact that it may have taken years for this condition to develop, and remedying it will not happen in a week or two.
Your Weight Gain Is Only In Your Abdomen
Menopause puts your body through a whole host of changes, one of them commonly being weight gain. Why? Your production of estrogen, along with other hormones, takes a dip. Outside of menopause, low estrogen levels can be due to excessive exercise, disordered eating patterns, or pituitary gland issues. Decreased estrogen levels can change the fat distribution of your body, causing you to gain more in the belly as opposed to the hips, thighs, and buttocks. Estrogen deficiency can also impair the action of insulin, making it harder to regulate blood sugar and leading to increased hormonal belly fat and abdominal weight gain.
Your gameplan:
Melt away hormonal belly fat caused by low estrogen and insulin resistance by adopting a low carbohydrate eating plan, recommends Johnston. Between protein, fat and carbohydrates, carbs have the biggest impact on raising blood sugar and insulin levels, she says. Reducing high-carbohydrate foods such as refined sugars, breads, cookies, crackers, and pasta and boosting less insulin-stimulating foods rich in fiber, protein, and healthy fat can have a significant impact on your waistline.
Keep in mind that if your carb consumption dips too low, it can suppress your leptin levels and interfere with leptins ability to regulate your reproductive hormones so its important to keep some whole-food based sources of complex carbohydrates in the diet such as fruit, starchy vegetables, and whole grains.
Read Also: How To Figure Out Your Hormone Type
Obesity Hormones As A Risk Factor For Disease
Obesity is associated with an increased risk of a number of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, stroke and several types of cancer, and with decreased longevity and lower quality of life. For example, the increased production of oestrogens in the fat of older women who are obese is associated with an increase in breast cancer risk, indicating that the source of oestrogen production is important.
How To Prevent Hormonal Imbalances In The Future
There are several ways to prevent hormone imbalances in the future. Below is a five-point plan to help you keep your hormones in check:
Recommended Reading: How To Fix Hormonal Imbalance In Females
How To Get Cortisol Under Control
Tips for maintaining healthy, balanced cortisol levels include the following:
- Consider what relaxes you. Is it meditation? A walk in the park? A bubble bath? Engaging in a creative project? Find what relieves stress for you, and integrate it into your daily routine.
- Exercise regularly, and give yoga a try if its not already part of your workout regimen. The synchronized breathwork that accompanies a nice, flowing vinyasa routine calms the nervous system and reduces cortisol all while giving your body and mind a thorough workout.
- Listen to your favorite music. A 2011 study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology found that patients who listened to instrumental music during surgery had lower cortisol levels than a control group.
- Get enough sleep at night. Have you ever noticed how easily stressed and anxious you become on days when youre sleep deprived? This happens because during a night of deep, restorative sleep, your body is working to balance all hormones, including cortisol. A study published in the peer-reviewed journal Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine explored how sleep deprivation impacted helicopter pilots on a 7-day emergency medical duty. Findings suggested it was sleep deprivation not the act of emergency medical care that elevated adrenaline and cortisol levels.
Banishing Belly Fat Will Be Good For Many Things
Excessive, unsightly belly fat may also have a detrimental effect on your self-confidence, and as well as your self-esteem. Looking good again can help rebuild positive feelings about yourself. But the most important benefit will be the restoration of good health and a major improvement in your general feeling of well-being.
Nip increasing belly fat in the bud by dealing with stress to prevent the super-production of the stress hormone, cortisol which is the major culprit in the development of belly fat.
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Eat Sufficient Clean Protein
Undereating protein and overeating carbs can lead to weight gain. Make sure your protein is anti-inflammatory, i.e., lentils and other legumes, if you tolerate them cold-water, low-mercury, wild-caught seafood like salmon, cod, and steelhead trout and pastured and wild meats, if you eat them, like elk, bison, and grass-fed beef.
Balancing Your Hormones To Beat Belly Fat
Posted December 29th, 2015
Losing weight can be a challenge, so says Deborah L. Oleynik, ND. While this sounds more like a fact of life than a profound statement, anyone who has ever tried the simple formula of exercise more/eat less and failed, needs to also understand the symphony of hormones that are involved in metabolism. These metabolic hormones make up a complex resonance in which the absence or over-abundance of just one can make or break the outcome. Some of the better known players included in this orchestra are: growth hormone, insulin, thyroid, cortisol, testosterone, estrogen and a lesser known hormone, Leptin.
While you never want fat hanging around your waist, for many people its the first place it goes and the last place it leaves. Believe it or not, love handles arent just unattractive. Carrying weight around your abdomen is bad for your health, worse than carrying weight on your hips or thighs, and is a key indicator of a hormonal imbalance. If you have struggled to lose weight or keep it off, I guarantee that your hormones are at play. Your hormones control every aspect of weight loss including your metabolism, where you store your fat, your appetite and even your cravings! This means any form of hormonal imbalance will sabotage your efforts, regardless of your diet and exercise habits.¹
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Low Estrogen And Progesterone Affect Insulin
Before menopause, women have higher levels of estrogen and progesterone, two hormones that are responsible for menstrual cycles and fertility. As a woman moves out of her childbearing years, both estrogen and progesterone naturally decrease.
Research shows that lower levels of estrogen directly affect how the body recognizes and uses insulin. Without enough estrogen, a woman is much more likely to develop insulin resistance. Insulin resistance makes it harder for your bodys cells to use sugar, so it circulates in the blood and causes the body to hang onto excess fat. This leads to an increase in belly fat and a risk of type 2 diabetes.
Its Better To Stand Than Sit If And When You Can
The formula is simple: The more time that your bodys in motion, the more calories your body will burn. One low-effort way to do that? Stay as vertical as possible throughout the day, Peeke says. Not only will that increase calorie burn, it can also help prevent other health problems. A study published in January 2018 in the journal Obesity found that prolonged sitting is connected to higher levels of abdominal fat, as well as fat thats accumulated around organs such as the liver, which increases risk for diabetes and heart disease.
Staying vertical isnt exactly the same as breaking out a full-on sweat . To stay upright more often, stand and pace when youre on the phone, or park further from the front door of the places youre going, so youll have to walk more. If youre a binge watcher, place a pedal exerciser on the floor in front of your couch, so you can fit in some needed movement while still catching up on all your favorite shows.
To stay upright more often, stand and pace when youre on the phone, or park farther from the places youre going so youll have to walk a little more. If youre a binge-watcher, place a pedal exerciser on the floor in front of your couch, so you can fit in some needed movement while still catching up on your favorite shows.
Read Also: How Hormone Replacement Therapy Works
Eat Fewer Calories More Frequently
Increased insulin resistance might leave you feeling hungrier. Dividing up your food into three moderately sized meals and one to two small snacks will keep your blood sugar levels steady while combatting the urge to nibble on junk, Largeman-Roth says. Piling your plate with more low-calorie, high-volume foodslike fruits and vegetablescan help fill you up, too.
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What Is Hormonal Belly Fat
Everyone, regardless of age, should strive to achieve and keep a weight that is considered healthy for their body.
Getting rid of excess weight, especially belly weight needs tremendous effort, but there are instances when you can do everything right, and the weight still wont go away.
Even if you have a healthy diet and exercise regularly, you may still struggle to lose weight.
One of the most typical outward signs of hormonal fluctuation is a gradual but steady accumulation of fat, most noticeably in the midsection.
This fat accumulation on the belly can throw some people off balance, especially when they know they are doing everything right to stay fit.
When people start getting older, they may feel that weight growth, specifically the fat deposit around the abdominal region, is inevitable.
This is especially the case if you have a family history of obesity. Many will let nature take its course.
On the other hand, this need not always be the case because, with some effort, you can lose the extra belly fat.
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/6you Don’t Feel Satiated After Eating
Do you get a feeling that you don’t feel full after eating a full-fledged meal? If this is happening with you, it means your sex hormones are indirectly impacting hormones that regulate your metabolism.
Low levels of estrogen in the body can make you feel hungry after having a meal. Estrogen impacts the leptin, and the more leptin you have, the more problematic it is.
If your testosterone levels go up, the leptin decreases. Leptin helps regulate body weight and has a major influence on energy balance.
Signs Hormones May Be Giving You Belly Fat
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Find A Friend Or A Group To Exercise With
To attack belly fat and any other menopause weight gain, youll need to burn between 400 and 500 calories most days of the week from cardiovascular exercise, such as walking briskly, jogging, bicycling, dancing, or swimming, Peeke says. Need motivation? Find a friend who needs to exercise as much as you do, and set a date to work out together. Research published in April 2015 in the British Journal of Health Psychology found that actively looking for a new workout partner and exercising together is beneficial for both exercise and emotional support.
If you dont have a buddy to join you on your weight loss mission, it may be time to try a group fitness class at your local gym or community center. Data published in November 2017 in the Journal of Osteopathic Medicine found that participating in regular group fitness classes resulted in a significant decrease in stress and a rise in physical, mental, and emotional quality of life compared with exercising regularly on your own or not engaging in regular exercise at all.
Balance Cortisol To Conquer Hormonal Belly Fat
Now that you see why its overall health, and cortisol specifically, that we have to target in order to free our bodies from excess hormonal belly fat, lets look at the actionable steps we can take to finally achieve health, balance, and sustainable long-term weight loss. Get ready to say goodbye to hormonal belly fat for good!
1. Look into lab tests
Knowledge is power, so the first step I recommend in tackling any sort of health problem is to know where you are, whats working, and exactly what isnt. This is the best way to determine the best course of action for you. In my clinic, I run a urine and salivary adrenal fatigue test on patients with weight problems. This test looks at your brain-adrenal function and cortisol patterns throughout the day, so you can see if your cortisol is behaving normally, or not.
2. Tap into the power of adaptogens
Adaptogens are plant and herbal medicines that are rock stars at restoring balance to various areas of the body, especially when stress is causing the imbalances. Some of my favorites for rebalancing cortisol and easing dysfunction of the HPA-axis are licorice root, ashwagandha, schisandra, and cordyceps. Find these in powdered form and add to your teas, smoothies, or coffee.
3. Give keto a go
4. Manage that stress
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BY DR. WILL COLE
Evidence-based reviewed article
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What You Need To Know About Leptin Resistance
When your body becomes resistant to leptin, leptin levels become too high. In fact, overweight individuals who get their leptin levels tested typically find their leptin levels to be as high as four times the normal level. Whats more, its really difficult to balance leptin levels once theyve become resistant.
With leptin resistance, communication between the brain and leptin is impaired, so that your brain doesnt understand that its full, and tells your body to keep eating. Its as if your brain thinks youre starving when in reality, youre just leptin resistant.
To reverse leptin resistance or prevent it from happening to you in the first place, lets talk food, drink, and supplements. Everything in your body impacted by what you put into it, and leptins no different. Sugar, in particular, can cause leptin levels in your body to skyrocket, so youll want to eat less sugar. Other ways to prevent or reduce leptin resistance include:
- Committing to a regular exercise routine
- Getting truly restorative sleep on a regular basis