Do you think you have enough self-control and willpower to avoid unhealthy food and do you think that willpower or self-control can be the real solution to low energy and high weight?

Maybe. Maybe, not.

You will be happy to find out that there is something else going on than just that.

It might be the guilty hormones!

Hormones directly affect your appetite, blood sugar, metabolism and control your energy and weight.

Let’s go over a few of the critical links between your hormones, and how they might be impacting your weight and energy. The links may be stronger than you think.

What are the hormones?

Having happy and healthy hormones is a hot topic these days.

And for a good reason! I don’t think that most of you realize that hormones are part of the master control system of your entire body.

Hormones are compounds and chemical messengers made by one part of the body that are used to communicate with another part. For instance, insulin is produced in the pancreas. Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas. Insulin is there to help your body turn blood sugar (glucose) into energy. Your body stores the energy in your fat cells, liver, and muscles to use it later when it is needed and insulin helps with this process. If there is too much of insulin in your body will store fat.

Your hormones control metabolism, appetite and blood sugar (plus a host of other things). Controlled blood sugar, properly working metabolism is a base for your optimal weight and energy.

So, how do the hormones get out of whack to zap your energy and pile up the pounds?

Most common hormonal imbalances?

When your body is in the balance, everything in your body should work smoothly including your hormones. You will manage to have good and healthy weight, and you’d have ample energy.

Nowadays though, there are more and more problems with this whole setup. One of issue or imbalances is that there may be too little or too much hormone released to have the desired effect. If we are talking about thyroid – this is known as hypo- or hyper- “hormone” (i.e. hypo- or hyperthyroidism). You can also have too much estrogen and not enough progesterone – this is called estrogen dominance.

Another prevalent issue is that the body can release the right amount of hormones, but the cells communicating with hormones can slowly start ignoring them. This process is known as hormone “resistance” (i.e. insulin resistance).

What is the connection between hormones and energy?

Do you know that your metabolism is key to controlling your energy? Metabolism is the process in which your body converts food and fluid into the energy necessary for the body to use. During this process, calories in food and drinks are being combined with oxygen to release the energy your body needs to function. Your body needs energy even if you are at rest for circulating blood, breathing, cell repair and adjusting hormones levels.
One of the most important players in this process is …you guessed it!

Your thyroid hormones.

Thyroid gland releases hormones that affect the metabolism of all the cells in your body. The thyroid is the master controller here. If the thyroid hormones are it’s too low, then your metabolism goes down (hypothyroid), you may feel cold, hungry and tired. If your thyroid hormones are too high, your metabolism speeds up (hyperthyroid), and you may anxious, jittery, hot and you might lose weight.

You are striving for balance in your body and your metabolism, ideal energy use, perfect temperature, and an ideal weight.

What hormones have to do with weight?

Insulin plays the primary factor in your blood sugar balance and controls, whether that sugar is going to be stored as fat or not (insulin is a fat storing hormone). Most of the time when your blood sugar is too low, you will start craving sugar and carbs, and you know what that means? Weight gain!

I bet you don’t know that you also have hormones that control your appetite! Yes! Appetite is controlled by hormones ghrelin (hunger hormone) & leptin (satiety hormone). When those hormones get out of balance, you may find yourself overeating. Your body thinks that you’re hungry and not satisfied … even if that’s not true.

Craving food (especially carbs and sugary ones) and not feeling full are going to be massive drives for you to eat more. Even if your body doesn’t truly need it, the hormonal signals tell you that you do.

Don’t forget about the stress hormone cortisol.

Unfortunately, nowadays we are in stress all the time. Modern stressors are everywhere like driving, sitting in the traffic, etc. Because of that, too much cortisol floats in the body causing your body to store visceral fat (around your internal organs), which often appears as excess belly fat. Cortisol also governs our hunger cravings, which essentially will spike our insulin level out of control. When you stress out your insulin will spike – the second you are stressed insulin spikes out of control, and it tells the body store fat, store fat. Automatically while we stressed we have more cravings and eat more, which causes more fat storage store. Then the next thing you know you have a muffin top because you can’t stop eating. Cortisol in excess will also compete with the sex hormones- progesterone, which is needed to keep us calm and for estrogen balance. The more estrogen your body produces, the more fat you pack, the more fat you have, the more estrogen is being produced. It is a vicious cycle.
What can I do to get my hormones in balance?

As you have found out by now, your body is very complex, and hormones control a large number of body functions. They control your metabolism, appetite, weight and blood sugar, amongst others. And these directly affect how much energy you feel, how much you weigh, and even where your body fat is stored.

Here are a few tips for hormonal balance that might help you with controlling your weight and having more energy:

● Eat plenty of cruciferous vegetables- they help excrete too much estrogen
● Optimize the work of your liver; this will help you clear metabolized hormones
● Exercise will help you use excess blood sugar before your insulin has your body store it as fat
● Eat more fiber, which will assist you with estrogen excretion
● Meditation, deep breathing, hiking, will reduce your stress and cortisol.
● Eat more iodine-containing food, like fish, sea vegetables to support your thyroid
● Exchange your cup of Joe for herbal tea or Match tea. Believe it or not, they will help you reduce cortisol and have more steady energy during the day
● Balance your blood sugar with eating breakfast containing protein, fat, and fiber
● Reduce blood sugar spikes by adding fat and protein to your smoothies

In Health,

Angie