When most people think of hormones, their thoughts might go to estrogen, testosterone, and maybe even progesterone. They consider how these hormones affect a woman’s monthly cycles, moods, and even her skin health or how they impact a man’s libido. But most people don’t realize that these chemical messengers also help to regulate so many critical functions in the body.
These messages tell cells when to grow or shrink and when to get rid of waste products, when to store energy, including fat, and more. Insulin is a hormone that is secreted by a pancreas gland located behind your stomach. It helps regulate blood glucose levels by allowing sugar into cells while keeping fat out of them. If you eat too much sugar or carbs your insulin spikes, causing blood sugar levels to drop rapidly causing hunger cravings which leads people back to eating too much. Here are some ways to help you manage your hormones to aid in weight loss.
Eat Foods That Help Your Body Balance Hormones Naturally
If you’re trying to lose weight, consider eating more avocados, flaxseed, chia, and walnuts. Avocados are rich in fats called monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs). They have been shown to lower LDL cholesterol while raising HDL cholesterol levels and reducing inflammation. Flaxseed, chia seeds and walnuts contain plant estrogen called lignans that help balance estrogen levels in the body.
Get Enough Quality Sleep
You may not know this, but getting enough sleep is one of the most important things you can do to help manage your weight. Sleep helps regulate hormones, which play a huge role in weight gain. If you’re not sleeping well, it throws off your body’s ability to regulate hormones like insulin and cortisol—two major players in how our bodies store fat and break down food into energy. Without the proper balance of these hormones, we have trouble maintaining healthy blood sugar levels and regulating our hunger levels.
Don’t Snack After Dinner or Before Bed
When it comes to weight loss, snacking can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it helps you stay satisfied throughout the day and has been shown to lower your risk of obesity. But on the other hand, snacking leads to increased calorie intake overall—and if those calories aren’t coming from healthy sources like nuts or whole foods then you could end up sabotaging your efforts at weight loss. Make sure snacks are filling and that you try to avoid late-night snacks or snacks right before bed.
Check Your Insulin Levels
You might think that you can eat whatever you want as long as you exercise, but if your insulin is high, it won’t matter how much work you put in at the gym. It’ll be like trying to swim upstream and you’ll go nowhere with your goals. When you want to manage your hormone levels, test your insulin and get it under control. Insulin is a storage hormone that tells the cells of your body where to store energy from food. When someone has too much insulin in their bloodstream they become overweight or obese because their body stores more fat than normal. This can happen even when these individuals are not eating any more than other people with normal levels of insulin.
Use Intermittent Fasting to Control Insulin Better
Intermittent fasting is another great way to control your insulin levels. When you eat meals, your body releases insulin. Insulin helps us process the nutrients in our food and convert them into energy. But if you’ve had a lot of sugar or carbs, it can cause a spike in your blood glucose levels, which will make you feel tired and hungry again shortly after eating. Intermittent fasting is about eating the same number of calories during a smaller window of time to increase the amount of time you don’t raise insulin levels in your body.
It Improves Your Self Confidence
Managing your hormones helps to improve your mood, your skin health, and so much more. When you feel more confident, you are more likely to set goals and achieve them than if you don’t. One of the ways balancing your hormones can help is to help your skin look better. People who can look at themselves in the mirror and feel good about what they see act and operate more confidently. Using a hormonal acne supplement product can help improve your skin as well when you’re balancing your hormones.
Photo by Pablo Merchán Montes on Unsplash
