Thursday, October 8, 2015

Hormones and Fat Loss Part One!

Hello Everyone!

I've been reading a lot lately about hormones and how they are directly related to fat loss or any fitness related goal.

With a clear understanding how your hormones work inside of you, you will have a better grasp how to utilize them to your advantage. These hormones I will blog about in then next couple instalments all affect your mental, physical, social and emotional well being; with having such a huge impact on your life, it might be a good idea to know the 101 when it comes to hormones.

This week I want to focus on a hormone named Leptin. Since this name is derived from the greek word leptos meaning "thin" I think it is appropriate to use a good looking body photo for the cover of this blog.


And don't worry I won't discriminate, here is another one.




Now that we are done drooling over these fitness model's bodies, lets talk about leptin.

This one hormone in particular is very interesting, it plays a huge role in dropping the lbs when dieting. Since fitness models' job is to look lean for photo shoots they might not know but, when they go into their "cutting" phase, leptin is responsible for their bodies when achieving that lean chiselled look. But at the same time your body is smarter than you and will stop the process quick enough at a certain point, which is when you get frustrated with your fat loss and it hits a wall.

Does this sound familiar?

An example of this is when you see someone or yourself maybe drop pounds within days or weeks then hits a stand still. This is because of this little hormone in your body.

Leptin is responsible for regulating your metabolism along with other hormones such as your T3 and T4 (think thyroid for this one) When leptin reaches high levels your production of T3 and T4 will also go up. This process allows you to burn fat at a fast rate; but then when leptin levels drop, the other hormones drop as well.

Here is where the storm hits.... Leptin is produced in fat cells, which makes sense when you see the biggest loser constants loose 30lbs in one week. It's because they have a lot of fat, and a lot of leptin to help them melt that fat.

But, leptin is directly related to calories. When you eat less calories your leptin levels drop....Which causes your progress to a complete stop. Which also makes sense in the biggest loser example, as they go on, its more difficult for them to loose weight.

Now you're probably thinking....... I need to eat less to burn fat, but eating less destroys my ability to produce leptin, and leptin burns fat.... Makes no sense and its a giant circle of crap.

Well, shit what do I do now?


I will tell you. Things like:

  • hitting the weights at least 2x a week in the gym 
  • planned cheat days
  • high protein intake
  • low intake of fructose
  • and only dropping your calories to no more than 500 calories per week.
All of these any other strategies allow you to regulate and maintain optimal leptin levels for optimal fat loss.

Wow, who knew that hormones played such a huge role when it comes to fat loss?

Let me know if you have any questions!


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