Hormone Hacking for Fat Burning!

8 ways to make your hormones work as your fat-burning furnace.

Women have an entourage of hormones that protect our bodies and help sustain our cyclical nature. Biologically speaking, females bodies are designed to sustain life on the planet and hold a certain amount of body fat to do so.  

I want to introduce you to the key (hormone) players in female fat loss.

Hormones that play a major roll in female fat loss are:

• Estrogen & Progesterone
• Insulin
• Ghrelin
• Leptin
• HGH
• Cortisol 

 If you’ve ever tried to drop weight when your hormones are wacky then you know what an impossible battle that can feel like. I’m going to share my top tips to balance these key fat burning hormones and have them working smoothly to your metabolic advantage in female fat loss.

Here are the top activities that you should implement to make these fat burning hormones your BFF’s!

I suggest you choose one or two and focus on doing those daily, build from there.

Hormone Hacking for Fat Burning

Easy activities to boost & balance your fat burning hormones:

1. Lower cortisol with a 10 min meditation daily. Cortisol is a hormone that raises in response to stress. It will rapidly pack on face and belly fat at an alarming rate. We must learn effective ways to stress less. I was recently turned onto an app called “headspace”. I highly recommend adding this to your daily routine.

• • Meditation works to rewire stressful pathways in the brain. However, any restorative activity like yoga or a leisurely walk will aid in lowering cortisol.

2. Increase Fat Blasting Hormones with The Right Type of Workout. Implementing strength-training and HIIT (high-intensity interval training) can help lower cortisol over time, as well as increase testosterone and HGH if implemented with a balance to your weekly routine.

• • Exercise also releases endorphins that improve your mood! Start slowly, if you must, something is always better than nothing.

3. Improve your insulin sensitivity. Working toward Insulin sensitivity is vital to the body we crave because it prevents your body from storing excess fat. Insulin is an anabolic storage hormone that is produced by the pancreas and serves to regulate carbohydrate and fat storage in our bodies. When insulin levels are high, extra calories are stored as fat. In addition, insulin inhibits the release of glucagon, thus stopping the use of fat as an energy source. 

• • You can improve insulin sensitivity by simply increasing the soluble fiber in your diet. But also by getting enough sleep, drink green tea, add cinnamon to your diet, supplement magnesium, and implement intermittent fasting with a 16/8 window.

4. Improve Estrogen and Progesterone Balance and Detox Excess Estrogen With Cruciferous Veggies.  Go ahead and fill your plate with broccoli, cauliflower, arugula, kale, and brussel sprouts! Cruciferous veggies contain a phytochemical called DIM that helps the body detoxify excess estrogen. Excess estrogen can cause hormonal issues like PCOS & Endometriosis anxiety, depression, and of course weight gain. 

5. Balance Ghrelin by Eating Protein at each meal. Ghrelin is a hunger hormone produced by the stomach and pancreas, that causes you to feel hungry.

• • Studies show that Ghrelin can be dulled by the intake of protein at each meal. 

6. Balance Leptin to Lower Food Cravings!  Leptin is produced by the fat cell and it sends the ‘satiety signal’ when you’re satisfied. When you are craving food, it is an indication that you are not producing leptin. High-calorie foods, stress, and sleep deprivation tend to produce leptin resistance, causing your body not to feel full.

• • Get Leptin back under control by getting enough sleep, exercising, following an anti-inflammatory diet and supplementing ALA and high-quality fish oil can help regulate leptin levels. 

7. Increase Human Growth Hormone with Lifting and Sprinting!  HGH is a fat burning hormone that is produced in the pituitary gland, and as the name suggests, is a hormone that stimulates muscle tissue growth.

• • There is no better fat burner than our very own muscles! HGH is stimulated when you engage in intense short term exercise so let’s get after it! 

8. Protein may just be the cure for all fat adding evils, pull up a chair. Let’s take a look at 4 hormones you probably haven’t heard of that may be sabotaging your ability to drop the lbs you want.

• Neuropeptide Y (NPY): stimulates carb cravings and are elevated in times of stress (we want to lower this)
• Cholecystokinin: made in your gut, this hormone is shown to reduce food intake.
• Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1): keeps blood sugar stable and produces feelings of fullness, we want to increase this hormone.
• Peptide YY (PYY): another gut hormone that aids in controlling hunger, increasing this is vital to fat loss 

So how do we lower the NPY and raise the other three??? Fiber and protein my friend. Studies show that eating protein at each meal will aid in the production and a healthy balance of these fat burning hormones.

Hormone Hacking for Fat Burning

Which is easiest and hardest for you? 

Which one or two will you work on this week?

Comment below and let us know how!