Do you need to regulate your hormones to lose fat?
When it comes to losing weight and getting healthy, there never seems to be a shortage of diet and fitness crazes claiming to hold the secret to easy, sustainable weight loss.
Some of the most recent diet crazes include the ketogenic diet (low carbohydrate, high fat), the carnivore diet (only eating meat and other animal products), and intermittent fasting (eating only within a strict timeframe, or on certain days).
What is the hormone diet?
Another diet that’s come into the spotlight is the hormone diet, which claims that the reason people struggle to lose weight is because their hormones aren’t working properly.
Numerous books have been written about this topic, which claims people can experience quick and significant weight loss by using diet and exercise to manipulate or “reset” their hormones. The main idea is that the key to losing weight is by correcting hormonal imbalances in the body, which is total BS.
Female hormones are different to male hormones. When it comes to weight loss females generally find it harder to lose weight and typically don’t see progress as quickly as males do for a number of reasons. Although progress may be slower the same principle of a calorie deficit still applies and has to be adhered to.
Hormones play an important role in our body’s everyday processes, from digesting food, helping bones and muscle grow, sleep, stress, metabolism. They’re transported around the body through the bloodstream which instruct cells to perform specific jobs. If your body is not producing these hormones in regulated amounts then you most likely have an underlying health condition which isn’t related to diet alone.
Insulin for example is essential for regulating metabolic processes and allows the body to store the carbohydrates from food as energy in our muscle cells. When we eat, it causes blood sugar levels to rise, which results in the pancreas releasing insulin into the bloodstream. The insulin then attaches itself to cells and signals them to absorb sugar from the bloodstream and store it for later use.
Insulin is thought to play a key role in weight gain, but research shows that total calorie intake is actually the primary factor in gaining or losing weight. If you exercise regularly and eat a healthy balanced diet then your insulin levels will be fine. Unless you have diabetes then insulin is not contributing to your weight gain.
One book called The Hormone Diet claims the diet will help people lose weight, gain strength, and feel younger. The first steps focus on changing nutritional habits. The next concentrates on exercise. Then they remove foods such as alcohol, caffeine, sugar, red meat, cow’s milk and milk byproducts from their diet, while eating more fruits and vegetables, poultry, fish, eggs etc. The last step readers must then cut out processed foods, artificial sweeteners and refined grains. Step three involves an increase in cardiovascular and strength exercises.
What does all this do? It creates a calorie deficit.
So, does The Hormone Diet provide good nutritional advice?
Generally, the hormone diet recommended in this book is not bad nutritional advice. However, the key here is that any potential weight loss will probably be from the change in calorie intake, rather than an effect on your hormones.
Despite what advocates of the hormone diet might claim, hormonal imbalances are usually the result of a more serious underlying health condition, such as diabetes (impaired insulin function) or hyperthyroidism (where the thyroid produces too many thyroid hormones), which couldn’t simply be fixed through diet alone, and would require medical treatment.
My final thought…
Fat loss can only be achieved by creating a calorie deficit, which simply means that you must burn more calories than you consume. Similarly, this is why many people have success with intermittent fasting, as it typically results in the consumption of less food and therefore fewer calories. This is why many people have success when using a personal trainer. Increasing the right type of exercise without increasing calorie consumption typically results in weight loss.
For more advice on nutritional advice please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
