When it comes to weight lose we get all hung up about the calories or what the new fad diet is that is revolutionary for weight lose. But in all honesty weight never had to do with calories and we have only made things more complicated when it comes to losing weight. It is possible that your weight issues comes down to one thing and one thing only, a hormone issue.
One key hormone is insulin, a hormone responsible for regulating and storing your sugar in your body. The receptors for insulin can over time become insulin resistant. Insulin resistance can contribute to weight gain especially central obesity and visceral fat. Over time insulin and insulin resistance can become an block in your attempt to lose weight in the long wrong. This may be the key to your inability to lose weight, not the amount of calories you are consuming. And insulin resistance goes back to determining what we are doing to spike these levels to begin with…. what are you eating?
Things such as over eating, eating process foods (that contain simple carbs and sugars) can spike our insulin levels and have us go into a viscous cycle of insulin resistance.
Another hormone that can contribute to weight gain is leptin. Now leptin is a hormone that is produced in our fat cells and tells our body to suppress our appetite, giving us that “full” feeling. And yes, overtime we can also develop a leptin resistance as well. This happens when leptin levels increase and the signal pathway to the brain gets disrupted, thus interrupting the receiving signals from leptin to tell us “hey, you’re full!”.
Now how do we reverse insulin resistance and leptin resistance? One simple option is fasting. The reason we say this is because all foods, healthy or non-healthy, do raise insulin levels and all foods can potentially raise leptin levels. The one true way to bring down insulin levels, decrease insulin resistance and decrease leptin resistance is by fasting in a controlled and safe manner.
Not only does fasting help reduce insulin and leptin levels it also helps increase our metabolism levels and increase human growth hormones which not only helps people lose weight, but helps them keep the weight off. So the next time you want to try and count calories to lose weight consider a possible fast instead. Daily intermittent fasting is a great option as well.
Just remember, fasting should only be done if you are otherwise healthy. And it’s always best to be done under the guidance of a healthcare provider.
Naturopathic medicine in San Diego is a distinct system of medicine that skillfully combines natural therapeutic traditions with modern science to restore and optimize health. For more information how hormones and your weight goals or to schedule an appointment with a Naturopathic doctor in San Diego, please call NaturopathicRX at (858) 914-3444.