If you’re someone who’s interested in experiencing fast rates of weight loss, chances are high you’re paying particular attention to each morsel of fat burning food that passes your lips as well as each flat belly exercise that you do during your time at the gym.
You’ve got your diet and workout program nailed down pat and are now just sitting back and waiting for the results to take place.
But, in all this focus on those two elements, have you forgotten a third element that will impact your success?
The third element we’re referring to here is your hormones and these hormones can have a significant influence on the results you see.
Let’s have a look at a few important things to know.
Leptin And Ghrelin
The two biggest hormones that you need to be aware of as they directly related to weight gain or weight loss are leptin and ghrelin. These two hormones are going to work in combination together, monitoring what your current body fat level is and how many calories you’re consuming on a daily basis.
When something is significantly off normal – such as when you start up on a low calorie diet plan, these two hormones start to go on ‘high alert’, signalling to the brain that there’s a miss-match in energy coming in versus energy coming out.
When this occurs, these hormones are going to do everything in their power to stop your weight loss antics because to them, you’re starving.
They don’t realize you just want to fit into your skinny jeans, they think a famine is at play and are out to save you from a tragic ending.
What’s going to happen is Leptin levels will begin to drop while Ghrelin levels begin to rise. This combination is going to cause extreme hunger pains to set in, it’s going to cause you to feel very fatigued and lethargic, and it’s basically going to make following your diet seem like mission impossible.
When these two hormones are working against you, you will be fighting an uphill battle.
Cortisol
The next hormone that’s important to know as it relates to weight loss is cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone and is secreted in your body during times of high stress, dieting being one of those times.
When cortisol levels are high on an ongoing basis, your body will actually start to promote fat accumulation in the abdominal region, thus you may find yourself more prone to gaining excess belly fat.
In addition to this, high cortisol levels can signal your body to start burning up lean muscle mass as fuel, so that will further create problems you just don’t want taking place.
So what’s the solution to these two hormone issues?
The solution to outsmart them is to use a moderate diet plan (no crash diets allowed) and be sure on these diet plans that you take regular diet breaks where you eat a higher calorie intake again.
That will help to offset the hormonal patterns causing these problems and allow them to return to a more healthy and normal level.
Yes, weight loss may be slightly slower, but you can be sure the weight you do lose will stay off and that you will be enjoying the process rather than feeling miserable all day long.
