Good Nutrition Balances Weight Loss Hormones

The devastating effects of unbalanced hormones on a body are well-known by more women than men. But both genders need to pay attention to hormones when they are striving to achieve healthy weight loss. If you are struggling to lose fat even though you think you're eating right, your hormones might be so far off that healthy diets don't work like they should.

Weight loss hormones are the group of chemicals in the body that influence weight gain, weight loss, and appetite. Leptin is one that might be familiar to people who have learned about good nutrition. It is secreted from a type of tissue that was assumed to be harmless. This tissue is called adipose fat tissue, and scientists now know that it is the extra fat that can sabotage your diet food choices.

Fat tissue secretes the leptin, which binds to the hypothalamus (the central control system of appetite). When leptin levels are high enough, the hypothalamus lets the brain know to stop eating because enough food has been consumed. Leptin is basically responsible for switching off appetite and setting the stage for calories to be burned.

This healthy eating system is meant to keep us eating right on schedule and never overeat. However, the system doesn't always do the job it's supposed to. That happens when people eat more unhealthy snacks than healthy meals and their hormones eventually get thrown out of whack. A person who carries extra fat has a tendency to develop insulin resistance. This condition causes extra insulin production since more is needed to clear sugar from the bloodstream. High insulin levels block leptin signals from being received by the brain. The result is that a person never feels satisfied because their appetite doesn't shut off. An unhealthy cycle begins that looks like this: eat unnecessary calories, develop fat tissue, use more insulin, disrupt leptin signals, eat unnecessary calories... and on and on. Healthy meals and diet food don't matter as much when extra calories are being consumed.

If you ignore the first signal that tells you to stop eating, there are more hormones involved in the process that might give you a second chance. Ghrelin is secreted when the stomach is empty. It notifies the brain that it is time to eat. Cholecystokinin works as an appetite suppressant when the stomach starts stretching as food enters. Peptide YY is stimulated by food moving into the intestines, and it tells the brain to stop eating.

Every weight loss hormone is important in the process of controlling appetite. Each one must work properly in order for weight and feelings of hunger to stay at appropriate levels. In fact, if just two of these hormones stop working efficiently, the whole system breaks down and hormones won't be able to tell the brain how to eat healthy anymore. These two ultra-important hormones are insulin and leptin.

Fortunately, we know what usually causes leptin and insulin failure. A high-sugar diet changes the way leptin works and produces unsafe levels of insulin. So too much sugar essentially turns off appetite control and makes it almost impossible to stick to healthy eating plans. The remedy to this problem is to start following a high-protein low-sugar diet plan. Focusing on this type of good nutrition will give your hormones a chance to start working efficiently again. And making a lifestyle change with healthy diets like this will give you the ability to start achieving healthy weight loss again.