Weight Loss Portland: How Your Hormones Affect Weight Loss

28 July 2011, admin on the topic of 'Age Beautifully' Tips, Doctor's Corner, Weight Loss Portland, Weight Loss Program Portland

It seems too good to be true, but Thrive’s weight loss program not only promotes healthy, quick and sustainable weight loss, but also turns back the clock on aging and prevents disease. It sounds magical, but it really boils down to enabling your body chemistry to work with you instead of against you.

The key to the preventive and anti-aging effects of Thrive’s weight loss program is a focus on reducing and controlling the influence of several hormones that our bodies naturally produce. One of the most important is Insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas after consuming carbohydrates, which are mostly found in grains, starchy vegetables, fruits, sugars, and legumes. Insulin is needed to ensure we have proper levels of glucose (sugar) in our blood so our body has fuel for crucial functions. However, when insulin levels increase dramatically, it shifts the body into a “storage mode” and promotes the deposition of fat into fat cells. Insulin is quickly being shown in studies to be a major player in all types of diseases.

Think about this… In the early 1900’s, the average American ate a few pounds of sugar a year. Now, the average American eats well over a hundred pounds of sugar a year. This dramatic increase is undoubtedly connected to a surge in the United States of many diseases including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Insulin also has a negative effect on the aging process, increasing the production of free radicals which damages our cells and leads to premature aging and wrinkles.

Insulin also increases cholesterol production, and makes the kidneys retain fluid, causing water retention and potentially contributing to high blood pressure. Insulin turns down the little engines in our cells called mitochondria. These are the energy centers which make our cells metabolically active and produce energy. Insulin also promotes the formation of PRO-inflammatory chemicals… and, simply put, these are chemicals that break down our bodies. Insulin also causes our blood to be sticky and not flow as well as it should, thus decreasing the body’s ability to optimally deliver oxygen to our cells.

Lastly, eating sugar and producing a large surge of insulin often causes a reactive surge in a hormone called Cortisol, which slows your metabolism and breaks down both muscle and bone. Cortisol is our stress hormone and an increased cortisol level accelerates the aging process.

In order to maintain balance in the body, a few other hormones counteract insulin. Promoting higher levels of these can have very beneficial effects. Glucagon is a hormone also produced by the pancreas, and is the yin to the yang of insulin. Glucagon raises low blood sugar and shifts the body’s metabolism into a fat burning mode, converting fat to glucose and stimulating the release of fat from our fat stores to use as fuel. It helps decrease cholesterol levels and shed excess water weight. It promotes anti- inflammatory chemicals, increases cellular metabolism, increases endurance, improves blood flow, preserves muscle mass, decreases pain, and helps regulate the immune system. Another hormone called Growth Hormone increases at night when insulin decreases and plays a large part in maintaining muscle mass and healing the body. Its ability to repair cells can enhance anti-aging properties in the body.

In summary, at Thrive we don’t just put people on a “diet,” we strive to compose a food plan with adequate protein, healthy fats, and minimal carbohydrates in order to reduce insulin, normalize cortisol, and enhance the production of your glucagon and growth hormones. The result: effective weight loss while looking and feeling great!

Call us today at 503-241-3579 to ask us about our weight loss program. We are happy to answer your questions or help schedule your first consultation.