Have you been feeling as though you’d like to lose a little weight as of late? Have you been trying to lose those extra few pounds and are finding results aren’t exactly easy to come by? If so, you aren’t alone. Statistics show that weight loss is something that roughly half of Americans claim to be trying to achieve at any given time. That’s a whole lot of people who are working to shed the extra pounds, just like you, and just like you many are wondering if there is any secret trick or method that can help speed up and better the results.
One area that is getting attention is hormone balance and its effect on weight loss. While it may not be that secret weapon you were hoping to find, there are some interesting benefits in making sure your hormones are balanced, with weight loss being one of them.
It Feels Like You Are Doing Everything “Right”
Many people who are trying to lose weight feel as though they are doing everything “right” and still not getting results. Perhaps they are eating a healthy diet, using portion control, and exercising yet the results just aren’t happening. Here’s the thing; you also need to have your hormones in balance – specifically insulin, thyroid, cortisol, testosterone, and estrogen. If even one of those hormones is out of whack, then there is a high chance you are going to struggle with weight loss.
As for the most common offender, that would be cortisol. For those who have an elevated level of cortisol, it can be extra hard to lose weight especially in the belly region. Even if your other hormones are balanced, high cortisol levels will take over. Cortisol plays a factor in sleep patterns, sugar cravings, stress, and more. When you are fighting all these factors it’s hard to have success on the scales.
Get Your Hormone Levels Checked
So how can you tell if your hormone levels aren’t balanced? The best step is to speak to your doctor about your concerns. Your doctor will ask about any symptoms you are experiencing, your weight loss/gain history, your stress levels, and more. From there the doctor can order diagnostic testing to get a closer look at what is going on.
Balancing Your Hormone Levels Naturally
The good news is that you can take natural measures to balance your hormones and get some pretty significant results. Some of these tips are things you may already be doing, and you just need to add a few more into the mix in order to get results.
- Make sure you are exercising on a regular basis. Exercise works to increase your insulin sensitivity and then decrease your insulin levels. It can also give a boost to your testosterone, which is the hormone associated with muscle-maintenance.
- Protein should be a part of your daily diet in order to keep your skin, bones, and muscles healthy and strong.
- Cut back on the refined carbs and sugar that will only add extra pounds and don’t provide any nutritional benefit.
- Get your stress in check. Stress can elevate hormones, your heart rate, blood pressure, and cause a person to eat more than normal.
Consider taking natural supplements and herbs to help balance your hormones. One great example is fenugreek, which is a plant that the seeds are taken from and used as a spice. What’s really interesting is besides its incredible taste, fenugreek has also been shown to help people regulate their appetite and thereby help to lose weight.
Vitamonk has published an in-depth and very interesting blog on the benefits of fenugreek, and its effects on your health, which can be found here https://www.vitamonk.com/blogs/health/fenugreek-extract-testosterone. The blog post takes a look at how it boosts testosterone, which can then lead to better sleep patterns, help give you that boost you need to take exercising to the next level, and thereby aid in weight loss.
Sometimes It Takes a Different Approach
Weight loss is very rarely simple. Achieving your goals takes hard work, time, and knowledge on your part. You need to know what will give you the best and most lasting results, and hormone balancing should certainly be high on the list of priorities.
A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.