Not tapping into your fat stores? Stuck at a plateau that won’t budge? Putting on belly fat suddenly yet you’ve tried every diet and training program out there?
These are some of the frustrations I hear from my clients and I always tell them, “That’s an insulin issue, that’s a cortisol issue, that’s a thyroid issue.”
Sometimes I can just read their bodies like a map and I know which hormone is holding them back because hormones, like nutrient deficiencies present with very obvious symptoms if you know what you’re looking for.
So I thought “here’s something I can do for my readers. Give them a toolbox of understanding with hormones so they can see what’s holding them back from achieving diet, lean muscle gains, and fat loss.”
And that’s what I’m going to do today. Think of this as a Hormones: 101, a senior seminar kind of course with an eye toward hormones and how they affect us in terms of body composition plateaus. Because hormones, especially insulin, thyroid, cortisol, and IGF-1 and GH are all the key players that make all the difference for achieving new heights of lean muscle gains and fat loss. When you understand which hormones are fighting you, you can balance them so you can achieve the lean, sculpted body you want and reach new heights of weight loss success.
Hormones and Body Composition:
Mark Hyman’s book The Blood Sugar solution helped draw the world’s attention to a problem that us fitness trainers have been studying for a long time.
You have to understand that a professional coach who is obsessed with achieving The Perfect Body is like the one perfectionistic med student in the class that reads everything on the recommended reading lists and then some.
We read. We study how to get that body.
We study insulin, cortisol, anabolism, catabolism. And these aren’t easy concepts. You have to know chemistry, physiology, biochemistry.
Then we get so fascinated once we see how this in depth understanding of hormones, insulin, and cortisol, for example, help us to tap into our fat stores and literally melt fat off the body while retaining lean muscle mass, that we literally become obsessed with endocrinology.
So let me tell you what I’ve learned in my study of hormones and how to manipulate these to achieve the body you want.
First though, let me give you some definitions.
What is a Hormone Anyway?
Hormones act as chemical messengers in the body that tell other chemicals and bodily processes to do certain things. For example, insulin. Insulin is a hormone that whisks in when we eat to transport things by telling things where to go. It lowers blood sugar by telling cells to “open up” and absorb glucose and shuttles excess glucose where it needs to go by saying “hey, you go over there to the muscles,” “and you, there, you’re going to be excreted as waste.”
Hormones are produced by glands in the body—like the pituitary, which sits at the help of the HPA axis, which is like the “hub” that controls most of our hormonal function in the body.
This hub acts as the chief messenger of the collective hormone system known as our “endocrine system.”
Insulin and Muscle Building
Insulin is actually a protein, and it is produced and released by the pancreas whenever you eat carbs, protein, or both.
Like all other proteins, insulin is a chain of amino acids but because it’s a hormone, it behaves more like a “signaling hormone” than a building block like proteins do.
When insulin enters the bloodstream when we eat, it virtually “signals” or tells the muscle cells to open up and allow glucose and amino acids in to nourish and fuel them, giving them nourishing foods, glucose and protein (amino acids).
This is why physique athletes rarely go all the way full on paleo or keto, especially on contest days. They want those carbs fueling muscle. Insulin also helps increase protein synthesis in the muscles, which is the building of muscles out of the proteins we eat that are broken down into amino acids.
Insulin also protects muscle from catabolism (breaking down).
A physique athlete will also tell you they like carbs on contest days for another reason, insulin helps relax and dilate the blood vessels and increase blood flow to them, giving the muscles bulk and mass.
Insulin and Fat Storage
Insulin is one of the most important hormones you need to understand if you want to tap into your fat stores and lose weight. If you’re spiking insulin all day and before bed how is your body ever going to dip down into your fat stores and burn that for fuel?
You only dip down into your fat stores, when insulin is not present in the blood and whenever you eat anything besides FAT, you spike insulin. Even lean proteins will spike insulin, especially when you snack on them all day or consume over 4 ounces of lean protein at a time.
As Jim Stoppani, a professional bodybuilder notes, insulin’s release from the pancreas signals the body that it has just been fed. Since the body is always trying to spare energy, it halts the body’s burning of stored fat, instead turning to the nutrients that have just been ingested. Meanwhile, insulin also works on fat cells similar to how it works on muscle cells, signaling the gates to open and nutrient storage to commence.
An increase in the uptake of glucose and fats causes the body to store more body fat. More fat is stored, less is burned—you can see how spiking insulin levels throughout the day would lead to fat gain over time.
That’s why bodybuilders will tell you never snack between meals. Let that insulin quiet down between meals and while you sleep. It’s better to eat healthily twice a day and full on fast in between without any sugary beverages in between either. Everything we eat EXCEPT fat will spike insulin.
So, if you’re drinking lattés all day—even if you’re eating salad, you’re running on glucose (sugar). Not fat. You’re not even burning fat. Your body will catabolize muscle if it’s running on sugar. This is why fitness professionals believe in ketogenesis. We know that if we can suppress insulin, we can achieve new heights of fat burning.
Whenever you’re not eating, you’re not spiking glucose and, thus, insulin.
This is also the whole idea behind IF – intermittent fasting. If you only eat twice a day, just look at all the times you can be in fat burning mode:
So what to do to manage insulin and get your best body?
Limit feedings. Do not snack—ever and drink only water or black tea or unsweetened tea between meals. The only sweetener I advocate because it doesn’t spike insulin at ALL is pure stevia leaf. Plus, many of those sweeteners are death for the brain and body. Also, get lots of healing delta wave sleep to help manage all the hormones.
And sleep. Fat burning happens when you sleep because that’s when the good hormones go to work like GH and IGF-1.
Cortisol
Cortisol is your stress hormone. It whisks in to rescue you from any kind of trauma, physical, mental, or emotional. It powers your fight or flight reaction and protects us from predators (and muggers), by giving us that surge of adrenaline we need when we have to run, fight, or flee. But cortisol kicks in with ANY kind of stress, even physical, which is why most fitness professionals work out 55 minutes or less. They know any time you push the body hard over an hour, you risk kicking in fat storage and muscle catabolism.
Like insulin, cortisol causes fat storage. Cortisol wants to give us a back up fuel source in case we have to hide out in a cave from a large beast, since our ancient signaling mechanisms cannot distinguish between “stress” and STRESS with a capital S.
So your body powers through its adrenaline stores, then begins catabolizing nutrient rich muscle and then, it encases the belly in fat, to protect the organs and layers on some more in case you run out of food and are really starving. As Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple, one of the health blogs I really admire because he really knows his stuff, notes “the cortisol is signaling the body to store fat. (The body thinks it will need it after all.) Specifically, the body directs fat storage in the abdomen, around the organs, where there are more receptors for cortisol and a greater supply of blood. A lot of research has been done on this in the last few years highlighting the contribution of stress to abdominal fat in particular.”
What to Do?
To manage cortisol, avoid too much stress of any kind and get LOTS of good, quality delta wave sleep to give your body time to fully recover from exercise and reset all hormones. Sleep is when we reset and repair.
And never work out when you haven’t slept for this reason. Your cortisol will already be elevated and you will only do harm.
Growth Hormone
Growth Hormone is that magic hormone we release when we sleep that does all those things we want by rewarding us for exercise and resistance training. Growth hormone burns fat and builds lean muscle by helping the body recover from exercise. For this reason, of course, bodybuilders love it and have been seeking ways to boost GH since the beginning of time.
The pituitary gland makes and secretes growth hormone (GH) during the cycles of delta wave sleep we enter before every single cycle of REM sleep. During a good 8 to 10 hours of sleep then, you will experience 4 to 5 phases of good delta wave-GH release phases and during every one of these, you’ll burn more fat and build more supple, lean muscle mass.
This is why any doctor will tell you that unless you ate a lot right before bed, like a big birthday cake that will spike insulin all night and, thus, make fat burning impossible, you should wake up in the morning lighter than the day you did before (at least an ounce or two).
Once GH enters the bloodstream it positively affects metabolic functions, speeds the metabolism, positively impacts glycogen production and protein synthesis, burns fat, and helps repair the small tears in muscles that happen during exercise that we call MUSCLE BUILDING.
One way GH accomplishes all this is by triggering the release of another hormone IGF-1. During these phases of delta wave sleep, GH is responsible for fat burning, while IGF-1 builds the lean muscle mass.
This is why any and all supplements that boost IGF-1 even synthetic IGF-1 itself, are popular with Dr’s who promote HRT (hormonal replacement therapy)
Testosterone
Testosterone, what every gym-goer everywhere thinks is the magic hormone of muscle building, yes, it is the masculine hormone. It gives men their “male” characteristics and fertility. But it’s really IGF-1 and GH that keep us lean and muscular.
Testosterone has all kinds of important functions like regulating libido, energy, bone health, immune function and muscular development.
In women, testosterone helps give you your energy and in women with adrenal fatigue, stimulating testosterone often helps them to finally get off the couch and get some of their “happy back.” Think of what low T does to men—causes fatigue and depression. It does the same thing in men.
So yes, we like to hold on to our testosterone for as long as possible. But we cannot, guys. But the good thing is that we can still stimulate GH and IGF-1 through sleep and exercise for maximum muscle gains.
Estrogen
Like testosterone, estrogen is the “female” dominant hormones.
Today, chances are we are all a little estrogen dominant today because xenoestrogens lurk everywhere in the environment – in cosmetics, pesticides, aerosol products, and plastics.
Unfortunately, in men, estrogen dominance can lead to adipose tissue gains and “man boobs.”
For more on estrogen, estrogen dominance, and how to balance estrogen, I just wrote two mammoth guides on it for you. So, see my in depth guides on what estrogen dominance is and how to get rid of it, here and here.
Is it Your Thyroid?
Sometimes sudden changes in weight can signal an underactive or overactive thyroid. They thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland that sits at the front of the throat. The thyroid produces several hormones, chiefly T3 and T4 and an inactive form of thyroid hormone.
Since the thyroid is directly in charge of our metabolism, in fact both our fat and carbohydrate metabolism, a thyroid disorder will result in an either overactive metabolism (in hyperthyroidism – producing too much thyroid hormone) or a very sluggish metabolism (hypothyroidism).
Thyroid Hormone
The first sign of issues with thyroid function typically occur around the late 20s to early 30s. So often, people blame low thyroid function on simply growing older and continue to do this for some time. Until they gain enough weight and try to lose it and cannot, no matter what they do, then they typically get frustrated enough to go to the doctor. It’s either the weight gain or persistent fatigue that typically send them, finally, to an endocrinologist where they can get diagnosed.
Symptoms of Hypothyroidism
It is estimated that some 10 million people suffer with low thyroid function and many do not know it. As many as 10% of all women may have hypothyroidism.
My idea is to go get your thyroid checked and for everyone to have had a hormone panel by the age of 35, just to see how things are going, and then to get one every four to five years after that.
Symptoms of hypothyroidism include:
Hypothyroidism is completely treatable, as is a fast functioning thyroid. So get your thyroid checked so you can get your body back! It’s an easy test. You only have to go one time (unlike testing for cortisol, which is complicated). And once you do, you’ll be able to lose weight again. Imagine the relief if you’ve been battling this for years and not knowing it.
For a highly reliable source on hyperthyroid, hypothyroid, Grave’s and Hashimoto’s disease, I recommend Endocrine Web.
Hyperthyroidism
Hyperthyroidism is typically caused by Grave’s disease, a condition in which the body produces too much thyroid hormone because of an autoimmune disorder that causes the body to create an antibody called thyroid-stimulating immunoglobulin (TSI) that causes too much T3 and T4 to be produced. Graves’ disease is more common in women and is genetic.
Where hypothyroidism causes sluggishness, exhaustion, a slow metabolism, and weight gain, hyperthyroidism does just the opposite. Hyperthyroidism causes a fat metabolism, nervousness, a fast heartbeat, insomnia, and sudden weigth loss.
Hyperthyroidism may also be caused by a nodule on the thyroid.
Symptoms of Hyperthyroidism
Hyperthyroidism is EASILY treated. Again, see an endocrinologist who can diagnose the problem and prescribe surgery or an anti-thyroid medication if necessary.
How to Optimize ALL Hormones for Maximum Gains and Losses
Although you do need medication to treat hypo or hyperthyroidism, all the other hormone imbalances I’ve discussed today can be treated holistically. I have found that for hormone balance and management, two things are crucial above all things for both men and women. Sleep and stress management. Once you get the sleep right and start practicing stress management techniques, you’ll be amazed that you finally bust past plateaus.
Everyone is stuck in this “be all you can be” mindset – this thinking that you can outsmart the clock, beat sleep, get up at four or five a.m. and hit the gym when you think you’ll access some peak energy level and the time in the gym will seem to blow by because you’ll be in a daze of exhaustion and not even notice you worked out. I know. I used to try this myself.
But it doesn’t work. The body WANTS sleep and it will take what it wants from the body when you don’t give it to you in other ways.
I think of the body and hormones this way. Have you heard what happens to pregnant women that don’t eat? The baby takes what it wants from the mother’s muscle, hair, teeth, fingernails instead. The body begins to wither and the baby thrives inside by living off the mother’s fat stores and calcium deposits.
If you don’t sleep and manage stress the body will fight you through its chemical messengers, the hormones, which will go to work, spreading the word throughout the body, “Hey, this guy isn’t sleeping again. Stop burning fat. He might need it later!”
My best sleep better and decrease stress tips?
A quiet, dark, and cool environment can help promote sound slumber. Why do you think bats congregate in caves for their daytime sleep? To achieve such an environment, lower the volume of outside noise with earplugs or a “white noise” appliance. Use heavy curtains, blackout shades, or an eye mask to block light, a powerful cue that tells the brain that it’s time to wake up. Keep the temperature comfortably cool—between 60 and 75°F—and the room well ventilated. And make sure your bedroom is equipped with a comfortable mattress and pillows. (Remember that most mattresses wear out after ten years.)