Jillian Michaels - Master your Metabolism

Hormones that impact bodyfat levels

Subcutaneous fat is not necessarily bad. It produces good hormones like leptin and adiponectin. It may improve your sensitivity to insulin and protect you from diabetes.

Visceral fat is the fat in your gut. It is “metabolically evil”. It slows metabolism, lowers growth hormone, raises cortisol, and creates insulin resistance.

1. Insulin. Comes from the pancreas. a. Function is to lower the concentration of glucose in your blood. Shortly after

you eat food, the sugars are released into the bloodstream. Within minutes, insulin surges and moves those sugars directly into the liver, where they are converted into glycogen for use by the muscles. It also turns glucose into fatty acids and moves them into fat cells for storage.

b. High levels of blood sugar stimulate insulin release; low levels suppress it. Maintaining low insulin levels - one of the primary goals of the diet - allows your body to more easily tap into your stored fat for fuel.

c. Exercise helps your muscle cells become more sensitive to insulin and more efficient at using glucose for fuel.

d. When you eat too many carbs, insulin increases dramatically to scoop all the sugar into your cells. This overefficient sugar removal doesn’t leave enough glucose in your bloodstream, so your blood sugar levels drop and you feel hungry again.

e. When muscles are still filled up from the last snack, the insulin puts the sugar straight into fat cells. As long as there are large amounts of insulin in your bloodstream, you don’t burn any fat either.

f. If you repeat this cycle enough, your pancreas will overcompensate and produce more insulin, which your cells with start to ignore - insulin resistance. Turned away at the door of the muscles, the sugar is left to roam about your blood. This is called impaired fasting glucose, which can lead to diabetes.

g. The more bodyfat you have, the more insulin is in your brain. Just as your bodies become insulin resistant, so can our brains.

2. Thyroid. a. Thyroid problems are very common. Thyroid hormones help control the

amount of oxygen each cell uses, the rate at which your body burns calories, your heart rate, overall growth, body temperature, digestion, memory and mood.

b. Your pituitary gland creates thyroid-stimulating hormone. The thyroid then uses iodine in your blood to turn it into thyroid hormones. The largest amount is T4, which is converted into T3 - the important one which boosts metabolism. The conversion is fickle and completely dependent on what else is going on in your body. Whether you’re sick, stressed, eating well, on medication - all of this will impact how efficiently this conversion happens, and therefore how much active T3 your body has.

c. If you’re not taking in enough calories, the pituitary gland stops producing TSH, therefore the thyroid doesn’t produce T4, which means less T3.

d. An underactive thyroid can make you gain weight. The most common cause is Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, a hereditary condition which is more common in women.

3. Estrogen and progesterone

a. Estrogen has a major impact on blood fats, digestive enzymes, water and salt balance, bone density, heart function and memory.

b. They are steroid hormones - which means your body creates them out of cholesterol. Our environment thrusts a tremendous amount of estrogen on our bodies in the form of environmental toxins from plastics or pesticides, food additives etc.

c. Estrogens can either bind with receptors on the outside of cells, like other hormones, or scoot directly to receptors in the nucleus, where the DNA is. These dual powers are part of what makes estrogen so influential.

d. Women make 2 main kinds of estrogen - estraadiol and estronel. e. Estradiol is produced by the ovaries. Estradoil is the estrogen of youth.

In proper levels it helps women’s bodies stay lean. It lowers insulin and blood pressures. Women with more estradiol tend to have higher levels of muscle and lower levels of fat. It does give women breasts and hips though.

f. Estrone is produced in our fat cells and adrenal glands. It has fewer positive things about it, but before we hit menopause, estrone is easily converted into estradiol. Afterwards, unfortunately it stays estrone. Estrone shifts fat from your hips to your belly. As you lose more of your ovarian estrogen, your body becomes desparate to hang on to other estrogen-making areas of the body, including fat, making it harder for you to lose that belly fat. The more fat you have, the more estrone you’ll produce, because fat tissue turns fat-burning androgens into fat-storing estrone.

g. Insulin increases circulating levels of estrogen, and estrone causes insulin resistance. Estrogen is 50-100 times higher in overweight post-menopausal women than in those who are thinner.

h. Progestrone comes from the ovaries where it is released when the follicle bursts. It plays a big part in protecting pregnancy and promoting breast feeding. It is also produced in the adrenals and serves as a precursor to cortisol, testosterone and estrogen. Progestrone helps to balance estrogen and can help manage some of the issues. When progesterone levels drops, that creates problems. They drop right before your period, which can trigger carb cravings. Progesterone also drops at menopause, even more dramatically than estrogen. Because progesterone is also the precursor for testosterone and stradiol, when your progesterone production falls off, you also start to lose the fat-burning effects of those metabolically positive hormones.

i. People used to think that women’s hormone balance problems stemmed from declining levels of estrogen. Increasingly, women in Western cultures tend to have too much estrogen rather than too little. Girls mature earlier, breast cancer rates have jumped. A large part of this hormonal disruptions comes from xenoestrogens in the environment 0 synthetic estrogens from ingredients in cosmetics, preservative in our food and the plastic wrappers.

j. Other factors that increase unhealthy levels of estrogen are stress, lack of quality fats or proteins, too many refined sugars.

k. It is now thought that menopausal symptoms are caused by a dip in progesterone, rather than a lack of estrogen.

l. Stress can also make this worse. Cortisol and progesterone compete for the same receptors in your cells - so when you overproduce cortisol, you threaten your healthy progesterone activity.

4. Testosterone and DHEAa. These are androgens. Boosting these hormones can help us increase our

energy and muscle. b. Testosterone boosts libido, keeps energy high, and preserves mental

function. Most of women’s’ testosterone and DHEA comes from their adrenals. DHEA is a precursor to testosterone (and estrogen in women) and

may help prevent breast cancer and osteoporosis, as well as helping us live longer.

c. Androgens are anabolic hormones - they build rather than destroy. Mostly, they build muscle. They are the forces of good in the metabolic war!

d. As we age, the levels of these hormones decrease. As people gain weight, their bodies start to convert more of the testosterone to estrogen. This estrogen then starts to overshadow the effects of the testosterone. More estrongen, more fat; more fat, more estrogen.

e. Artificially supplementing with these hormones can be dangerous. It can trick your body into thinking it has plenty, so it stops producing any of its own. Also, your body can convert the excess hormone back into estrogen, which worsens your problems with bodyfat. Don’t mess around with supplementation without medical assistance. You’re much better off optimizing your body’s natural production of androgens.

f. You can do that my protecting your adrenals and making sure you have enough good-quality fats and protein to build these steroids.

5. Norepinephrine, epinephrine and cortisola. These are our fight-or-flight hormones. They are produced in the adrenals. b. Norepinephrine restricts blood vessels, increasing blood pressure.c. Epinephrine increases heart rate and blood flow to muscles. d. The balance of these stress hormones depends on the situation. If you are

looking at a challenge you think you can handle, you release more norepinephrine. If you face a more difficult challenge, you release more epinephrine - the “anxiety hormone”. But when you’re overwhelmed, discouraged, and convinced you’re screwed, it’s cortisol - the hormone of defeat.

e. When you first become stressed, norepinephrine will tell your body to stop producing insulin so that you have plenty of fast-acting blood sugar ready. Epinephrine will relax the stomach muscles and intestines, and decrease blood flow to these organs. These two actions cause some of the high blood sugar levels and stomach problems associated with stress.

f. Once the stressor has passed, cortisol will tell your body to stop producing these hormones and to resume digestions. But cortisol continues to have a huge impact of your blood sugar, particularly on how your body uses fuel. It is a carabolic hormone which tells your body what fat, protein or carbohydrate to burn and when to burn them. Cortisol can either take your fat and more it to your muscle to be usedm or break down muscle and convert it into glycogen for more energy. Excess cortisol also deconstructs bone and skin, leading to osteoporosis, easy bruising and stretch marks.

g. The epinephrine (adrenaline) rush of acute stress suppresses appetite. Cortisol handing around after the event will stimulate it, particularly for high-fat, high-carb foods. It also lowers leptin levels and increases levels of neuropeptide Y (NPY), which also stimulates appetite. Once you eat, your body releases a cascade of rewarding brain chemicals that can sey up an addictive relationship between stress and food. Stress eaters who self-medicate with food tend to have hair-trigger epinephrine reactions and chronically high levels of cortisol.

h. When stress continues for a long time, cortisol levels remain high, and the body resists weight loss. Your body thinks times are hard and you might starve, so it hoards any food you eat and any fat already present in your body. Cortisol also turns adipoctes - young fat cells - into mature fat cells that stick with us forever.

i. Cortisol tends to take fat from healthier areas, like your hips, and move it to your abdomen, where cortisol has more receptors. This belly fat then leads

to more cortisol because it has higher concentrations of a specific enzyme that converts inactive cortisone to active cortisol. The more belly fat you have, the more active cortisol will be converted by these enzymes. Another viscious cycle.

j. Some people tend to overrespond, even to minor threats, because their stress feeback loops become stronger and stronger with each negative experience in their past. Chronic overstimulation of our adrenals is epidemic.

k. If you suspect you have high cortisol levels, limit your caffeine to 200mg a day, avoid simple carbs, processed foods and refined grains.

6. Growth hormonea. Sometimes called HGH, this is one of those hormones we all want more of.

It builds muscle, burns fat, and increases your overall health. Supplementation, however, is controversial and risky, and may cause insulin resistance.

b. It is produced in the pituitary gland. It increases muscle growth by helping your body to absorb amino acids and helps them be synthesised into muscle, and then prevents the muscle from breaking down. Fat cells have growth hormone receptors which trigger them to break down. HGH also discourages your fat cells from absorbing or holding onto any fat in your bloodstream. HGH also counters insulin’s ability to shuttle glucose into cells, nudging it into the liver instead. Unfortunately, this is one of the reasons that supplementation is dangerous and can lead to insulin resistance.

c. HGH is released in an average of 5 pulses per day. The largest of these pulses happens during our deepest stage 4 sleep, about 1 hour after we first drop off. When people are deprived of this stage of sleep, their HGH levels fell by 23%.

d. Another way we suppress our HGH levels is by eating too many low-quality carbs which keep our insulin levels high. Protein can help release higher levels of HGH. Pesticides and other contaminants can also interfere.

e. Intense exercise increases HGH. Especially during intervals. HGH encourages the body to use fat as its fuel. Not only does this burn more fat while you exercise, but it also keeps your blood sugar levels steady.

7. Leptina. Fat is actually an enormous endocrine gland, actively producing and reacting

to hormones. Leptin is produced in fat cells. It works with other hormones - thyroid, cortisol and insulin - to help your body figure out how hungry it is, how fast it will burn off the food you eat, and whether you will hang on to fat.

b. You have leptin receptors scattered everywhere, but your brain is where the hormone is most active. Leptin acts on the hypothalymus, where appetite is regulated, and bonds with receptors there. These receptors control the production of neuropeptides that control appetite.

c. Neuropeptide Y is the most well known of these. This turns on the appetite and turns down metabolic rate. Leptin turns off NPY and switches on appetite suppressing signals so the body sotps being hungry and starts burning more calories.

d. Leptin also helps the body tap into longer-term fat stores and reduce them. e. When leptin signalling doesn’t work, you keep eating because you never feel

like you’ve had enough food. f. Leptin surges after eating and also overnight while you sleep. This leptin

surge boosts your levels of thyroid stimulating hormone, which helps the thyroid release thyroxine

g. Leptin can go wrong in several ways. Many people who are overweight actually have high levels of leptin. The more fat you have, the more leptin you produce, and the receptors for leptin start to get worn out and no longer recognize it. People will leptin resistance have high levels of leptin but their

receptors never accept it, meaning NPY never gets shut off, so they remain hungry. If you lose a bit of weight, you body will start to become more sensitive to leptin,

8. Ghrelina. Leptin tells the brain to turn off hunger - ghrelin tells the brain you’re

famished. It is produced by the stomach and intestine. When you’re hungry, about to eat, or even just thinking about food, our gut releases ghrelin. Ghrelin turns of neuropeptide Y which increases appetite and decreases metabolic burn.

b. Usually, ghrelin goes up when the stomach is empty. This is the reason you feel hungry at the same times each day - your body clock gets used to releaseing ghrelin at certain times. They will stay up until you eat enough to satisfy your body’s needs. Those signals take a few minutes to kick in, so eating slowly helps you eat less overall.

c. It’s not ghrelin itself that makes you feel hungry, it’s the neuropeptide Y. d. Your body needs ghrelin to move effectively through all the phases of sleep.

Without the proper progression, you won’t get to stage 4, when HGH is released, or to REM sleep which protects leptin levels. For the rest of the day though, the object is to keep ghrelin levels low!

e. Binge-eating messes it up, as doe less that 8 hours sleep a night, lack of carbs, skipping meals, devere dieting and stress.

f. Ghrelin triggers reward centres I the brain to make food look more appetizing. These areas of the brain have been linked to drug addiction for many years.

g. Constant calorie restriction keeps ghrelin levels high. h. A reduction in ghrelin levels might be one of the ways in which gastric

bypass surgery reduces people’s weight, as it removes the cells that produce ghrelin.

9. Other hormonesa. Adinopectin - created by the fat throughout your body. It improves liver

function, lowers your blood sugar and guard against insulin and leptin resistance. Low levels are associated with metabolic syndrome.

b. Cholecystokinin (CCK) - a natural appetite suppressant. It is released after you eat a meal, especially one high in fibre, fat or protein. It has a half-life of 1-2 minutes, and then resets for the next meal.

c. Glucagonlike peptide (GLP-1) - released when you eat carbs and fat. Stimulates pancreas to stop producing glucagon and start producing insulin. It slows digestion and keeps appetite low

d. Neuropeptide Y - NPY - activated by ghrelin, it stimulates appetite and fat storage. Both extreme dieting and overeating/weight gain tend to increase NPY activity. It also stimulates the birth of new fat cells

e. Obestatin - Tells your brain you are not hunryf. Peptide tyrosine PYY - released when your belly expands after a meal and

decreases appetite by blocking the action of NPY. Fat and protein raise levels the most, but fasting for 2-3 days can cut it by 50%.

g. Resistin - thie evil hormone plays a big role in insulin resistance, blocking the ability of muscles to respond to insulin. Produced by your belly fat.

The Diet

Step 1: Remove Interesting point about artificial sweeteners:

When animals were fed yoghurt with saccharin, they later consumed more calories, gained more weight and put on more bodyfat that animals that were fed yoghurt sweetened with glucose. Normally when we eat sugar our body registers sweetness and comes to understand that very sweet things mean lots of calories. However, when we repeatedly eat artificial sweeteners that understanding breaks down. In fact, your body starts to think that sweetness means not a lot of calories, so you need to eat a lot of sweet things to get the needed calories. As the animals continued to eat artificial sweeteners, their metabolism also started to forget that sweet things have a lot of calories. So when you finally break down and eat that chocolate, your body doesn’t react by burning up the calories because sweetness doesn’t mean anything.

Aspartame may cause permanent damage to our brain’s appetite centre.

CoffeeWhen caffeine is abused, it damages your metabolism and hormone balance. Your

liver releases blood sugar for quick energy, your pancreas releases insulin to counteract the sugar, and your blood sugar dips because of the insulin. Also, your blood vessels constrict, making you feel like your blood sugar is dipping even further.

The acids in one cup of coffee will elevate your cortisol for up to 14 hours. It also interferes with your calcium absorption.

Caffeine overstimulates and eventually wears down your adrenals. It also inflicts the long-term effects of real stress in your body. Ocygen flow to your brain slows, your immune system is suppressed, the excess cortisol increases your appetite and encourages fat to pack on your belly.

Green tea, however, has been shown to promote fat oxidation at rest and is believed to prevent obesity.

Step 2: Restore

The master 10 foods1. Legumes - best choice is red beans. Have the best kinds of carbs and fibre.2. Alliums - best choice is garlic. Others are onions, leeks, chives and shallots. They

stimulate the body to produce gluthathione, an antioxidant that is in every cell but especially important I the liver.

3. Berries4. Meat and eggs5. Colourful fruit/veg6. Cruciferous veg - broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower7. Dark green leafy veg8. Nuts and seeds9. Organic dairy10.Wholegrains