Hormones and Fat Loss From Jillian Michaels Newest Book, Master Your Metabolism
Jillian Michaels, personal trainer on the hit TV show, The Biggest Loser, has recently released a new book, and in my opinion her best book, Master Your Metabolism. The book gives answer to this question, “Is your scale stuck no matter how little you eat or how much you exercise?”, and then proceeds to dive into the little understood world of hormones-a world I feel we all could stand to learn a bit more about.
I don’t know about you, but from my perspective, as a weight loss coach and fitness bootcamp instructor, I want to know why I can take two similar people through a diet and exercise program and witness one person get incredible transformative results while the other can barely shed 1 or 2 pounds. What gives?!
They were both on a caloric deficit. They were both working out with the same consistency and intensity. They were both given customized nutrition programs and followed them to the letter. They were both the same age and gender (granted they have different genetics).
Can you imagine my clients frustration as they see their best friend put in the same hard work they did, but have to go home and get back to the calorie counting “drawing board” as their friend is off to the mall to buy new, smaller and tighter fitting clothes? It’s enough to bring my clients to tears…and it has.
As a trainer, this burns me.
The people I train often joke with me about how I must lie awake at night thinking of new, torturous exercises because our bootcamp and personal training programs are very creative, to say the least. Although it’s true that we put a lot of creativity and thought into our exercise programs, what really keeps me lying awake at night is being able to deliver results to my clients.
Nothing matters more to me than to be able to show others the impact of fitness on their lives. Sure, there are more reasons to train the just weight loss. More energy, a strong body, and stress relief are very important as well. But seeing your body change and obtaining the confidence that comes with that is monumental.
This is why I’m writing this blog today. To tell you about the importance of what not only Jillian Micheals is saying in her book, but where the future of health and fitness lies – creating and maintaining health through healthy eating, exercise, and balance of our bodily systems, especially that of the endocrine system.
Question: What is metabolism?
False Answer: The way my body burns calories.
Burning calories is something your metabolism does, but that doesn’t explain what it is.
The Real Answer: Your metabolism is your hormones! It’s the biochemistry of your body!
In this blog I’ll share with you information from Jillians book about 3 very important hormones – Insulin, Cortisol and Human Growth Hormone (HGH), which are essential for you to understand if your goal is to lose body fat and keep your body at it’s optimum health.
Insulin. Insulin’s most important function is to lower the concentration of glucose in your blood. Insulin is released from the pancreas when you eat. After you eat a meal, your food is broken down into simple sugars we call glucose, and released into the bloodstream.
I think a good way to think about insulin is to think of it like a Taxi driver. One of the places the Taxi driver (insulin) likes to go is to drive glucose (sugar) to the liver, where it can be converted into glycogen for use by the muscles.
Insulin can also turn glucose into fatty acids and drive them to fat cells, where they can be stored as fuel that the body can use at a later time.
It’s also interesting to note here that creating an insulin spike by digesting simple sugars after intense exercise will cause the taxi driver to help drive amino acids into the cell for protein synthesis to occur. This is where that carb/protein shake with a 2 to 1 ratio comes in super handy. It can improve post-workout protein synthesis by 600%!! I highly recommend it for my personal training and bootcamp clients. Click on this link to get my favorite post workout shake mix: http://fitforlifesolutions.getprograde.com/pre-and-post-workout-drink.html
Jillian’s writes, “let’s say you had a Milky Way on an empty stomach. Your blood sugar surge is then so dramatic that insulin overreacts and works twice as hard to clean the sugar out of the blood.
This overefficient sugar removal doesn’t leave enough glucose in the bloodstream, so your blood sugar concentration drops, you feel hungry again, and you crave (and probably eat) more carbs. That’s postsugar “crash-and-binge” cycle, the root of sugar addiction.”
She also says, “While you may have heard that obesity causes insulin resistance and diabetes – and it does – another plausible sequence is that insulin resistance comes first, spikes insulin production and blood sugar and makes people fat.”
The key points to take away on insulin is that according to what and when you eat, insulin can work for you or against you. That’s why we always recommend staying away from refined carbs like white rice and white bread, and going with the stone-ground wheat bread or brown rice that takes your body much longer to break down into sugar.
Cortisol. This is an important hormone to understand, because in our society, it’s elevated in epidemic proportions and although many have heard of it, and know that too much of it leads to fat gain, they don’t do the steps necessary to keep their cortisol levels in check.
Cortisol, also known as the stress hormone, can be a real menace when it comes to trying to lose weight. Cortisol is emitted by the adrenal glands, and is a catabolic hormone (breaks down, rather than builds up, which would be anabolic). Released by the adrenals, cortisol “tells your body what fat, protein, or carbohydrate to burn and when to burn them, depending on what kind of challenge you face.”
“If you haven’t released the excess cortisol in your blood by punching back or running away, cortisol will increase your cravings for high-fat, high-carb foods.”
She also writes, “Once you eat, your body releases a cascade of rewarding brain chemicals that can set up an addictive relationship with food. You feel stressed, you eat…you can become physically and psychologically dependent on that release to manage stress.”
Now here’s where the weight loss stuff comes in, “When stress continues for a long time, and cortisol levels remain high, the body actually resists weight loss. Your body thinks times are hard and you might starve, so it greedily hoards any food you eat and any fat already present on your body.”
Cortisol also takes healthier fat from butt and thighs and turns it to a very unhealthy type of stored fat called visceral fat in your stomach area, which stores a specific enzyme that converts inactive cortisone to active cortisol, “yet another vicious cycle created by visceral fat.”
Meditation and specific mind/body techniques are known to decrease cortisol levels naturally by as much as 44%!
It’s also worth noting that excess cortisol also deconstructs bone and skin, leading to osteoporosis, easy bruising and stretch marks.
Human Growth Hormone, also known as HGH or simply as Growth Hormone, is one of those hormones that we all want more of. “It seems to make everything better – it builds muscle, burns fat, helps you resist heart disease, protects your bones, increases your overall health, and some say it even makes you happier. People with high levels of growth hormone live longer, and better.”
Growth hormone is produced in the pituitary gland, a tiny gland under the hypothalamus in the brain. “Growth hormone is amazing at helping you tap into your fat stores.”
Hollywood actors have been known to spend up to $20,000 per year for HGH injections. However, this practice is not only pricey, but can cause horrible side effects, one of which is insulin resistance, because it counters insulin’s ability to shuttle glucose into cells. Production of HGH drops as we age…as much as 50% by the time we reach 60 years old.
There are natural ways to get your body to produce this anti-aging, miracle hormone. An excellent way is to reach delta brain wave patterns, which is accomplished during meditation practice. (Another reason I’m so big on keeping a regular meditation practice!)
HGH is also released when you get enough sleep, 8 hours being the magical number.
I could go on and on, but I’ll let you find out more on your own. If you’re interested in learning more, check out Jillians book, entitled Master Your Metabolism.
Please leave any comments below. I greatly appreciate feedback. Thanks!
P.S. – Shout out to A.V. Woop! Woop!
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 11:02 pm.
