Weight Loss, Hormone Balance and Your Immune System

A red apple on a white background promotes functional health.

Weight loss is a goal for so many people I consult with. I actually encourage my clients to stop referring to losing weight and move towards thinking about letting go of weight or dropping weight or releasing weight. When I lose something, I usually intend to find it. When you talk about losing weight, your subconscious gets the message that you've been parted from something dear to you and makes every effort to help you find it again. So your language can actually be working against you when you talk about weight loss.

I recorded an interview with Tom Nicoli of Premier Summits for his upcoming event called called “Dozens of Easy, Proven Ways to Lose Weight… and Keep It Off”.

Tom and I havd a lively and informative chat about how your immune system and hormones can be preventing you from achieving your ideal weight, even if you're eating light and exercising.

A few highlights from our conversation:

When you're stressed, your adrenals secrete the hormone cortisol goes up and DHEA goes down, leading to increased insulin production and fat accumulation around your waist
Very low calorie diets inhibit the enzyme that converts the thyroid hormone T4 to the active form, T3, thus decreasing your metabolism and causing you to gain weight rather than lose it.
As men age, the hormone testosterone decreases and more of their testosterone gets converted to estrogen, which naturally slows fat burning , as a part of facilitating fat storage in preparation for fertility, birth and lactation.
High levels of insulin, released when you eat sugar and many high carbohydrate foods, can actually suppress growth hormone and lead to increased fat storage.
Eating close to bedtime suppresses your natural growth hormone surge at night, leading to increased fat storage.

There were lots more gems shared, including information about leptin and ghrellin, gluten intolerance and autoimmune diseases and their effect on your weight.

The interview will air on February 11.

If you sign-up for the FREE Premier Summit event, ” Dozens of Easy, Proven Ways to Lose Weight… and Keep It Off” , you'll get access to my interview and 19 others related to weight management.