June 20, 2021: Muffin Top
My weekly Get Your Stuff Together Sunday email series gives you one actionable focus for the week that will make your life a little easier.
{Did you miss last week’s GYSTS email? No prob! Go here and scroll to the bottom for a complete archive of all GYSTS emails}
Do you basically do a dance, some squats, and a shimmy motion when you go to put on your jeans? Or once you get your jeans on, you look into the mirror and see the waistband of your jeans cutting into your skin? This week, we’re going to talk about the dreaded muffin top.
How Hormones Affect Your Waistline
Hormonal imbalance starts when you over consume carbohydrates. Keep in mind that not all carbohydrates are “bad.” Non-starchy vegetables contain carbohydrates but are also high in fiber and water, and contain essential nutrients. The type of carbohydrates that drive glucose and insulin levels too high include sugar of any kind and processed grains (bread, cereal, crackers, baked goods, chips, pasta). Overconsumption of these types of carbohydrates also leads to excess glucose and triglycerides in the bloodstream promoting leptin resistance in the brain.
Leptin
Leptin is an important hormone that helps control your appetite and metabolism. It lets your brain know you are full, signaling you to stop eating. Leptin also tells your brain how much energy you have and how to use it. When your energy is low, leptin tells your brain to increase your appetite so you will start eating. When you have enough energy, leptin tells your brain to stop eating and start burning fat.
Leptin can alter your ability to taste sweets. When you have too much leptin in your system, your sensitivity to sweetness goes down and you tend to overeat sweet foods.
The problem is many people who are carrying excess fat have developed something called leptin resistance. Leptin resistance means that your brain is not hearing the leptin message and thinks you are starving. This promotes overeating and a decrease in your metabolism. You eat...and eat...but your brain never gets the message to put the brakes on and stop eating. Leptin resistance also promotes insulin resistance leading to chronically elevated blood sugar and insulin levels.
The good news is that leptin resistance does show signs of being reversible. Things you can do to help with leptin resistance include: focusing on quality of food versus quantity, avoiding calorie-restrictive diets, avoiding eating grains, getting enough sleep, eating protein with breakfast, and reducing your consumption of simple carbohydrates.
Cortisol
Cortisol is another hormone that affects belly fat. This hormone has three main jobs: to raise blood sugar, to raise blood pressure, and to moderate immune function. When your cortisol is chronically elevated, this can cause problems. Fat cells around your midsection contain four times as many cortisol receptors compared with other fat cells. Every time you raise cortisol levels, you feed a muffin top.
Steps to Get Rid of a Muffin Top
Eat protein and non-starchy vegetables with every meal.
Optimize digestion. When your digestive system isn’t working optimally, it can leave you feeling gassy and bloated, and increase the fat around our midsection. Digestion begins in the mouth, so focus on chewing your food and SLOW DOWN. Chewing helps break down foods and produce enzymes necessary for proper digestion.
Move your bedtime up 15 minutes each night until you are able to sleep 8-9 hours per night.
Ditch the coffee and alcohol (I know…). These two substances will keep cortisol elevated and that stubborn belly fat around your midsection. If you choose to not completely eliminate coffee and alcohol, cut back to 1-2 coffees a week and 1-2 servings of alcohol per week.
Next Sunday, we’ll talk about how your menu for the 4th of July can be exciting and still supportive of your health and fitness goals.
Want some expert help with reaching your health goals painlessly? Check out my programs! We’ll get everything taken care of in a way that fits into your current lifestyle so you never have to think about your health again.
Do you have a friend who could stand to G(her)ST? Feel free to forward this!
I hope you have a wonderful week,
Kelly
Kelly Morgan, Ph.D.
Tsirona - www.tsirona.com
My weekly GYSTS email give you one actionable thing to do for the week that will make you life a little easier. As "they" say, "Fail to plan; plan to fail." Get these emails (and more!) delivered right to your inbox by clicking HERE.