Can your hormones affect your weight loss journey?
Unfortunately, yes they can – both in a good way and a bad way!
But we wanted to highlight the good your hormones can bring to your weight loss journey and how your boosting your ‘happy hormones’ could see you losing more weight!
What are Hormones?
Hormones are chemicals that we all naturally produce from various different glands throughout our bodies.
Once they are produced, they travel through our bloodstream, delivering messages and enabling many functions, to ensure the smooth running of our bodies.
In some cases, there are hormones that can help promote feelings of positivity, happiness, pleasure, reward and motivation.
These are commonly known as your ‘Happy Hormones’.
These are the hormones we can rely on to make us feel better, even when we’re not feeling at our best.
Serotonin
Serotonin is a chemical in your body that is produced by your nerve cells. It is mostly found within your digestive system but has an effect on almost every part of your body.
It is known to naturally help stabilise your mood – having too little serotonin can lead to depression and anxiety – and it helps you day-to-day with your sleeping, eating and digesting your food!
Boost your serotonin:
- Aerobic exercises like swimming, cycling, jogging, brisk walking
- Meditation and giving yourself quiet, downtime
- Getting sun exposure – or in winter, investing in a light therapy box
- Having a massage
- Including foods that contain tryptophan, which is an amino acid and can be found in
- Salmon
- Chicken
- Turkey
- Eggs
- Spinach
- Seeds
- Soy products
Dopamine
Dopamine is the chemical messenger that, when released in large amounts, creates the feelings we get of pleasure, reward and motivation.
It is often released when we have achieved something good and it helps us to keep repeating good behaviours, to create positive habits.
For example, when you step on the scale and are happy with the result, or fit into your jeans again and get that rush of happiness that motivates you to keep going – that is dopamine!
Whilst typically, dopamine is well-regulated in the body, there are a few ways we can boost it!
Boost your dopamine:
- Complete a task (or a few) on your to-do list
- Get a good night’s sleep
- Listen to your favourite music
- Do regular physical activities – such as yoga and pilates
- Eat foods rich in protein – such as:
- Eggs
- Lean meats
- Yogurt
- Oily fish
- Avocado
- Lentils
Oxytocin
Oxytocin is known as the ‘love’ hormone and it is often found in high amounts when we are in the throes of a new relationship!
Oxytocin is produced by the hypothalamus and having higher levels of it can lead to feeling more relaxed, less stressed and anxious and more psychologically stable.
When you are less stressed, you make better food choices and when you make better food choices, your overall health is better – so it’s really important to keep your oxytocin levels boosted.
It can help you adapt to social and emotional situations and has been shown to improve communication between you and loved ones.
Boost your Oxytocin:
- Try wellness practices like yoga
- Tell someone how much you love them
- Spend time with those you love the most
- Give and receive a hug or cuddle
- Do a nice gesture for someone
- Eat foods rich in vitamin C, D and magnesium– such as:
- Salmon
- Orange Juice
- Dark Chocolate
- Coffee
- Broccoli
- Banana
Endorphins
Do you ever feel fantastic after a workout? Or complete a physical task and feel like a superhero? That feeling is made by your endorphins!
Endorphins promote a sense of well-being throughout the body and have been known to reduce the pain we feel.
Having raised levels can reduce depression, stress and anxiety, boost your self-esteem and can help with weight reduction by helping to naturally regulate your appetite.
Boost your endorphins:
- Exercise – in any form
- Create something – art, music
- Eat something spicy or eat dark chocolate
- Relax with some aromatherapy
- Watch something funny – or find something that makes you laugh
- Certain foods can also give us an endorphin high. Try things like:
- Dark Chocolate
- Eggs
- Nuts
- Chilli Peppers
Are these things you will try? Have you ever thought about how your hormones have affected your weight? Do you eat more or feel worse at certain times of the month because of your hormones?
If your hormones are causing you to gain weight or stop you losing weight, then get in touch. Our weight loss doctors can help you get to the bottom of the causes and find you real long-term solutions to your issues.