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You're listening to Episode 18 of the fat fuelled female podcast.
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Welcome to the fat fuelled female podcast. I'm your host Marja Chow, a holistic nutritionist, personal trainer and proud dog mama of two. I am obsessed with helping women achieve their goals, feel confident in their skin, and become empowered health advocates. This podcast is designed to help ambitious women thrive on a low carb, high fat lifestyle. So tune in each week as we talk all aspects of nutrition, improving your fitness, enhancing your mindset, so that you can take inspired action, and live your best life all starting from the inside out. I'm so happy to have you here. Now let's get started.
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Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the fat fuelled female Podcast. Today we're going to talk about two very important hormones that affect weight loss.
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Just know by simply reducing the carbs and amping up the fats, we automatically start to Balance hormone insulin and hormone cortisol. Now I'm not saying you have to go deep into ketosis, and eat the lowest amount of carbs possibly, hey, that's not even what how I coach clients and what I promote.
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I believe it's healthy for your body to go in and out of ketosis, creating metabolic flexibility. And what metabolic flexibility means is training your body to run off of not one fuel source, but two fuel sources.
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So most people are not metabolically flexible, meaning most people are sugar burners. So someone who is a sugar burner, their primary fuel source is carbohydrates, or eating carbs breakfast lunch, dinner snack, where someone who is fat adapted, they've trained their body to run off of ketones to run off of fat.
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So what I think the best of both worlds is, is having both systems. So when you eat carbs, your body burns through those and then seamlessly goes back to burning fat.
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So there's so many ways to do this. And depending on your goals, your lifestyle, what works for you how long you're in ketosis, how often you come in and out, is going to be very specific for you.
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And the only way you're going to understand what works for you is by experimenting with yourself.
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So let's get back to these two hormones. When you burn fat okay, opposed to carbs. This helps control your appetite, improve your energy and balance our hormones like all of your hormones, really.
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So let me clarify. Insulin is a hormone that regulates your blood sugar. So to simplify, the more carbs, someone eats that sugar burner, the harder the pancreas has to work to pump out more insulin, because insulin is role is to is to regulate your blood sugar after you eat.
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So what happens you eat a meal, say you eat a sandwich. Insulin, your blood sugar is elevated. Insulin is called upon it's secreted from the pancreas to bring it down to a regular level.
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So when your blood sugar is high all the time, like if you're eating carbs all the time and if you're eating a lot of refined and processed foods, what happens is the pancreas is constantly working right.
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It's like overworked insulin is being pumped all the freakin time. And when you have chronic high blood sugar, it can be a precursor for diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic inflammation, which we don't want.
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So by limiting both the amount and frequency of carbs eaten daily, you completely remove the blood sugar story. So that is why when you eat mostly fat and protein, now fat doesn't have an insulin response, but protein has a mild but compared to having a steak compared to having like bread. There's it's a massive difference, right?
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So I explain it like this. Think of your blood sugar when someone has a sugar burner. It's like a crazy wild roller coaster that's going up and down, up and down. It sees huge going up, up up, up up and then it crashes down and goes back up.
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Whereas when someone is fat adapted, think of like the baby roller coaster. It's kind of like pretty flat and there's these little kind of peaks and valleys.
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That's what your energy and your blood sugar looks like when you are running off of fat. So insulin when you're fat, adapt insulin isn't constantly being called upon to regulate your blood sugar, since fat doesn't have that insulin spike, so the pancreas gets a well deserved break.
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Now, what is cortisol? I'm sure you've all heard of the hormone cortisol, it is often refer to as our stress hormone part of the fight or flight response. It's a hormone that is secreted from your adrenal glands, which are these two glands that sit on your back on top of your kidneys.
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Okay? So when cortisol is chronically produced, it affects all other hormones from being made, because your body's like, Oh, we're under attack, whether it's a physical stress, emotional stress, or mental stress, your body's like, okay, we're under attack, cortisol takes first priority, we need to make more cortisol, this is number one.
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So when that happens, it can lead to hormonal imbalance because all those all that energy is getting made into cortisol instead of other hormones. So I'll say it again, when cortisol is constantly high, it affects all other hormones from being made.
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So if you are under a lot of stress all the time, that can be a major cause of hormonal imbalance. And just by being a sugar burner, okay, someone who is eating breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, predominantly carbohydrates, more cortisol will be secreted daily, I will say that, again, when someone is eating carbs all throughout the day, more cortisol will be secreted daily. pretty shocking, right? So let me explain this.
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So when your sugar burner, right, as I just went over, your blood sugar will spike, and then it will dip like that roller coaster. When it dips, it signals cortisol to release stored carbohydrates for fuel from the liver, okay, so you have stored carbohydrates were referred to as glycogen. Most of it is stored in the liver, some of it is stored in the muscles, you have about 1500 to 2000 calories of stored glycogen stored carbohydrate.
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So if you're missing a meal as a sugar burner, it can cause a cascade of hormones to be released. As your body's like, ah, we are missing a meal, this is a stressful state. So cortisol will be secreted. So as a sugar burner, you will need to fill up the tank every few hours, or else symptoms of hungriness can arise, and your blood sugar will drop, that cortisol will be called upon to save the day to release stored carbohydrates, stored glycogen. And then after that insulin rolls in to regulate the blood sugar.
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So it's this constant back and forth, with these two hormones being released multiple times a day, depending on how often you're eating just from being a sugar burner, and having carbohydrates as your primary fuel source.
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So can you see how eating high fat and again, your version of high fat is going to be so individualized for you, but can you see how eating more high fat foods and protein, you remove the constant secretion of insulin and cortisol? Pretty cool, right?
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And when you regulate your blood sugar, you regulate your energy. And when you have better energy, you can perform better in all areas of your life as a human being.
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So again, fat does not cause an insulin spike. And when you are fully fat adapted, which takes four to six weeks and what fat adapted means is that metabolic pathway that secondary metabolic pathways activated, your liver is producing ketones, okay?
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So when you are fat adapted, you won't feel as hungry all the time, because your body can tap into its store body fat, and use that for fuel. So a high fat diet helps to regulate your insulin, reduce cortisol secretion, and prevents those roller coaster energy highs and lows that you finally get off that scary roller coaster ride of the blood sugar story and jump aboard the kiddie roller coaster.
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Another analogy I like to use is when someone is a sugar burner. Think of an ocean during a storm. There's waves crashing up and down, up and down. And then think of a lake. It's like this cool, calm collective chill energy.
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So for weight loss, stress management and overall health, regulating your blood sugar, your insulin, and reducing cortisol production is fundamental. It is fundamental for long term health and vitality.
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So again, I want to I want to embed this in your mind when you have high amounts of cortisol. In your body, it takes first priority and can affect all other hormones. And if you are under a lot of stress, again, more cortisol is going to be secreted all throughout the day. And if you are a sugar burner and you miss meals, that is going to cause more cortisol to be secreted to release the stored carbohydrates.
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So when it comes down to it for long term health, no matter what style of eating, you're doing, I'm not saying you have to be fully go into a ketogenic diet. But why don't you reduce the frequency of how often you're eating.
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Like, if you're eating all day, and snacking, and it's carbohydrates, that's going to be that roller coaster ride all day. But if you cut your eating window down, or you reduce the amount of carbs and maybe only have carbs, that later end of the day, your energy is going to be more like that cool Lake energy opposed to that wild ocean.
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Now, if you're starting your fat fuelled journey, what I want you to consider is many clients, or yourself won't be able to see their health changes improve instantaneously.
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It's like, well, I've done this for a week. Why don't I feel this amazing energy? And sometimes you do, sometimes people go in and they're like, oh, my gosh, I have so much energy, everyone is different.
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There is no there is no blueprint of like not one person is going to have the same experience as someone else, right. But I what I want you to consider is if you are going into any form of eating more fat and higher quality foods, more nutrient density, not snacking as often taking more control over your hunger and your biology by eating high quality fats, you are going to be supporting multiple systems internally in your body.
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And that's when real transformation occurs from the inside out from supporting your inner ecology from supporting systems and hormones. That is when vibrant health, longevity, energy, all of it will reflect outwards, okay?
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So trust the process. Be patient and remember, adapting into a fat fuelled lifestyle, whatever that means to you. It is not a diet, it is a lifestyle change. So stick with it.
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That is everything for today. I hope this explanation of just becoming fat adapted or fat fuelled or reducing the carbs, you are going to help support and balance your insulin and your cortisol. That's everything for today. Thanks for hanging out with me. Bye for now.
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Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed what you heard, make sure to subscribe to the podcast. And if you feel you got some extra value from this episode, it would mean the world to me. If you could head over to Apple podcasts or whatever service you're listening to this podcast on. Drop a five star review. Let me know your thoughts in the show. Doing this really helps more people like yourself by the podcast. And if you're not already following me on social media right now is the time you can find me on Instagram at Marja Chow for all your nutrition tips, tricks and inspiration or visit my website at fatfuelledfemale.com where you can download my free seven day keto meal plan with recipes. Thanks so much for tuning in and I will catch you next week.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
