There are a number of reasons to workout regularly. Some of those cause weight gain, others can create mood swings and some hormones affect your health. Working out is one way to help balance your hormones. It burns off the cortisol and boosts hormones that make you feel good. Hormones are nothing but messengers for the body. They act as catalysts to trigger the functions the body performs.
You need your hormones to be functioning properly in order to feel and be your healthiest.
Cortisol, one of the stress hormones, causes fat to accumulate around your waistline. That type of fat is visceral fat, the most dangerous type. Stress hormones have a purpose that was created to help man. Early man faced stressors that affected whether he lived or died, such as invading tribes and dangerous animals. He had to prepare to fight or run and stress did just that. It set into motion numerous changes that were all started by hormones. Those changes prepared the body to run its fastest or fight. Cortisol also controls your blood sugar levels and blood pressure, heart rate, regulates your metabolism and affects your memory.
Leptin and ghrelin are the satiety and hunger hormones.
Talk about controlling how you look and how much you gain, these two hormones almost corner the market. Leptin is the hormone that tells your brain you’ve had enough to eat and ghrelin is the one that tells it you’re still hungry for more food. If there’s an imbalance, your body either doesn’t get enough calories to function or too many calories and you gain weight. Lack of sleep can cause you to have too much ghrelin and thwart the creation of leptin.
An imbalance of sex hormones can contribute to health issues.
There are two main classes of sex hormones, androgens, which includes testosterone and estrogens, which includes estrogen. Most people know that men have more testosterone and women have more estrogen, but they don’t realize men also have estrogen and women also have testosterone. Sex hormones also include progesterone. All three types affect a number of other functions, which includes retaining bone density, supporting cardiovascular health, liver functioning, aiding skin elasticity, and psychological health.
- Insulin is an important hormone. It allows the cells to use the glucose in the blood stream. If you have too much insulin it causes hypoglycemia and too little causes type 1 diabetes.
- Hormones affect how much you sleep. Serotonin from the pineal gland affects your ability to sleep. If you don’t have enough, you’ll find it difficult to get a healthy amount of sleep.
- The endocrine system creates hormones and it’s major gland is the hypothalamus. Hormones control all the functions of the body from body temperature to thirst to emotions.
- You can aid in regulating your hormones by eating healthy and exercising regularly. Highly processed foods, sugary foods and other empty calories can cause hormonal imbalances. Stress is another factor that can throw your hormones out of whack.
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