Top 3 Tips to Drop Hormonal Belly Fat

When it comes to understanding your body type, a lot of people are frustrated about excess in the midsection. There is the bloated belly. This is when your body creates excess gas in the internal organs as a result of something you ate or drank. There is the weight gain belly. This is when you're eating in a caloric surplus, your body will gain more weight in the midsection. Then, there is the hormonal belly, which is when your body starts to accumulate more body fat in the lower abdomen, and you start to experience an overall redistribution of fat as you gain weight. When this happens, it can be very stubborn and very hard to lose.

The question is, why is it that you need to eat more to lose hormonal belly fat?

Everywhere on the internet you hear, if you're trying to lose weight and you start digging beneath the surface, you're going to find that you need to be in a caloric deficit. Everybody says calories in calories out. That all sounds great on paper until you have a hormone imbalance. Hormone imbalances can be the result of insulin resistance, it could be the result of estrogen dominance; it can be the result of excess cortisol; it could be the result of burnt-out adrenals; it could be the result of a sluggish metabolism due to low thyroid function; or it could be a combination of all of those things.

The reality is, when your hormones are imbalanced, it cannot be fixed by just lowering your caloric intake. If it were that simple, everyone whose doctor ever said to just lose weight would be at their goal.

So, first you need to focus on nutrient deficiencies. One of the most common and popular nutrition approaches is what I like to call the bodybuilder approach to nutrition. It is a high protein, low fat, moderate carb approach to nutrition. It's amazing for men, but when women start to apply these principles to themselves, they end up getting burned out hormonally because the dietary fat intake is far too low for proper hormone function for women. You want to make sure that you are getting enough dietary fat.

The next thing is you want to make sure that you are getting adequate amounts of dietary fiber. The reason why you want more dietary fiber when you have a hormone imbalance is because your body, most likely, is dealing with excess circulating hormones that have not been able to be dispelled during your regular monthly cycle. This happens during perimenopause, this happens during menopause, and it can't even happen earlier for ladies who perhaps have had a shift in their cycle due to hormonal birth control due to an IUD, or due to irregularities in your cycle.

The reason why fiber is so important is that it allows those excess circulating hormones to be detoxified from the body. They will also be detoxified from the liver with proper supplementation by getting the appropriate phytochemicals. Those phytochemicals come from specific vegetables. The cruciferous vegetable family is an excellent way to get those phytochemicals to allow your body to have natural detoxification through the liver.

If you are just eating excess sugars, refined starches, and you are just feeling like you are constantly craving sugars and not getting enough of the correct nutrients, even if you go lower in your calories, you have to understand lower calories also means lower nutrients. So that is a very, very important thing to understand. You cannot just go lower calorie because lower calories are going to translate into insufficient amount of the nutrients that will stabilize your baseline hormonal levels.

The next reason why you need to eat more is because of brain chemistry. This is some new research that I've recently come across. When you are getting adequate amounts of calories and when you are getting adequate amounts of dietary fat intake, it releases dopamine and serotonin. These are the happiness chemicals. When these chemical levels are elevated, it actually causes the body to reduce your cortisol. The first thing to go when people start dieting is most people automatically start going lower in dietary fats. That can be a problem because it is going to throw your brain chemistry off and if you are already dealing with hormonal imbalance, if you are already dealing with chronically high levels of cortisol which is the stress hormone, it is going to put your body in an off state with your brain chemistry. You have to remember that when you're trying to establish hormonal balance, your brain chemistry is absolutely vital. You cannot be sticking to a protocol that has you feeling off mentally, you guys know what I'm talking about. When you start getting that brain fog, that fatigue when you are trying to diet and do all the things, but you feel like there's no way you could possibly stick to it, you start feeling "hangry" like hungry and angry - it's because your brain chemicals are off balance, and something does need to be sustainable in order for you to feel hormonally balanced.

So many women are trying to fill that gap in their dopamine and serotonin with refined processed sugars because that is a quick fix way to get that spike, but it is not a sustained spike that will absolutely lower your cortisol. So, what you need to do is you need to manage that with an appropriate dialed in source of dietary fat. That is not only going to be adequate to elevate the good feeling hormones, the dopamine, the serotonin, those neurotransmitters, but also not too high that it is going to spill over and cause fat gain.

Last, but not least, is blood sugar management. I've had so many people come to me with high A1C levels. A1C is a measure that dictates whether or not you are diabetic. So, if your A1C levels are between 5.7 and 6.4 you are pre-diabetic. If your A1C levels are over 6.4 you are diabetic, as in Type 2 diabetic. In order to be healthy, you want to be under 5.7. You also want your fasting blood glucose levels to be under 100. There are a lot of folks coming to me with blood sugar management issues and the answer is you have to get that under control by eating proper amounts of the correct foods and going too high in carbohydrates, especially the refined starches, is not going to facilitate that. However, you do need other foods like dietary fats, fiber, seeds and healthy protein sources that are going to facilitate the balancing of that.

What I've found that has worked best? I'm going to give you guys a rule of thumb. Yes, you still need to be in a caloric deficit. You figure out your caloric deficit by understanding your BMR (basal metabolic rate), it's a function of your age, height, and weight. That tells you how many calories you need to sustain your current body mass at rest. You factor in your activity calories, that's your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). Traditionally, you need to be in a caloric deficit of about 500, that's what all the rule of thumb says when it comes to fat loss. However, with hormone imbalances, I suggest a maximum caloric deficit of 250. You may need 200. You may need 100. You have to trust me on this you guys. I have tons of case studies and clients who have had amazing success at a substantially higher calorie range.

So, what am I talking about? In terms of ranges, I'm talking about in the range between 1500 and 2000 calories. I have had clients well over 2000 calories on customized hormonal resetting protocols not only have lost weight, rebalance their hormones, got rid of the hormonal belly, but have completely felt better.

Again, to recap, you want to make sure that you are dialing in those nutrient deficiencies. You want to make sure that your brain chemistry is stable. You want to make sure that your blood sugar levels are optimized. So, what do you do? The first thing you can do is you can learn more about these principles in my book, Unlock Your Macro Type. It's going to help you figure out the best way to fuel your unique body type. Now, if you know for a fact that you have the hormonal belly like I have described, and it looks something like these photos here:

What you need to do is get on my hormone reset protocol. I have a traditional hormone reset protocol and I have a plant-based version of the hormone reset. Click the link below to learn more:

https://gaugegirltraining.com/collections/hormone-reset/products/21-day-hormone-reset-plans

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