hey what's up youtube welcome back to
the channel it's christine with gage
girl training and online meal planning
and coaching service i'm an author food
scientist and chemical engineer and in
today's video we are going to talk about
why
you need to eat more to lose hormonal
belly fat so let's get started
so 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 drink there is the weight gain belly
this is when you know when eating in a
caloric surplus your body will gain more
weight in the midsection and 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 and i'm going to talk about in this
video why it is you need to eat more to
lose hormonal belly fat so everywhere on
the internet 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 and 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 it could be a
combination of all of those things and
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 just lose weight would be at their
goal so what you need to do first is 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 so you want to be
making 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 and
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
shift in their cycle due to hormonal
birth control due to an iud or due to
irregularities in your cycle so the
reason why fiber is so important 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 so if you are just eating
excess sugars refined starches and you
are just feeling like you are constantly
craving sugars and you are 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 that you
cannot just go lower calorie because
lower calorie is 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 and this is some new research
that i've recently come across when you
are getting adequate amounts of calories
when you are getting adequate amounts of
dietary fat intake it releases dopamine
and serotonin and these are the
happiness chemicals and when these
chemical levels are elevated it actually
causes the body to reduce your cortisol
the problem is the first thing to go
when people start dieting is most people
automatically start going lower in
dietary fats and 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 a
off
state with your brain chemistry and the
thing is you have to remember that when
you're trying to establish hormonal
balance your brain chemistry is
absolutely vital so 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 of 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 and the problem is
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 so
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 so in order to be
healthy you want to be under 5.7 and you
also want your fasting blood glucose
levels to be under 100 so the problem is
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 seed and healthy
protein sources that are going to
facilitate the balancing of that so what
i have found 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 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 maximum
caloric deficit you may need 200 you may
need 100 and the thing is 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 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 hormone
got rid of the hormonal belly but have
felt better so 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 and you want to make sure that
your blood sugar levels are optimized so
what do you do so 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 so i
have a traditional hormone reset
protocol and i have a plant-based
version of the hormone reset which will
be launching on september 23rd so thank
you guys so much for watching if you
have questions comments concerns
please comment in the comment section i
will be engaging with you guys i really
want to know what questions and concerns
you have so i can answer them in future
videos thank you guys and i will see you
on the next one