Estrogen and progesterone can be manipulated to help you lose fat, get lean and feel your best. First and foremost it needs to be recognized that if you do not control your insulin, none of this makes a difference – insulin is the most important hormone when it comes to fat loss. But we can help ourselves during our cycle, as women, via our workout routines and clean eating meal plan, to lose fat, or at the very least, not become super irritable and bloated. Learn more here..
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The day you begin your period is day one of your cycle. This is called the follicular phase. Your period comes and goes and then follicle stimulating hormone is released and it interacts with your ovaries, the follicle matures, you get a surge of luteinizing hormone and then ovulation occurs. This is the first half of your cycle.
After ovulation is the luteal phase. During the time the egg pops from the follicle and you prepare for menses. In full, the cycle is about 28 days.
That is the super short version of it.
The important things for you to know about your cycle and fat loss are..
During the follicular phase, before ovulation, we have estrogen dominance, we are more insulin sensitive, we don’t seem to bloat as much after eating carbs and burning fat is easier. We also have more energy and thanks to the insulin sensitivity, cardio is better for us during this time.
During the luteal phase, after ovulation, we are progesterone dominant, have less insulin sensitivity and we bloat more in general, especially when carbs are present. Lifting and low key workout routines tends to be the best method of exercise during this phase.
Estrogen is the more fat burning hormone of the two as it decreases lipo-protein lipase, which is fat storing. Progesterone is the more fat storing hormone as it increases LPL.
Ultimately we wanna keep the two as balanced as possible so we can go through our cycle happy and less bloated. The more we can keep these two hormones balanced, the less excruciating PMS should be. Also, the more we can keep these guys balanced and happy, the less likely we are to end up with worse conditions like PCOS or the inability to conceive. Following the advice above and LOWERING STRESS and making sure our cortisol levels are in a good place are key to that balance. Also, decreasing our exposure to environmental factors like BPA from plastics, pesticides, hormone treated meat and dairy, as well as soy, can help with this as well.
As for peri and post menopausal women, estrogen goes low, which can cause insulin resistance or at least decreased insulin sensitivity. If this is the case, decreasing carbohydrates to less than 100g a day (excluding veggies) can be a huge help in fat loss. And again, that whole stress level thing here is HUGE because the gap between how much estrogen and progesterone you have will widen further, making symptoms of bloating, fat gain, hot flashes, etc worse.
Also, this is all based on a “normal” functioning body. If you are on hormonal birth control, all of this may be entirely different, depending on what type you are on.
Do you need help figuring out the right clean eating meal plan for you?
Go to Commit2FitCoaching.com/freeassessment and let me help you.
Your Coach,
Kyra
P.S. Everyone is different. Some people need more carbs, more food, different workouts from others. It’s all individualized which is why I run #Commit2Fit with personalized clean eating meal plans and workout plans. Everything should be custom and designed specifically for YOU.