Did you know that over 80% of women throughout their lifetime will suffer from hormonal imbalance? In most cases, the hormonal imbalance becomes chronic and leads to other major health-related issues. Today’s post will cover how fasting can help our metabolic fitness overall and rebalance our hormones naturally.
What is Hormone Imbalance
Hormonal imbalance in simple terms is when our bodies are either not producing the right amount of hormones, this could be in the form of an overproduction of hormones known as hyperthyroidism. The underproduction of hormones is known as hypothyroidism, or it is also possible for your hormones to be in proper production but your body is not receiving them.
I am not a medical professional, I am a normal everyday person just like you who embarked on healing my own hormonal imbalance over 8 years ago now. I saw doctor after doctor, specialist after specialist, who all ran test after test at my request because I refused to accept the idea that I would just suffer with this autoimmune disease and all the horrible side effects and live on medication for the rest of my life.
I knew if I could find at least one other person who had an autoimmune disease and cured it then damn it I could too! Granted this was back in the day and the internet was not what it is today. But where there is a will there is a way!
What Percentage of Women Have Imbalanced Hormones?
It is said that over 80% of women in the US suffer from hormonal imbalances throughout their lifetime. The most common reasons triggering hormonal imbalance are menopause, premenopause, pregnancy or post-pregnancy, obesity, and chronic stress or trauma.
Of course, most of us suffer needlessly having a handful if not all of the symptoms listed below and if this goes on too long before it is corrected it turns into a full-on autoimmune disease.
For more on Hormonal Imbalance in women and how to fix it read 15 Signs Of Hormone Imbalance That Most Women Ignore next.
How Fasting helps Balance Hormones
There is a team of organs that work together to make sure we stay in balance. The hypothalamus and pituitary glands in our brains are hormone receptors, the actual endocrine organ itself, the liver which metabolizes the hormones to make them usable at a cellular level, and the cells themselves. That is a lot of moving parts. Dr. Pelz in her book, “Fast Like a Girl: A Woman’s Guide to Using the Healing Power of Fasting to Burn Fat, Boost Energy, and Balance Hormones” calls this Hormonal Hiarcy.
Understanding how our hormones work helps us to see how delicate that balance is and why we should be focused on keeping it from getting all out of wack!
For a deep dive with Dr. Pelz check out her YouTube series How Fasting Can Help You Balance Your Hormones – PART 1
To address the question of how fasting helps balance hormones is by balancing insulin. Most people who have hormonal imbalances also have insulin resistance and inflammation. This is the whole chicken and the egg question, which came first? Who knows honestly, but we know for sure if you have a hormonal imbalance you have, or are in the beginning phase of insulin resistance and have inflammation there is just no question about it.
When you start practicing TRE or Intermittent fasting the body finally has a break from having to constantly digest food to be able to start to heal and repair.
What is Time Restricted Eating (TRE) or Intermittent Fasting
Honestly, we did not need science and research to tell us what our ancestor’s lifestyles already show us. Hunters and gatherers do not eat 3 meals and day plus snacks in between. They would eat when there was food and “fast”, of course, this wasn’t the name for it for them it was not optional when there was no food.
They did not eat bananas year around unless that was part of the habitat they lived in, in which they probably did not eat other foods not found in that habitat. Remember there were no grocery stores. Unlike today where you can eat fruit year around, not seasonally, and get just about anything else your heart desires.
In his book “Fast This Way” author and long-term mentor of mine Dave Asprey says,
“The more you mix things up and the more you reject consistency, the stronger and more flexible your cells will be. They will no longer be trained to crave one particular snack or comfort food.”
– DAVE ASPREY.
For decades the diet and fitness industry has said weight is all about what you eat, or how much you eat. This is only half true. As important as the foods you choose to eat and the portion size is the time and frequency of your eating. For example, eating right before you go to sleep will mean poor digestion and POOR SLEEP. Poor sleep is the leading factor in obesity and weight gain. See there is much more at play in our overall health than just our diet.
Eating at the same time every day seems like a win right? But just as Padlofs law showed us this forms a habit, a routine. Then we must wonder if are we really hungry at 5:00 or if have we trained ourselves to eat at 5:00 so we eat at 5:00, hungry or not.
Eating habits have changed significantly over the last 50 years. While three meals a day used to be standard, the average adult now eats about six times a day. Some adults eat up to 15 times in 24 hours.
This fact and the worsening obesity epidemic in western cultures have led scientists to study this phenomenon. Some nutrition experts have found that not giving our bodies long enough breaks between meals is unhealthy for us.
How to start Time Restricted Eating (TRE) intermittent fasting
Starting intermittent fasting or Time Restricted Eating (TRE) could not be more simple! The first step is knowing everyone is different. Men and women are different and will find that there is no one-size fits all fasting schedule. The most common fasting gaps are what’s called 18/6. This means you fast for 18 hours per day and then eat only in that 6-hour window. This is what my husband (age 46) has done for years!
This is something I had to build up to. Starting my fasting journey my hormones were really out of wack after having my youngest son, I was on a high dosage of hypothyroid medication and found if I went long without food I was ‘hangry‘ (hungry + angry). This my friends are what insulin resistance looks like. I was also eating all the wrong foods, but we will get to this later in the post.
- Fast for at least 3 hours after waking up. For me, I still have my bulletproof coffee (check out my recipe it’s so yummy and packed with nutrients). Hardcore fasters will say this is “breaking the fast”, but it works for me and I do not eat food 3-4 hours after waking up.
- Fast for at least 3 hours before going to bed. This also includes alcohol.
- Eat 2 meals (food) with no snacking in between + the Bulletproof coffee as your breakfast
- Bonus tip: No coffee or caffeine after 2:00 pm it WILL affect your sleep, don’t believe me use a sleep tracker to prove it. (Great step and sleep tracker watch linked below.)
Benefits of Time Restricted Eating (TRE) or Intermittent Fasting
Further, studies have shown that intermittent fasting can fight certain diseases. For example, animal studies have supported fasting benefits for diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s.
Intermittent Fasting / TRE Benefits
- Support weight loss / healthy weight maintenance
- Help support gut health
- Induce autophagy–the body’s ability to clean and rejuvenate cells
- Reduce your risk for chronic diseases
- Improve insulin sensitivity
- Reduce inflammation
- Boost metabolism
- Increase endurance
- Enhance cognitive function
- Lengthen your lifespan
The key rules of TRE are that your eating window should be shorter than 12 hours, shoot for 6-8 hours, and no eating within three hours prior to bedtime. No coffee or caffeine after 2:00 pm, and no alcohol within 3-4 hours of bedtime.
Fast Like a Girl: A Woman’s Guide to Using the Healing Power of Fasting to Burn Fat, Boost Energy, and Balance Hormones
In the book, “Fast Like a Girl: A Woman’s Guide to Using the Healing Power of Fasting to Burn Fat, Boost Energy, and Balance Hormones” Dr. Mindy Pelz, reviews how time-restricted eating (TRE) can improve your health and balance your sex hormones. In general, I believe TRE is one of the most foundational strategies to stay healthy, but the devil’s in the details, and Pelz will tease out some of those here.
Whether you know you have a hormonal imbalance or after reading this post there are so many dots connecting I recommend grabbing both Dr. Pelz’s book and the at-home hormone test kit (I linked both below from Amazon).
What happens when a woman’s hormones are out of balance?
When we approach hormones we have to take a team approach. Hormones do not work independently of one another. When your thyroid hormones are not working properly, it does not mean it is just your thyroid. People with adrenal fatigue often are also suffering from hypothalamus and pituitary gland problem. Think of hormones like the dominos effect, if one falls it knocks all the others out of balance too.
Some of the most common outer struggles from hormonal imbalance are covered here Hormones and Weight Gain and here Hormonal Imbalance Diet. Hormonal weight gain is often the biggest telltale sign something is off. The weight normally appears mostly in the stomach, known as the hormonal belly, the hips, butt, and thighs giving that pair-shaped figure no one wants! It can feel impossible to lose hormonal weight gain, if you have been struggling check out those two posts next!
Related Posts to read next on this topic:
How to Heal Autoimmune Diseases Naturally
If Weight Loss with Hormonal Imbalance You Have to Get Your Food Right
Odds are pretty good that if you have gained weight and not been able to easily lose it, or have been overweight for more than a year then there is a hormonal imbalance involved. Regarding the question of whether being overweight or obese causes a hormonal imbalance or does hormonal imbalance cause obesity the simple answer is yes!
It doesn’t really matter which came first if you have one the other is soon to follow.
The best diet for hormonal weight gain in my own personal experience, and in helping so many heal their hormones as well is hands down the Clean Keto Diet.
Clean Keto is essentially the keto diet minus the dairy and avoiding highly refined processed foods I like to call Frankin’ Foods. Foods that are not real, are cooked up in a lab somewhere using God only knows what, and they are made to last on the shelf for years and be highly addicting so that you buy more.
When I started Keto almost six years ago now it was the school of hard knocks for me. I spent months researching and meal planning trying to figure it all out myself. Now, I can recommend to you the Custom Keto Meal Planner for weight loss as the big red easy button to start Keto.
Custom Keto Meal Planner quizzes you on your taste buds and weight loss goals and then formulates the perfect done-for-you meal plan to fit your needs. It even emails you the weekly shopping list for less than a dinner out with friends (it’s under $40 per month).
Hormonal Harmony Supplement
If you are really serious about hormonal weight loss you can combine the keto diet with the right supplements to give you a boost right out of the gate.
Hormonal Harmony HB-5 is an all-in-one supplement to support resetting your hormones. Formulated with all-natural ingredients and is essentially a multivitamin for your hormones.
For my full review and in-depth research on this supplement check out t
Weight Loss is the BEST Way to Heal Hormones
Losing weight is key when we are working on rebalancing our hormones to their happy healthy hormonal balance. As I said above with the whole which came first the chicken or the egg? When there is a hormonal imbalance in the body there is extra weight and/or obesity 9 times out of 10.
The reason for that is obesity causes hormonal imbalance, and hormonal imbalance causes obesity.
The tricky part about losing hormonal weight gain, or losing weight with a hormonal imbalance is the whole “eat less workout more” advice WILL NOT WORK!! Let me repeat the old, broken way of thinking “just eat less and workout more” will not work if you have hormonal issues!!
I hope reading this saves you time and headache or at the least makes you feel better that you have not failed yourself and that no matter how little you ate or how hard you worked out nothing was working. It is not your fault, and there is hope for fixing this problem I promise. I have been in your shoes I know the frustration.
For a deep dive into the eating style I used to heal my hormones check out this post next Hormonal Imbalance Diet.
Conclusion
Implementing Time Restricted Eating (TRE) or intermittent fasting for hormonal balance, weight loss, and overall metabolic fitness over the age of 40 is one of the most effective and proven ways to improve a healthy hormonal balance naturally. It has only been in the last 100 years that humans have had food so readily accessible and thus the 3 meals plus multiple snacks throughout the day topped with the highly processed frankin’ foods we see in stores today.
Not only does overeating cause our bodies to have to work overtime to digest foods, but it also does damage at a cellular level.
Eating less, focusing on foods that are nutrient-rich, and cutting out snacking is a total game changers when it comes down to maintaining or rebalancing hormones to a healthy happy hormonal balance.
Let me know in the comments below. Have you ever tried TRE in the past? What was your experience?
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