NovemberMasterclass:

HUNGER HORMONES
 Introduction
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your body worked in a binary of yes vs. no, on vs. off, etc?

This would make it super easy to change your body in various ways. Want to gain muscle? Just
do this, this, and that. Want to increase your metabolism so you can enjoy more food? Well,
here’s the equation to create that.

But…for all of us in a body, especially the particularly tricky bodies of peri- and post-
menopausal women, life isn’t quite that simple. Actually, your body never works in a simple yes
vs. no binary, and that becomes much more obvious during hormonal changes. (so, if you’re in
the peri- or post-menopausal part of life, your body isn’t “weird” or “wrong”, it’s just finicky).

One of the main problems with diets and dieting culture is that they sell the idea of that binary
(“I have the answer for you!! You just need to do THIS!”), so when it inevitably doesn’t work
(which is a fact of nature), you blame yourself. You believe that you must have done something
wrong when in reality, it was always the diet that was wrong.

Hunger hormones like ghrelin, leptin, and insulin, are sold to us as an easy math equation to
follow. But, they’re not. Many things outside of the food you eat can influence how these
hormones interact with the cells in your body.

One of the most eye-opening nutritional studies I’ve ever come across was done by psychologist
Alia Crum. She’s done a few incredible food habit studies that should have turned our ideas
about nutrition and weight loss upside-down (but instead, dieting culture ignored them). This is
the one that left me totally gobsmacked:

This short 3.5 min video does a great job of explaining it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIfhxt0JCok
If you’re not in a space conducive to watching a video, here are the Cole’s notes:

Your BELIEF about a food and how indulgent or “light” it is plays a major role in your body’s
release of these hunger hormones, specifically ghrelin. We’ll be diving into this hormone in
detail in this masterclass, but here it is in a nutshell:

High ghrelin = hungry

Low ghrelin = satisfied and full

When you eat something that you believe is filling, abundant, or decadent, then your ghrelin
levels fall 3x more than if you believe that same food (exactly the same recipe and quantity) is
“diet” or a low-cal food. This means you literally feel more satisfied if you believe that food is
more satisfying.

So, ya, this is one of the reasons that you feel hungry constantly if you’re eating a low-cal diet.
You know it’s not satisfying, you know you’re not eating enough, so your body doesn’t lower
ghrelin enough and you stay hungry.

…isn’t that AMAZING?!?!?!?!

So, in this masterclass, we’re going to dive into these hunger hormones and how to make them
your friend instead of battling them all the time.

This masterclass is in 3 Parts:

Part 1 – Insulin
Part 2 – Ghrelin and Leptin
Part 3 – How to make friends with these hormones
Happily, these hormones are befriended in similar ways, so you don’t need to manage 3
different protocols to keep them all happy.

Let’s dive in!

Part 1 - Insulin
In this part, we’re taking a deep dive into insulin. What it’s used for, why we need it, and how it
affects our appetite and hunger.

What is insulin & why do we need it?

Insulin is a hormone that our body uses to manage the sugar in our bloodstream. Glucose, our
main energy source, rises in our blood after we eat and reduces a few hours later. But glucose
needs to be heavily managed in the body because it’s like a teeny tiny shard of glass…it can
damage the cell if there’s too much.

Insulin is released in concert with glucose and helps the cell manage this little shard of glass.
Insulin binds to a receptor site on the cell and opens up the glucose gate for one molecule to go
in. Insulin stops glucose from flooding into the cell and causing damage.

We can see how helpful insulin is when we look at our brain and eyes. They don’t use insulin and
they are the first organs damaged by high blood sugar. This is why diabetics are at risk of
blindness and cognitive problems. Our whole body would be at risk if it wasn’t for our friend
insulin.

But, like with all good things, too much is a problem.

If insulin is too high in our blood, then it triggers inflammation. High insulin comes from high
blood sugar and high cortisol. So, let’s look at high blood sugar.
Blood Sugar Rollercoaster

So many of us are on the blood sugar rollercoaster that it seems normal. Of course, I get testy
when I’m hungry. Of course, I get tired and crave sugar in the afternoon…doesn’t everyone?

Yup, everyone on the blood sugar rollercoaster does :)

I use the term “blood sugar rollercoaster” to describe the ups and downs we get when our blood
sugar isn’t well managed.

The story of this rollercoaster usually starts with breakfast. If you eat a breakfast that’s not
balanced for your lovely body, then your blood sugar might get a bit high. The biggest culprits
are sweetened drinks (like sugar in your coffee) and refined food that is high in sugar but low in
fibre, healthy fat, or protein. Think pancakes, 0% fat sweetened yogurt, or white toast with jam.

Once you’re on this particular rollercoaster you might feel a twinge of hunger mid-morning or
you get VERY hungry if lunch is a bit late. These are signs that your blood sugar is a bit low and
your body will ask for something sweet to bring it back up. We always overcompensate, so
instead of a small boost, you get another spike.

The blood sugar rollercoaster is most evident by the late afternoon. The lunch spike is long gone
and now you’re dipping really low. Lows always equal the high – a small high = a small low. A big
high = a big low.

Now it’s 4pm or 5pm and you’re exhausted, hungry, grumpy, and your day isn’t over. Yes, your
4pm sweet craving is just a symptom of the blood sugar rollercoaster.

Symptoms of imbalanced blood sugar (rollercoaster symptoms) –

Tired and craving sugar around 4pm
Feeling hungry within 3 hours of eating
 Your hunger feels – demanding, changes your personality, lowers your energy
You wake up feeling hungry or feel hungry in the middle of the night
You feel GREAT after a sweet treat…and then feel impatient, tired, and frustrated after
about an hour
You have sore joints, inflamed skin, etc (Inflammation is triggered when our blood sugar is
high)

Blood Sugar, Insulin, Insulin Resistance & Type II Diabetes

Your blood sugar and the hormone insulin dance together all day, every day. They’re partners
and need each other to work properly.

When we eat food, our digestive system breaks it up into its chemical properties, carb, fat,
protein, vitamins, minerals, etc. For this story, we’re going to focus on carbs.

The carbs in our diet break down into sugars – glucose, fructose, and galactose. ALL carbs break
down to these sugars eventually (including non-starchy veggies) and that’s GOOD. We need
these sugars!

Our body likes to run on a steady supply of glucose. Fructose and galactose are converted to
glucose when needed by the liver. And extra sugars are stored in the muscles and fat cells for
later use.

When we eat whole food carbs with lots of their natural fibre, it takes time for those foods to be
broken down, so we get a slow and steady drip of glucose into our bloodstream.

When we eat refined carbs and especially when we drink a sweetened drink, the glucose heads
into the bloodstream super quickly and we get a high boost of glucose. This puts us right on the
blood sugar rollercoaster.
Now comes insulin -
Glucose in our bloodstream needs to move into our cells, and that’s where insulin comes in. Our
pancreas gets a signal to secrete some insulin anytime we have glucose in our blood.

Remember, insulin is a hormone that acts as a gatekeeper for our cells. Our cells want glucose,
but too much can damage the cell. If a cell is “hungry”, then insulin binds to a receptor site on
the cell and that allows just enough glucose to enter the cell.
That process continues happily until the glucose gets low in the bloodstream…and then we feel
hungry and it all starts over again!

When there’s too much sugar… (Insulin Resistance)

When there’s chronically too much sugar in the bloodstream, insulin becomes like an annoying
neighbour to the cell.

Instead of waiting until the cell is hungry, insulin needs to get rid of all of this glucose so comes
knocking at the cell. If the cell gets too much sugar for too long, then it might break its insulin
receptor so the insulin can’t bother it anymore.

But…the cell will need sugar eventually and so it sends a signal that it’s hungry, but the insulin
can’t bind anymore.

When this happens, we can feel hungry all the time even though our blood sugar is pretty high.
And high blood sugar can trigger inflammation and damage arteries.

If this process continues and too many cells have damaged receptor sites, then our blood sugar
can be high in blood tests.(this is fixable too…so don’t worry if you’re feeling these symptoms).
Symptoms of insulin resistance –
sugar cravings after meals
feeling tired after a meal
trouble sleeping

Check out Part 3 or our Blood Sugar Masterclass to find balance :). But first, it’s time to learn
about ghrelin and leptin, two hormones that also control our hunger.

Part 2 – Ghrelin & Leptin

Now that we’ve looked at insulin, which is the loudest hunger hormone, let’s look at the quieter
hunger hormones. They play a role in your hunger every single day, but they’re rarely talked
about.

Let’s start with ghrelin, whose main job is to keep you from starving. …but you might feel that
your ghrelin is doing too good of a job (a.k.a. asking for food ALL.THE.TIME)

Ghrelin is mostly a hormone that triggers hunger and is released when your stomach is empty.
The longer it has been since you’ve eaten, the more ghrelin will be released. But it also helps to
manage your glucose levels throughout the body as well as your energy balance.

…most hormones wear many hats in the body, which is why many body systems struggle when
one hormone is out of balance.

One of the hats ghrelin wears is to trigger the release of growth hormone from the pituitary,
which helps to break down fat and promote muscle building. It also has an anti-inflammatory
effect on the cardiovascular system, but little is known about this function right now.
New research is also pointing to the possibility that ghrelin helps with memory creation and
stress, which may even help develop new treatments for Parkinson’s, anxiety, and depression.

…all this from a hormone that makes you hungry :). And since we’re looking at its hungry
properties, let’s dive into that.

Ghrelin is produced mainly by the stomach, with small amounts released in the small intestine,
pancreas, and brain.

Ghrelin is released when your stomach is empty and quiets down once your stomach stretches
when filled with food. It takes about 10 – 15 mins for this signal to reach your brain, so you
might have a full stomach but still feel ravenous.

And this is often due to one little habit – fast eating.

Think about it, A LOT of food can be eaten in that 10 – 15 min window, and if you can keep
gobbling up food at a fast rate, it becomes so easy to feel absolutely stuffed instead of
wonderfully satisfied after eating.

So, the key is – eat slower. And, eat bulky food that takes up a lot of space, like fibrous veggies :).
They also take time to chew, so that will automatically slow you down. Win win.

What you eat is also as important for ghrelin release as how you eat. Carbs and protein will
restrict the amount of ghrelin released more than fat, which means that carbs and protein may
be more satiating. But we also know that healthy fats help to slow down the digestion of food,
which also helps you stay full longer…so all three macros are important :)
Low calorie diets and ghrelin

If you’ve ever been on a low-calorie diet you might remember feeling wildly hungry after you’ve
stopped following the diet. That feeling wasn’t psychosomatic, it was due to ghrelin.

Ghrelin’s job is to keep you from starving and to your body, that low-calorie diet is creating a
situation that looks like starvation. So, your body ramps up ghrelin levels to try to encourage
you to start eating. A 1200 calorie diet is about half of what an average adult needs to eat each
day, so it makes sense why your body is freaking out.

Ghrelin doesn’t calm down after one meal or one day after you start eating enough…it continues
for a while. This is one of the reasons why weight loss from low calorie diets is almost
impossible to maintain. Your body is trying to “fix” the starvation!

The body feels the size you were at before the diet was your healthy size, and now that food is
available again it wants you to EAT!

Yes, this can be frustrating if you have a different idea of what body size you’d like to be, so let’s
look at why your body is doing this so we can have more understanding and less frustration.

Ghrelin and Your Body’s “Set Point”

Food abundance is a relatively new concept for the body, along with fibre-free access to glucose
(a.k.a. refined flour and sugar). Our bodies haven’t had a chance to adjust to this new lifestyle of
ours.

Instead, our bodies are wired to cope with starvation.

And that’s ghrelin’s job! To keep you alive when food is scarce by prodding you to eat whenever
there’s food available. Think about a time of starvation in the past, you might have lost a lot of
energy reserves and muscle mass, and once food is around again your body is DESPERATE to
create those reserves again.

Your body will also ramp up ghrelin levels if you’re exercising a lot as well. Your food intake
might be fine, but if you’re burning a ton of energy reserves through exercise, it’s going to make
you hungry as well.

Today, we spend much more time creating starvation to drop some of what we’ve deemed
“unnecessary” energy reserves, even if your body disagrees. Ramping up your ghrelin levels to
make you hungry isn’t undermining all of the work you did on the diet, it’s your body trying to
get back into balance.

But…all is not lost. We can make our hunger hormones happy AND create the body we’d like
(within reason, your body doesn’t want you to be under a certain body fat %...even if the
magazines tell you it’s possible)

And remember, as we learned in that milkshake study, ghrelin will start to lower when you
BELIEVE you’ve eaten enough.

…there’s a wildly interesting phychological aspect to ghrelin.

But, before we get into how to find balance with ghrelin, we need to look at another hunger
hormone, leptin
 Leptin

Leptin is made in your fat cells and helps to manage your energy storage. In a nutshell, if you
have enough energy stored in your fat cells, then your leptin levels will be high. This reduces
your hunger because your storage (fat cells) is nice and full. If your energy storage is low, then
your low levels of leptin trigger hunger.

In a nutshell: ↑fat cells = ↑leptin = ↓ hunger

If ghrelin and leptin were two people on stage talking, you wouldn’t hear leptin because ghrelin
is so darn loud. There are a bunch of new leptin supplements popping up* right now and at the
moment it’s best to just ignore them. Adding more leptin to your system *may* cause more
leptin resistance (since we still don’t quite understand what’s going on) and it doesn’t really
matter because ghrelin will drown out the leptin anyways.

* These supplements are mostly in the US; they may never make it to Canada because they’ll need
research to confirm they’re effective)

When leptin is working well in the body, it creates an optimal metabolism, balances mood, and
even helps with mental sharpness. Out of balance it can lead to weight gain, mood swings, and
brain fog – these are similar symptoms to low thyroid, and leptin and thyroid are connected.

There’s another problem – leptin resistance. It’s another reason why you can ignore the leptin
supplements. Our cells can become resistant to the signals of leptin, so our leptin levels can be
high (aka, no need for storing energy), but our body keeps sending glucose for storage. Our
body thinks we’re starving even though we have plenty of energy in our fat cells, triggering lots
and lots of hunger.
This is something we can help :) …more on that in the next section, just wanted to give you a
heads up so you don’t get too frustrated in this section :)

This is also similar to insulin resistance and high insulin levels can increase leptin resistance.
Happily, similar habits can help both.

And, interestingly, men tend to have more insulin resistance, and women tend to be more leptin
resistant. When was the last time you heard about leptin resistance? It’s so rare! Just another
example that the mainstream advice tends to ignore women.

It looks like this difference has to do with fertility. Women are much more sensitive to leptin
because their ability to carry a baby for 9 months depends on their energy stores. So, yes, this
means that women are much more sensitive to weight gain and resistant to weight loss vs. men.

And, so, we just need to look at it differently :)

Lastly, it looks like our sensitivity to these hunger hormones may determine our ability to
maintain our weight. So, if you’re frustrated that you feel hungry all the time even though you
have plenty of energy stored…then working on your hunger hormone sensitivity might be
helpful :)

So, let’s look at that – how to increase your sensitivity to insulin, ghrelin, and leptin :). Head over
to Part 3!
 Part 3 – How to befriend these amazing hormones
Befriending your hunger hormones is a very lovely thing. You can feel satisfied after eating,
your blood sugar stays stable, and your body can balance your energy stores.

The trouble is, many/most diets have messed these hormones up, so it’s not a wonder why many
feel hungry all the time, even after eating. But balance can be found! So, let’s look at how.

HOW TO INCREASE YOUR GHRELIN AND LEPTIN SENSITIVITY:

1. Believe the meal you're eating is satisfying -

I had trouble getting my head around this one, so I’ve put the link to the study if you need some
more convincing. As we learned from the video in the intro, if you believe that the meal you're
about to eat is enough food, then your ghrelin levels will decrease more than if you believe it's a
"diet" or "low cal" meal. It's another example of your body hating deprivation.

Here's the study if you’d like to read more: https://www.npr.org/.../mind-over-milkshake-how-

your...

One of the ways I do this with my meals is by eating dinner using a smaller side plate. Honestly,
this felt really strange at first, but I quickly realized that it was the perfect amount of food for
me. I can fill my side plate up to be bursting with food, and I feel totally satisfied afterward.
Now, when I use a normal dinner plate for dinner, I find I eat too much AND I don’t feel like
there’s much on my plate (so much empty space!). It’s an annoying combo that I avoid at all
costs.

Try it out and let me know what you think – how does eating off a side plate feel to you?
2. Eat slowly and chew your food really well –

Give ghrelin time to tell your brain that you’ve eaten by eating sloooowly. About 15 mins to eat
a meal is ideal.

Often, once someone starts eating slowly, they realize that they need less food to feel
wonderfully satisfied…sometimes half as much. You may or may not be eating more than your
body wants, you might be filling your plate perfectly, or you might be taking more than needed.
The only way to know is to sloooooow down and chew your food. Your food will also taste
better :).

But what if you don’t like to eat cold food? Use the smaller plate suggestion above and keep the
rest of your food warm in the kitchen. That way if you’d like more, you can grab it while it’s still
hot and lovely :).

3. Prioritize your sleep –

Sleep plays a big role in your hunger hormones. Do your best to get to sleep at a reasonable
time each night and if you're struggling with sleep (you're not alone in that!), spend some time
experimenting with different options until you find something that helps you sleep.

Check out the Sleep Masterclass or send me a message if you'd like some sleep support❤.

4. Get out and move -

Exercise is a great way to increase your hunger hormone sensitivity. If sleep eludes you, go for a
walk or get some movement each day. It'll help your hormone sensitivity and might help you
sleep as well.
Weight training is particularly good at reducing insulin and leptin resistance and it doesn’t seem
to trigger as much hunger as cardio does. (cardio is still good, just don’t overdo it :). Get out and
build some muscle!

5. Avoid high-fructose corn syrup –

Frequently labeled "glucose/fructose" and it’s found in most commercial sweetened beverages.
This little manufactured sugar is really hard on our cells and can increase leptin and insulin
resistance. Having a bit of high fructose corn syrup occasionally (like around the holidays) isn't
a big deal, just avoid it as a regular thing.

Especially avoid it in beverages, your body really struggles to deal with that HUGE surge of
glucose and fructose. Refined fructose has been connected to leptin resistance, so that’s
another good reason to avoid it.

6. Enjoy more whole food carbs –

You don’t need to avoid carbs even if your insulin or leptin levels are high! Actually, whole food
carbs contain tons of fibre that help you feel full faster (lowering ghrelin) along with all of the
nutrients your body needs to balance your insulin/glucose dance and they slowly trickle into
your bloodstream (no surges).

A glorious serving of roasted root veggies with brussels sprouts is a favourite meal addition for
me in the winter. Delicious!

Supplements/foods to help with insulin resistance

The research on ghrelin and leptin is so new that there isn’t a lot of info on specific foods or
supplements that can help. But we know a lot more about insulin resistance, and these
foods/supplements can be really helpful :)
 1. Chromium (200 - 600mcg per day) - this is a trace mineral and a common deficiency. It
literally fixes your insulin receptors

1. Cinnamon – as a spice or a supplement, cinnamon helps to lower blood sugar. Happily, it’s a
delicious addition to any sweet treat!

1. Berberine – this is a plant compound (alkaloid) that can help to lower blood sugar. It has a
long history of use in Chinese medicine and has recently become popular in North America.
It can cause a major reduction in blood sugar levels, so be careful unless you know your
blood sugar is high.

In Conclusion

Hunger hormones can feel complex but balancing them can be as easy as adding a few habits to
your day. There’s so much in our culture that makes it hard for our body to find balance and the
solution is simple – more whole foods, less refined.

Do you feel like you understand these hormones better and what to do? Let me know by email
or below in the comments. I’d love to know what you think :)