By Mike Roussell, PhD
We always look at our fat cells as the enemy – making our pants too tight, causing unsightly bulges under our shirts, and stubbornly sticking to that area below our belly buttons.
I want to propose a radical idea to you…make friends with your fat, take care of it, and fix it.
An ugly truth is that you’re stuck with the fat cells you have, so why not make the best of a bad situation?
Why? Because your fat cells can actually help you lose weight. You may be thinking “How could that even be possible?!”
Simple! Your fat cells don’t just sit there.
They actually release their own unique hormones, which scientists call adipokines, which help regulate your body weight.
When these hormones aren’t optimized, weight loss is harder; but optimize them, and they will help you lose weight faster.
Here are three ways you can optimize these hormones for more efficient weight loss.
1. Move More – Studies show that moving more (fidget more, take more steps, exercise, etc.) is associated with having higher levels of the adipokine adiponectin.
Adiponectin is your lean body hormone.
Getting your fat cells to release more adiponectin will cause your muscles to soak up more energy (out competing fat cells) and allow you to burn more calories.
2. Eat More Antioxidant-Rich Foods – If you are overweight, then you probably already have high enough levels of the hormone leptin, a hormone that signals your brain and regulates your body weight and appetite.
The problem is that your brain isn’t getting the signal.
Researchers believe that antioxidants are the key to re-sensitizing the brain to leptin.
Eating more antioxidant-rich foods like raspberries and blueberries will get you started on the right track.
3. Sleep More – It may sound counter intuitive, but sleeping more may actually help you lose more weight.
Research shows that it doesn’t take too many nights of not sleeping enough before your fat cells start to release less leptin (remember the more leptin, the better).
Sleeping more should be the easiest of all these fat cell fixes. Just turn the TV off and get to bed!
Put these three simple steps into action and starting fixing how your fat cells are functioning.
This will get your fat cells working for you, actually help you lose weight, and not the other way around.