If we want to build and keep lean muscle, or have a lean, toned, and shaped body without the excess body fat, there are key hormones we need to look at:

Cortisol is our stress hormone, released in times of physical or mental stress. It's necessary, but when it goes too high it acts to break down the muscle we do have, prevent or slow new muscle gain, and create and hold onto body fat.

Estrogen and Insulin also play a large role here. 

On the other side we have Growth Hormone, Testosterone, and IGF, Hormones that act to repair muscle, bone, ligaments, etc, build lean muscle, burn excess body fat, and shape our body in both men and women.

But cortisol, estrogen, and insulin work on a sort of seesaw-reaction basis with growth hormone, testosterone, and IGF. 

Raise one side and the other side lowers, and vice versa.

Increase cortisol and we decrease testosterone and growth hormone levels, causing fat gain, preventing muscle gain, and even breaking down the muscle we do have. 

But raise testosterone and growth hormone and we lower cortisol, estrogen and insulin levels.

So while we've covered how to prevent cortisol, estrogen, and insulin from going too high in the above linked articles, in this article we cover how to increase levels of growth hormone, testosterone and IGF.

Let's dive in.

Cortisol is one of the most important hormones in our body. It’s been called the “stress” hormone because it’s released during moments of stress.

But it’s also the hormone that wakes us up in the morning, that starts the healing process in our body after any injury or workout, and that provides us with energy and mental focus when we’re “running low.”

But unfortunately, when cortisol levels go too high, it becomes something else.

It can cause muscle loss and prevent muscle gain, cause fat storage and prevent fat loss even when we’re exercising, cause low energy levels, cause us to feel stressed, cause poor sleep, and even slow or prevent healing and recovery.

If you have trouble with any of the above, it’s likely that higher than normal cortisol levels play a part.

But that’s when it’s too high. And, unfortunately, for many people in society today, it already is too high.

So let’s dive in and see what cortisol is, how it works and how we can balance our levels.

We’ve all seen energy drinks advertised on social media, by influencers, and even by athletes.

And the number of people drinking these on an almost daily basis has been growing for years.

But the effect these energy drinks, as well as high levels of coffee have on our bodies, our health, our sleep, our stress levels, our mood, our hormones, and our ability to lose body fat and gain lean muscle is much more than most people think.

These energy drinks have high amounts of caffeine, sugars, and processed sugars, often under the guise of several different ingredients so you don’t see quite how much is in there.

While they may list 160 mg of caffeine as an ingredient, other ingredients listed supply even more caffeine and other types of stimulants.

How much stimulant is actually in them? I don’t know. But much more than anyone needs, especially when they’ve usually already had a couple cups of coffee in the morning.

And, while having one once, or very infrequently, may not be too bad, when continued over time, these can have a very significant impact on our long-term health, our aging, and our body’s ability to function at optimal levels.

Beyond this, many people who drink these are in their teens or twenties, when their bodies are still developing and growing, and the damage they do here can be far worse, leading to acute or even chronic health issues in the future.

This may seem small, but due to their prevalence and availability now, it’s very important.

In this article we cover how this works, and even go into the sleep/wake cycle, what occurs there, and how this affects it.

When working out, blood flow is very important for both muscle building and fat loss.

It’s how the nutrients, water and oxygen needed for energy creation and muscle creation flow to our cells.

If our blood flow is lower, our cells do not get these nutrients or oxygen fast enough and our energy levels go down during high intensity workouts.

And it slows recovery.

Achieving healthy blood flow then is important for maximum results and maximum overall health.

We know about amino acids, hormones, and how different foods affect our ability to build lean muscle, burn fat and stay healthy.

But if we want to achieve maximum levels of energy, recovery, health and performance, and build the most lean muscle, then we need to go down to the cellular level.

After all, our bodies are just one big mass of some 100 trillion cells all bonded together.

How well we're doing is an exact reflection of how well our cells are doing.

And they require a multitude of nutrients and biochemicals, all held in equilibrium, to ensure they can work properly, produce energy, build muscle, and keep our body going.

When these aren't properly balanced we can get headaches, brain fog, low levels of energy, muscle cramps, slower recoveries from workouts, and imbalances in hormones.

But when everything is in place, we have the most powerful you that you can be.

So let’s see how this works.

Water retention is swelling in some part of the body, usually the feet and ankles, caused by large accumulations of fluid in the spaces between the body’s cells or in the blood vessels.

But it’s a symptom of something, not a condition in its own right.

And, while it can be caused by specific physical conditions of the kidneys, heart or circulatory system, most cases are actually due to lifestyles or diet, and they’re pretty easy to fix.

But there are many things that can cause this, so let’s jump in and see how this all works so you know what to do to help you.

We’ve all heard of gluten.

We’ve heard that it can be bad for us, not bad for us, mildly bad for us, etc.

But what is it really and what does it actually do?

Gluten is a mixture of proteins found in many grains, processed foods and commercial drinks that contain two specific proteins called gliadin and glutenin.

And for anyone sensitive, whether they know it or not, these can cause specific inflammatory responses throughout their body, most of which they never connect to the gluten they consumed.

It can cause stomach aches and IBS.

It can create a constant swelling of the stomach that we may confuse with excess body fat. So we try to exercise it off, but without any results as it isn’t body fat, it’s swelling caused by an inflammatory response.

When it gets into our blood stream it can affect any part of our body where it lands, or our whole body, as it will create an inflammatory response wherever it goes.

It can create aches we don’t understand, tiredness or lethargy, an overstimulated immune system, and even (by landing on healthy cells) lead to our immune system mistaking our own cells for harmful bacteria and so attacking them.

It can cause skin issues: redness, dryness, skin patches and more.

And it can cause a redness and/or puffiness in our face that we can’t seem to get rid of, and even spots of hyperpigmentation or pimples on our chin.

With all of this, it’s important to understand what it is, how and if it is affecting us, why, and what we can do about it.

So let’s dive in and see.

Do you ever have strong sugar cravings during the day, or when you start a diet to lose body fat?

Do you have a protruding stomach after you eat, or later in the day, that doesn’t make sense?

Do you get gassy or have bloating after eating certain foods?

Or do you ever feel like the food you ate in the morning is still floating in your stomach at dinner time, making you feel like you couldn’t eat more, but you’re still hungry?

These all come from a specific thing, or type of thing. 

It causes intense sugar cravings, a protruding stomach, gassiness and bloating, and makes us feel full or give us indigestion or heartburn.

It makes sticking to a diet a nightmare, raises cortisol levels, makes gaining muscle harder, and causes hormonal issues and energy crashes.

And it affects our mood and makes it harder to get good, deep sleep.

So let's see what these things are, how they work and what we can do about them.

Did you know whey powder can cause bloating? Or that it can cause poor digestion and even feed harmful bacteria?

It can. And many people using it don’t realize that some of that extra body fat they may be trying to get rid of isn’t body fat at all, but bloating from the whey they’re taking.

Many people use whey protein powders as an easy way to get in more protein to help them build muscle or just to keep their protein levels high.

In fact, it’s become fairly ingrained in the diets of many body builders and fitness trainers.

But does it help as much as most people think?

In this article we want to take you through a day in the life of someone using PerfectAmino and other BodyHealth Products to achieve sustainable fat loss, showing when and how they're taken for best results.

We have the PerfectAmino Usage Guide, which provides a high level description of how to take PerfectAmino depending on your goals, and which covers all the main questions.

But in this article we’re going to dive into the details, along with the proper diet and key actions during the day for the fat loss goal as covered in the Guide To Sustainable Fat Loss.

Did you know low levels of thyroid can bring on not only low energy and weight gain, but also contribute to depression and brain fog?

This can make thinking, problem-solving, and just coping with the everyday stresses of life much harder.

With the rise in hormone-blocking toxins in our environment, processed foods and processed sugars, and the low amount of protein most of us consume, low thyroid is affecting more and more people, especially among women and the elderly.

But there’s one more thing affecting this — low magnesium. Magnesium is necessary for thyroid to be produced inside the body. Yet it’s being processed out of our foods more and more every year, until more than half the people in the US are now magnesium deficient.

In this article we dive into what thyroid is, how low thyroid occurs, how it affects our mood, energy levels, mental alertness, and our ability to think and cope with the problems of everyday life and what we can do to raise it.

Did you know that when Estrogen levels rise too high, it can unbalance other hormones? And this significantly impacts body fat gain and loss?

We've covered several hormones now, from Insulin and Cortisol causing fat gain and preventing fat loss, to Growth Hormone and IGF, the hormones that come out while we sleep and which are largely responsible for fat loss.

We cover all of these because they all work together, each influencing the other, and if we want sustainable fat loss, we need to address each one.

But high Estrogen also plays a large role in all of this in both women and men, building excess body fat and lowering testosterone and growth hormone.

It also lowers thyroid, a hormone that regulates our metabolism, which in turn regulates body fat and energy levels.

And it lowers progesterone in women and men, a calming, fat-burning, testosterone-building hormone.

All of this leads to excess body fat, decreased muscle mass, worsened mood, higher stress levels, slower recoveries, and lower energy.

So let's see what's actually happening here, what causes this, and what we can do about it.