In our body nothing happens by accident.
Every single physiological process in our body is a tight orchestration of hormonal signals. Whether our heart beats faster or slower is tightly controlled by hormones. Whether the calories we eat are burned as energy or stored as body fat is also tightly controlled by hormones. So, the main problem of obesity is not necessarily the calories we eat, but how our bodies use them. And the main hormone we need to know about is insulin.Insulin is known as a fat-storing hormone, which plays a key role in energy regulation. When we eat, insulin levels rise, signaling the body to store some of the food energy as fat. During periods of fasting, insulin levels drop, prompting the body to burn stored fat for energy. Hoever chronic elevation of insulin levels drives the body to store more energy as fat, contributing to weight gain.
Hormones are crucial not only to obesity but to the entire system of human metabolism, including body weight regulation. Critical variables like body fat are not left to the unpredictable factors of daily food intake or exercise alone. From an evolutionary perspective, maintaining an optimal level of body fat was vital for survival: being too fat made it difficult to hunt or escape predators, while being too thin made it harder to endure periods of food scarcity.
This precise regulation of body fat relies heavily on hormones. Just as we do not consciously control our heart rate or body temperature, we do not consciously regulate our body weight. Hormones like ghrelin signal hunger, while others, such as peptide YY and cholecystokinin, signal fullness. Hormones like adrenaline can increase energy expenditure, while thyroid hormones can decrease it. Obesity can therefore be viewed as a hormonal imbalance that disrupts fat regulation. When our diet sends the wrong hormonal signals, the body responds by accumulating more fat.
Once we understand that hormonal imbalances, particularly involving insulin, can drive weight gain, we can develop more effective treatments. If we assume that excess calories alone cause obesity, the solution would simply be to reduce calorie intake. However, this approach has consistently failed in the long term. On the other hand, if elevated insulin levels contribute to obesity, it becomes clear that lowering insulin is essential.
The issue isn’t just about balancing calories—it’s about balancing both calories and hormones, especially insulin.
Insulin levels increase in two main ways:
1. Consuming foods that strongly stimulate insulin.
2. Eating insulin-stimulating foods more frequently.
The key to sustainable weight control lies in managing insulin, the primary hormone responsible for fat storage. There are no medications that effectively regulate insulin for this purpose; controlling it requires dietary changes.
Two factors influence insulin’s behavior:
1. What we eat – which determines how high insulin levels spike.
2. When we eat – which affects how long insulin levels remain elevated.
Most diets focus solely on the first factor—what we eat—and this is likely why they fail over time. Addressing only half the problem cannot yield lasting success.
This isn’t about following a specific type of diet, whether low-calorie, low-carbohydrate, vegetarian, low-fat, or carnivore. The focus is on designing a diet that lowers insulin levels, as insulin is the physiological trigger for fat storage. If reducing fat storage is the goal, lowering insulin is essential—and this can be achieved even with a diet that includes carbohydrates, as long as it is structured to manage insulin effectively.
If you are facing challenges with weight management, we encourage you to schedule a consultation with a qualified medical professional.
This isn’t about following a specific type of diet, whether low-calorie, low-carbohydrate, vegetarian, low-fat, or carnivore. The focus is on designing a diet that lowers insulin levels, as insulin is the physiological trigger for fat storage. If reducing fat storage is the goal, lowering insulin is essential—and this can be achieved even with a diet that includes carbohydrates, as long as it is structured to manage insulin effectively.
If you are facing challenges with weight management, we encourage you to schedule a consultation with a qualified medical professional.