Stop dieting like a man! Top hormone doctor shares weight loss plan
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Women are often misunderstood, especially when it comes to managing weight in their 30s.
These issues start when they enter midlife, and as those extra pounds from stress and the holidays become harder to shred, the diets they turned to in the past just don’t seem to deliver results anymore.
And it can be disheartening to see that diets that work for the men in their lives don’t seem to have the same effect on them.
Dr Sara Gottfried reveals that the solution cannot be found by counting calories or clocking up miles on the treadmill. Instead, it lies in understanding the female hormones.
Sara Gottfried, M.D., is a three-time New York Times bestselling author of The Hormone Cure, The Hormone Reset Diet, and her newest book, Younger. After graduating from Harvard Medical School and MIT, Dr Gottfried completed her residency at the University of California at San Francisco. Photo from DaveAsprey.com.
A woman’s metabolism is the sum of all the biochemical reactions in their body, and this includes the hormones, which dictate how fast one would burn calories.
And as we grow older, our whole metabolic process slows down as well.
Hormones also govern our response to food. But this relationship goes both ways; food regulates our metabolic hormones too.
The key lies in two things: eating the right foods in the right way to support metabolic-boosting hormones, and avoiding foods and habits that slow your metabolism and contribute to premature aging.
Losing fat after the age of 35 requires discipline on what to eat, when to eat it, and how your food talks to your hormones.
Dr Gottfried’s experience with patients allowed her to devise her own plan called The Gottfried Protocol, which is a diet tailor-made for a woman’s body.
The diet includes: a detox component, a modified carb count, healthy fats, protein, and an element of intermittent fasting.
The Gottfried protocol rules are as follows:
Eat healthy protein
Moderate amounts of protein help jumpstart growth hormone, testosterone, and other metabolic hormones. Dr Gottfriend recommends sources such as grass-fed beef, oily fish, whey protein shakes, eggs, and chicken.
Eat healthy fats
If you have increased belly fat, insulin, and blood sugar problems, then your body may be producing more of the types of fat that make you resistant to weight loss.
Dr Gottfriend recommends eating healthy omega 3-rich fats found in flaxseed and oily fish. You can also add MCT oil and chia seeds to your smoothies, or macadamia nuts and avocado oil to your salad.
These help you feel full most of the time, slowing down the spikes in blood insulin and helping your body keep the fat-burning switch in the ‘on’ position.
Up your fibre
Women need to eat more fibre and non-starchy vegetables than men in order to keep their hormones regular.
Dr Gottfried finds that temporary restriction to carbohydrates is the most effective, and one can start with 35 g to 50 g per day.
For this plan to work, it is also important to get your carbs from the best possible sources. She recommends avoiding all sugar and refined carbohydrates. The daily carb ‘allowance’ fits in a small pancake, a small portion of cooked pasta or rice, or a slice of bread. One can also enjoy it as salad and vegetables.
Start eating several hours after the sun rises (ideally after exercising on an empty stomach) and stop eating a few hours before the sun sets. Photo from Getty/iStockphoto/everydayplus
The 14:10 fast
Intermittent fasting is the best way to wrangle with those fat-storing hormones (such as cortisol, insulin, and leptin), according to Dr Gottfried.
She recommends the 14:10 protocol, which means 14 hours of overnight fasting, and 10 hours of eating window.
If done regularly, your body will be more aligned with the release of nearly every hormone you produce. Benefits include optimal levels of insulin and growth hormone (and other hormones), fat loss, increased energy and stamina, and many more.
Exercise three times a week
The protocol also includes a routine of weekly workouts. The more strenuous it can be, the better. The point is to sweat regularly, which helps in releasing toxins in the body.
Dr Gottfriend’s ideal combination is two-thirds of lifting with heavy weights and one-third of cardio.
Say no to wine (and other alcohol)
Sadly, alcohol makes things worse if your hormone levels are out of balance.
To make it easier to abstain, think of alcohol as liquid sugar - it goes directly to the liver, clogging it, making you more resistant to weight loss.
This is based on an article written by Dr Sara Gottfried for The Daily Mail.
These issues start when they enter midlife, and as those extra pounds from stress and the holidays become harder to shred, the diets they turned to in the past just don’t seem to deliver results anymore.
And it can be disheartening to see that diets that work for the men in their lives don’t seem to have the same effect on them.
Dr Sara Gottfried reveals that the solution cannot be found by counting calories or clocking up miles on the treadmill. Instead, it lies in understanding the female hormones.
Sara Gottfried, M.D., is a three-time New York Times bestselling author of The Hormone Cure, The Hormone Reset Diet, and her newest book, Younger. After graduating from Harvard Medical School and MIT, Dr Gottfried completed her residency at the University of California at San Francisco. Photo from DaveAsprey.com.
A woman’s metabolism is the sum of all the biochemical reactions in their body, and this includes the hormones, which dictate how fast one would burn calories.
And as we grow older, our whole metabolic process slows down as well.
Hormones also govern our response to food. But this relationship goes both ways; food regulates our metabolic hormones too.
The key lies in two things: eating the right foods in the right way to support metabolic-boosting hormones, and avoiding foods and habits that slow your metabolism and contribute to premature aging.
Losing fat after the age of 35 requires discipline on what to eat, when to eat it, and how your food talks to your hormones.
Dr Gottfried’s experience with patients allowed her to devise her own plan called The Gottfried Protocol, which is a diet tailor-made for a woman’s body.
The diet includes: a detox component, a modified carb count, healthy fats, protein, and an element of intermittent fasting.
The Gottfried protocol rules are as follows:
Eat healthy protein
Moderate amounts of protein help jumpstart growth hormone, testosterone, and other metabolic hormones. Dr Gottfriend recommends sources such as grass-fed beef, oily fish, whey protein shakes, eggs, and chicken.
Eat healthy fats
If you have increased belly fat, insulin, and blood sugar problems, then your body may be producing more of the types of fat that make you resistant to weight loss.
Dr Gottfriend recommends eating healthy omega 3-rich fats found in flaxseed and oily fish. You can also add MCT oil and chia seeds to your smoothies, or macadamia nuts and avocado oil to your salad.
These help you feel full most of the time, slowing down the spikes in blood insulin and helping your body keep the fat-burning switch in the ‘on’ position.
Up your fibre
Women need to eat more fibre and non-starchy vegetables than men in order to keep their hormones regular.
Dr Gottfried finds that temporary restriction to carbohydrates is the most effective, and one can start with 35 g to 50 g per day.
For this plan to work, it is also important to get your carbs from the best possible sources. She recommends avoiding all sugar and refined carbohydrates. The daily carb ‘allowance’ fits in a small pancake, a small portion of cooked pasta or rice, or a slice of bread. One can also enjoy it as salad and vegetables.
Start eating several hours after the sun rises (ideally after exercising on an empty stomach) and stop eating a few hours before the sun sets. Photo from Getty/iStockphoto/everydayplus
The 14:10 fast
Intermittent fasting is the best way to wrangle with those fat-storing hormones (such as cortisol, insulin, and leptin), according to Dr Gottfried.
She recommends the 14:10 protocol, which means 14 hours of overnight fasting, and 10 hours of eating window.
If done regularly, your body will be more aligned with the release of nearly every hormone you produce. Benefits include optimal levels of insulin and growth hormone (and other hormones), fat loss, increased energy and stamina, and many more.
Exercise three times a week
The protocol also includes a routine of weekly workouts. The more strenuous it can be, the better. The point is to sweat regularly, which helps in releasing toxins in the body.
Dr Gottfriend’s ideal combination is two-thirds of lifting with heavy weights and one-third of cardio.
Say no to wine (and other alcohol)
Sadly, alcohol makes things worse if your hormone levels are out of balance.
To make it easier to abstain, think of alcohol as liquid sugar - it goes directly to the liver, clogging it, making you more resistant to weight loss.
This is based on an article written by Dr Sara Gottfried for The Daily Mail.
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