11 Ways to Power Up Your Weight-Loss Hormones

We’ve been hearing about the importance of eating three square meals a day for years, and the advice might not be as outdated as it seems. If you consume enough protein, avoid excess carbs at mealtimes and eat regularly, you can avoid messing with the hormones that keep weight off. But if you skip meals, wait too long between meals, fail to consume enough protein, or eat the wrong foods, your body will experience more dips and spikes than it should—and that will throw your hormones, such as insulin and cortisol, out of whack.

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Specifically, waiting too long to eat between meals causes a blood sugar drop, which triggers a stress response in your body, which in turn releases cortisol—causing you to crash hard. That means you’ll probably overeat at your next meal, leading to a blood sugar and insulin spike. You can break this cycle by eating three or four square meals. If you choose to eat four times a day, have a meal that contains whey protein as your third one, to cut cravings and balance cortisol so you will eat less at your next meal.