When it comes to burning fat, producing enough growth hormone is a big help. In adults growth hormone maintains and builds lean muscle mass and burns fat. In recent years many have opted to get growth hormone injections to build muscle and lose weight, but this can lead to many unwanted side effects. Given the right circumstances, your body is able to make growth hormone indefinitely. Unfortunately, in today’s world it is all too easy to block the production of growth hormone, but there are three easy ways to ensure that this does not happen.

Consumption of sugar, not enough exercise and lack of sleep all contribute to shutting down production of growth hormone. Simply put, in order to make more growth hormone you just need to avoid sugar, exercise, and get enough sleep. The problem is that most people don’t know how to completely avoid sugar or are getting the wrong type of exercise. When it comes to sleep, most people know that they need to shoot for 7-8 hours, but this is often seen as a luxury and not a necessity, which is the wrong attitude to have when it comes to sleep.

Most people don’t realize how much sugar they eat or how detrimental it is to their health. A sugar is anything that is a carbohydrate, so drinking alcohol, eating bread, pasta, potatoes or even too much fruit will result in higher blood sugar levels which will shut down production of growth hormone. Eating a diet of protein, veggies and small amounts of low glycemic fruits is best for promoting release of growth hormone and for your overall health. Even moderate amounts of alcohol and sugar in any form can set back fat burning for days.

Exercise is one of the best ways to boost growth hormone levels, but doing the wrong type of exercise can actually block its production. Intense exercise is the key to helping the body make growth hormone, but the problem is that intense exercise can also trigger the hormone cortisol, which inhibits growth hormone. The key to getting your body to release growth hormone without cortisol is to do intense exercise for a short duration. Doing 20 to 30 minute sessions of interval training or circuit training 3 times per week will accomplish this.

When it comes to burning fat, growth hormone is one of the many players involved in whether or not your body is going to shed fat or store it. There are several hormones that make your body burn fat and several that are designed to make you store it. Understanding how to control these hormones can be what will make or break your efforts to shed those extra pounds.

Copyright © 2012. Dr. Lindy Vaughn, DC, Integrated Health Systems. All rights reserved.