While calories count, hormones count more.
It’s one of the cornerstones of the Bulletproof Diet…
And bringing misfiring hormones back into balance just might be the most powerful biohack for everything from your waistline to your energy – and even your lifespan.
After all, just a handful of hormones regulate your body shape, your metabolism, your appetite and your cravings in a way that no amount of calorie cutting can possibly compete with.
It’s a lesson I learned the hard way after getting my first hormone panel from an anti-aging doctor in my late 20’s…
Because seeing those lab results in black-and-white, it suddenly made sense why years of dieting and hours every week in the gym just weren’t cutting it:
If you’re a guy approaching 30 with the testosterone of a 50-year-old and the estrogen of a middle-aged woman… no amount of spinach and kale or time on the treadmill will give you a six-pack.
And women tend to have it even worse…
When you combine higher sensitivity to stress, naturally lower testosterone (which boosts metabolism and keeps you lean) and ugly cultural body-shaming trends with conventional weight loss and exercise wisdom…
It’s no wonder that about 80 percent of women in America are on some kind of diet – even as obesity rates continue to climb.
So what’s the solution?
Few doctors have put as much research into solving this problem for good as Dr. Sara Gottfried…
And after hosting her as a three-time Bulletproof Radio guest and a speaker at last year’s conference in Pasadena, I’m thrilled to be able to share her latest book with you as the May selection of the Bulletproof Book Club.
It’s called The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism and Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days – and here’s why it deserves a place on your Bulletproof bookshelf (and a priority spot on your reading list):
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Balancing your hormones is about more than just estrogen and testosterone…
When your hormones are out of balance, you tend to store extra fat no matter what you do. And whether you’re a man or a woman, the problem usually starts with too much estrogen.
That’s only the beginning, though…
In fact, Dr. Gottfried identifies no less than seven key hormone resets (estrogen, insulin, leptin, cortisol, thyroid, testosterone and growth hormone) that need to happen before you can fix your broken metabolism.
If that sounds like a lot… the good news is, you can accomplish all of them in 21 days (three days each). And you only need to tackle one at a time.
First, Reset #1 tackles estrogen dominance – the same hormone imbalance that gave me man-boobs in my 20’s, and puts many women over 35 at risk for everything from stubborn weight gain to diabetes and even cancer.
Yet sadly, the usual fix for estrogen overload in women is nothing more than a prescription for birth control pills.
That’s the treatment Dr. Gottfried herself learned at Harvard Medical School… and she admits it wasn’t until her early 30’s that she finally made the connection between estrogen and weight gain.
By then, she’d already suffered through years of diets herself… even though the culprit was hiding right in the grocery aisles.
The number one suspect?
Conventionally raised red meat.
Call it the revenge of the modern corn and soy-fed, hormone-injected cow:
After all, it’s how they get fat – on top of the estrogens lurking in their food, most get synthetic estrogen compounds that improve “feed efficiency” by making them pack on pounds with 30 percent fewer calories.
One bone to pick: The book’s prescription is to start off your 21 days by going meatless…
And while that might be the simplest solution (especially if you don’t have an easy alternative)…
All you really need to do to get rid of excess estrogen hiding in red meat is to replace typical supermarket CAFO cuts with pastured, grass-fed beef that helps repair your metabolism rather than wrecking it.
Then, once you’re through your first three days, each three-day reset helps you hack the rest of your metabolic hormones back into balance one by one.
And unlike typical “all or nothing” diets, Dr. Gottfried only makes you (temporarily) give up one thing at a time – including…
- Sugar and fructose: Not only does sugar lead to insulin resistance and diabetes… it also makes you resistant to the hunger hormone leptin so you never get the signal to stop eating when you’re full. If that’s not enough, it also raises testosterone in women and fuels estrogen dominance…
- Grain: Want one more reason to avoid gluten? Dr. Gottfried cites recent studies showing that your body can mistake gluten proteins for your own thyroid tissue – leading to auto-immunity that can make weight loss the least of your problems…
- And environmental toxins: This might be one of the most frightening statistics in the book – the average woman gets exposed to no less than 515 synthetic chemicals every single day. Some through food, and others through cosmetics, hygiene products and household cleaners.
Pick your poison: Some of these chemicals can make you numb to insulin and leptin and spike your blood sugar. Others called androgen disruptors raise testosterone in women and lower it in men. And meanwhile, estrogen and thyroid disruptors attack your natural hormone levels from all sides.
Forget hormone balance – it’s enough to cause full-on hormone anarchy…
One toxin-fighting tip from the book (Page 202):
You can help your body detox by taking care of your
mitochondria – the energy power plants of your cells.
(And one small ampule of Unfair Advantage gives your
mitochondria all the fuel they need – save 10% automatically
this month at checkout – no coupon code required.)
Fortunately, The Hormone Reset Diet gives you a roadmap to getting your misfiring hormones back under control without making you change your lifestyle overnight…
And even though the book makes it simple, Dr. Gottfried never tries to make any of this sound easier than it really is.
Because even though she’s a physician, she’s refreshingly honest from the start about her own battles with weight loss and dieting.
“I used to be fat,” she admits in the first line of the book. “and… I’m a doctor.”
- Fixing your metabolism means finding the foods that make you weak (not just going on a diet)…
Most diets are a one-way street:
You give up a list of foods, and then you’re supposed to stay away from them forever.
Instead, like The Bulletproof Diet, Dr. Gottfried encourages you to find your personal “food code” by strategically re-introducing suspect foods to identify the worst offenders.
Of course, you can try to spot your worst food sensitivities at any time using tools like the Bulletproof Food Detective app on Apple iOS or Google Android.
Yet after you cut a particular suspect food (dairy, for example) out of your meals for a week or more on the Hormone Reset Diet plan, you may not need any technology to spot the difference in how you feel.
The book calls this your “re-entry” phase. And by separating the foods you can tolerate (at least sometimes) from the ones that sabotage your performance and ruin your day…
You get the maximum long-term benefit without feeling like you’re stuck on a typical restrictive diet plan.
- It’s not only the foods you eat – it’s also the thoughts you think…
Dr. Sara Gottfried isn’t just a Harvard-trained M.D. – she’s also a certified yoga teacher…
And right alongside the peer-reviewed clinical studies, she emphasizes what she calls “Cell to Soul” practice to replace your vicious cycle of food-fueled stress with a virtuous cycle of relaxation and positive emotions.
That means it’s not only about balancing your hormones: Through a combination of mindfulness, Heart Math and other techniques she aims to help you balance your mental state right along with them.
It’s rare to find chapters about awareness and gratitude in a diet book – let alone a book written by a physician.
And it’s just one more reason The Hormone Reset Diet belongs on your shelf (or your tablet).
Bonus: The final chapter of the book includes dozens of recipes – many of them completely Bulletproof. Like the Mint Chocolate Chip shake on page 257… the Quick Green Tonic on page 260… the Tea and Collagen Frappe on page 261… the Butternut Squash Salad “croutons” on page 266… or the Crispy Sweet Potato Wedges on page 274.
My takeaway: Dr. Sara Gottfried’s latest book The Hormone Reset Diet gives you a step-by-step plan to balance your hormones and heal your metabolism without feeling like you’re on a starvation diet…
And again – even though she wrote the book for women, 90 percent of the advice inside applies whether you’re male or female.
So if you still find yourself suffering through food cravings or battling stubborn extra pounds that just won’t go away, you owe it to yourself to give Dr. Gottfried’s plan 21 days and find out if one of the seven hormone resets might be the culprit.
You can grab a copy for 48% off the cover price on Amazon right now – and when you do, make sure you join the conversation about this month’s pick in the new Bulletproof Book Club Facebook Group.
Plus – if you missed last month’s first-even selection, check out the review of Bill Harris’s new book “The Science of Super Awareness” right here.
