Losing Weight on "The Hormone Diet"

The Hormone Diet, by Toronto based Dr Natasha Turner ND, has become a #1 National Best Seller. The basic premise of the book is that by eating right to maintain optimal hormonal health, you can lose weight and live your best life. Hormones affect many areas of our health, from the way we gain or lose weight, our fertility, our moods and our stress levels. We spoke with Dr Turner to get the lowdown on her methods.

What is the basic premise of The Hormone Diet?

The basic philosophy of the book is simple: If you improve your hormonal balance, you can improve your overall health, your weight, and the way that you age.

Basically, controlling your hormonal balance is the secret to aging the best that you can. The exciting part about the book, which has been such an eye-opener for people, is that your hormones control so many aspects of your health. Most of us have signs and symptoms of hormonal imbalance every day, but we dismiss them as something that is normal or just part of aging.

People read the book and realize that those symptoms are due to their hormones being unbalanced and that those same imbalances might be sabotaging all their efforts in the kitchen or in the gym.

Is it a complicated plan to follow?

The diet is really easy to follow, but one misnomer about the book is that it really isn’t just a diet plan – I teach you every single aspect of a hormonally balanced lifestyle: How to eat, sleep and exercise in the optimal way for hormonal balance. Its not an expensive program to follow, all the foods are just good, wholesome foods and the workout is so simple that you can do it at home with a minimal amount of equipment.

How do you start people off?

Just like in my practice, people need to understand how their hormones work and so the first part of the book addresses this, and gives you a questionnaire with 16 sets of questions which help you figure out whether your hormones are balanced or imbalanced. Once you know how balanced you are, you start a 3 step process to get back on track.

The first step lasts 2 weeks, and isn’t focused on weight-loss – it is focused on changing your sleeping patterns so that you know how to sleep for hormonal balance. Most of us have no idea that when you actually sleep properly it is a great fat-burning activity.

The nutrition part, for those first 2 weeks, is about taking out all the foods that affect your hormones and can cause inflammation and allergic reactions. Quite often, people lose weight in the first 2 weeks because we’ve taken away those foods that cause water retention and bloating, and people can lose between 4 and 13 pounds. That can happen in the first 2 weeks just because people are controlling their allergies.

Alcohol is something that comes out of the diet immediately, because it really does a number on your hormones – as does sugar and artificial sweeteners. Its like a detox step, once you get through that first 2 weeks you can think about introducing those things back in.

What is the next step?

Based on your response to that 2 week detox, the plan goes on to then address the best diet for your personal hormonal balance. Its about choosing the right kinds of proteins etc for your body, which help you to optimize your hormonal balance, lose weight and look your best. This program can be completely tweaked to meet your needs. I tell you what foods to eat and what supplements you might want to consider using to correct the imbalances you discovered through the questionnaire.

The last step is all about the exercise. I recommend strength training 3 times a week, and cardio no more than twice a week. Because we all lose muscle as we age, and muscle maintains your metabolic rate and has a huge impact on your hormones, strength training is really key to staying healthy.

What kind of results do people get from following the plan?

We’ve seen amazing transformations from people that have been able to follow the program, just from the book. I’ve been seeing those transformations in my office for the past 11 years, but it has been so rewarding to hear that people are able to make those transformations on their own by following the program in the book.

Marlene Warnysky lost 87 pounds over 8 months by following the program. Seeing her now, you’d never know that she was someone that was very obese. (You can read more about Marlene’s story, in her own words, at the bottom of this article.) When she first came to my office, menopause was wreaking havoc on her life and it was really disrupting for her.  

This book is not specific to an age group, or to males or females, anyone can use this book and get results by following the program. As your hormones change throughout your life, this is a program you can keep coming back to. There are philosophies in this book that I hope people will follow for a lifetime. This book helps people understand why they are the way they are, everything starts to make sense to them after they read it.

Marlene’s Story

"It’s been an amazing year. I was having emotional health issues where I was yelling and screaming and really being quite vicious. I saw my GP about it, and she just said it was menopause, then offered my hormone therapy and anti-depressants. I didn’t want to take either of those so I started looking for alternatives. Someone recommended Dr Natasha, and I liked her as soon as I met her.

She recommended this anti-inflammatory diet and explained that it meant no sugar, caffeine or alcohol, and that was the hardest thing for me because I’m a red wine drinker. I went home, ate clean and followed the diet, then when I went back to see her 3 weeks later, I’d lost 17 pounds! I went, “Oh wow, okay,” and that really motivated me to stick with it. Plus, I felt much better emotionally.

I didn’t know at that point how far I’d be able to take it, but I knew that this was it, I was really going to go for it! It was going to be a permanent lifestyle change and not just a diet. I started seeing Dr Natasha in March, by the summer I needed to buy all new clothes, by September I had to get all those clothes taken in and by November we both decided that I’d reached my goal.

It isn't like I'd never had battles with my weight before, I had, but I'd never managed to lose so much weight and feel so good. I went from having 42% bodyfat to having 22%. I did what Dr Natasha said and it worked, it worked extremely well. I feel wonderful."

This post is a repeat, but look forward to more original content to come in the future.