Confident Eaters

Help! I Messed Up My Hormones (Part 1: Resetting Melatonin and Leptin)
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Georgie: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Confident Eaters Podcast, where you get proven methods to end overeating, emotional eating, and stressing about food. We are heading for harmony between your body, food and feelings, hosted by me, Georgie Fear, and my team at Confident Eaters.

We got a message from a listener that really struck a chord because honestly, a lot of people feel this way. She wrote in wondering if years of dieting and intermittent fasting may have messed up her hormones.

And if you've ever felt like your body just isn't responding, the, way it used to, your sleep is off, your cravings are intense, your period's irregular, you're definitely not alone. We're here to help unpack what's really going on.

Christina: Here's what she wrote. There are two things I can think of that I have questions on. I would love to hear any information on recovering or balancing hormones that have been imbalanced due to eating improperly. IE: have been doing intermittent fasting for over 14 years. And until recently when I found your podcast and listened to the breakfast episode and also the intermittent fasting episode, have I discovered that my sleep has suffered along with my period. I have recently been put on estrogen, but also started eating breakfast day three. So far. Any information that would include proper hormone balances would be helpful. I also listened to your sleep video, but I have chronic insomnia and I think it's my own fault for my restriction in the years I have been doing this, but I'm hoping I'm on the road to recovery since finding you and Georgie. Also, the sleep issue. I know you mentioned the importance of it, but if it's hard for some, how can we still get it back to its proper state? Are there other things we can do to help regain a healthy sleep routine Again? Supplemental vitamins? Or anything else you could recommend. [00:02:00] It's definitely a battle that maybe time will help since breakfast has been added. We will link all of those episodes in the description as well, if you wanna go back and listen to the ones she's referring to. There's a lot to unpack in this question. So we're gonna break it down into four parts. First, we'll look at what's actually happening on a hormonal level when someone has been undereating fasting or restricting calories long term. Specifically, how that can disrupt key regulators like leptin, ghrelin, and reproductive hormones. Then we'll go over some of the physiological symptoms that can result when those systems are out of balance, like poor sleep, disrupted cycles, low energy or increased cravings. And finally, we'll talk through evidence-based strategies to help the endocrine system recover, including nutrition, meal timing, and lifestyle changes that support hormone regulation over time.

Georgie: Buckle up. This is gonna be a big information filled ride spanning several episodes. For starters, when we're talking about hormones, those are chemicals that are synthesized in one part of the body, which circulate through the blood to a target organ, and they cause a change to happen there. For simplicity, you can think of them as chemical messengers circulating in your bloodstream.

Hormones are part of a slew of your body's basic functions, and keeping them tightly regulated is essential for health. This is collectively known as the endocrine system, and doctors who specialize in treating hormone related conditions are called endocrinologists.

Christina: I feel like I see the phrase hormone balancing everywhere right now. It's definitely having a moment, especially in wellness marketing aimed at women. Go figure.

Georgie: Hmm.

Christina: The promise is usually something like, balance your hormones and poof, you'll sleep better, lose belly fat, feel calmer, have fewer mood swings, and basically solve every problem in your [00:04:00] life.

Georgie: And of course, the solution is whatever they're selling, some supplement, diet plan or online course that just so happens to be exactly what your endocrine system has been crying out for, even though you're a complete stranger.

Christina: Exactly, but what bugs me is how vague it all is. They never say which hormones are supposedly "out of balance" or what balanced even means. There's rarely any testing involved. No real diagnostics. It's just this catchall term that sounds scientific, but doesn't actually explain anything. It kind of reminds me of how adrenal fatigue was blamed for everything a decade ago. Are you tired, stressed, craving sugar? Must be your poor little adrenal's burning out.

Georgie: Right? I mean, I get why it's appealing. Hormones do influence all sorts of things, but the real hormone imbalances have actual names and diagnostic criteria like PCOS where there's too much androgen activity. Or hypothyroidism where your thyroid isn't producing enough hormone and everything slows down. Your metabolism, your energy, even your digestion. Those are real medical conditions. They're not just a vibe.

Christina: Exactly. It's one thing to support your body with good habits, like eating regularly, managing stress, sleeping and getting enough nutrients. But it's another thing entirely to throw the word hormones around like a catchall villain. It's like blaming mercury and retrograde, but inside your body.

Georgie: Hormone balancing gets the same reaction out of me as detoxing. That's to say it makes my skin crawl. People say detoxing, but they can't name a single actual toxin. They just mean bad stuff in general. Same with balancing hormones. It's vague, it's overused, and it's often more about selling something than helping people understand what's actually going on in their bodies.

That said, having hormone levels that are [00:06:00] genuinely too high or too low is a legitimate medical issue. It's not just a wellness buzzword. Conditions like PCOS, hypothyroidism Type one Diabetes, graves Disease Acromegaly and Cushing Syndrome are all rooted in real hormonal imbalances. When hormone levels are off, it can impact everything from your metabolism to your menstrual cycle, your bone density, blood pressure, even fertility.

Christina: There are over 50 different hormones in the human body, and while some of them are influenced by things like food, sleep, stress, or exercise, others have nothing to do with lifestyle and need medical treatment. So if you're feeling off, don't assume it's automatically a hormone issue just based on symptoms. Talk to your doctor, get testing if needed, and don't skip real medical care in favor of something you found on TikTok.

Georgie: In this episode, and in the ones that follow, we're focusing on hormones that are most likely to be dysregulated by dieting, fasting, over training, or just everyday lifestyle stress.

Christina: we're going to cover some of the big players. Leptin, melatonin, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, ghrelin, GLP one, cortisol, and thyroid hormones.

Georgie: All right. First up is leptin. Leptin is produced by fat cells, mostly. I'm saying mostly because like many hormones, leptin can be produced in many different organs and have effects on many other organs. To keep things simple, I'm gonna focus on the major roles and not go into every detail. In the brain, leptin causes a decrease in appetite and it leads to an increase in thyroid hormone, which causes an increase in overall metabolic rate. In muscle cells, leptin also dials up fat burning. With these effects, decreased appetite, increased calorie burning, and more fat utilization, most people would [00:08:00] think, "I want as much of that stuff as possible." But it's not that simple. A person's leptin level is proportional to their body fat mass. So people with more body fat have higher leptin. People with very little body fat have lower leptin levels. High levels of leptin cause inflammation and increases in heart rate and blood pressure. This may be why having more body fat is linked to diabetes, certain cancers and cardiovascular disease. You might wonder if people who have more body fat have higher levels of leptin, why doesn't it suppress their appetite, increase their calorie expenditure, and make them lose weight?

The answer is that people become leptin resistant, so it stops having as much of an effect. The good news is that leptin resistance reverses itself when a person loses weight.

Christina: Pharmaceutical companies are working on drugs that might restore leptin sensitivity in people who have become resistant, but no therapies are available yet specifically for that purpose. The common diabetes drug, Metformin is associated with a small amount of weight loss in the first year of treatment, two to 3%. But even before that happens, there is evidence that it can partially reverse leptin resistance. To help with fat loss, you can avoid some choices which can cause your body's leptin level to plummet. When the amount of leptin in your blood is very low, your brain gets the message that you don't have enough body fat. That will make you ravenously hungry and not satisfied by a normal amount of food. Low levels of leptin lead to shutting off vital body functions to conserve energy. Body temperature will be lower because low leptin levels lead to reduce levels of thyroid hormone. The reproductive system can also shut down, meaning missed periods or infertility. One of the most fascinating effects to me anyway, is that your muscles become more mechanically efficient, so every motion burns less energy than it normally would. Your [00:10:00] body will decrease its production of immune cells since there is no energy to spare. For this reason, a very low leptin state leads to increased risk of contracting illnesses like the flu, cold sinus infections, et cetera. This constellation of unhappy symptoms is part of what people sometimes call starvation mode. Being cold, tired, infertile and sick all the time is no picnic. So how can we avoid it?

Georgie: Well, fasting causes leptin levels to drop dramatically and quickly even before body fat is lost. One study found that fasting for three days reduced healthy men's leptin levels by 90%. A modest energy deficit causes a much smaller decrease in leptin levels, and it doesn't lead to infertility, binge eating, hypothyroidism, or the immune system suppression that fasting can cause.

That's why we recommend making changes to your eating patterns lightly and to gradually reduce your energy intake. Fasting simply causes way too many problems.

The second thing you can do to maximize your body's production of leptin and maintain sensitivity to it is sleep. Sleeping fewer than seven hours a night causes leptin levels to fall, even if it's only one night. Sometimes you just can't avoid having a late or interrupted night, but prioritize getting regular and adequate sleep if you wanna optimize your endocrine system's function for weight loss.

Christina: The third way you can help improve your leptin sensitivity is to manage your triglycerides, because if they're elevated, it can interfere with leptin reaching its receptors in the brain and having its effects. Triglycerides are a routine blood test included when you have your cholesterol checked. If yours are higher than desired, chat with your doctor about how to lower them.,

Georgie: As the reader who wrote to us mentioned, fasting intermittently for 14 years could very well have thrown off [00:12:00] her body's leptin production. So her choice to start having breakfast and eating regularly is a wise one. She mentioned that she also has difficulty sleeping, which could be related to her intermittent fasting pattern.

Like many people who practiced time-restricted feeding, she skipped breakfast and got accustomed to eating during the later hours of the day. Not only is this detrimental to leptin levels, but it can interfere with regulation of the second hormone on our list. Melatonin. Melatonin is a key hormone in inducing sleep.

It's produced by the pineal gland, which is in your head. Melatonin gives your body a sense of daily rhythm, including sleep and wake cycles. Rising melatonin at night is what makes your body and brain feel ready to sleep. Fasting has been shown to decrease melatonin release, which means a harder time falling asleep and staying asleep.

A low carb diet FYI causes a similar drop in melatonin and trouble sleeping. Even if you are eating, technically, if you're on a low carb diet and your pineal gland isn't getting enough glucose, it's not gonna send you to dreamland.

Christina: So fasting is coming up again as a way that your hormones can be knocked out of their normal desirable range. Saying syanora to the breakfast skipping trend is one thing. What else can you do to aid your melatonin levels and hopefully have better sleep? Melatonin synthesis is increased by darkness and inhibited by light exposure. The trouble is many of us don't sit in the dark all that much. We spend almost our entire days looking at screens inside or surrounded by sunlight or artificial lighting. Getting a couple hours when you can be surrounded by dark or very dim, light is the most helpful thing you can do to help your body produce more melatonin when you need it. Unlike leptin, which can't be supplemented, melatonin is available as a dietary supplement in the US. However, it's available only by prescription in the [00:14:00] United Kingdom, European Union, Japan, and Australia. In low to moderate doses, five to six milligrams or less, it appears to be safe, however, it is not recommended for long-term use. If you take prescription medications, you definitely wanna consult your pharmacist or doctor to check for interactions because it's not a good match with many classes of drugs. Also, a 2017 analysis of 30 different melatonin supplements found that quality control is abysmal. Actual melatonin content was found to range from 83% less than stated on the label to 478% more than stated on the label. Different batches of the same product varied as much as 465% and 26% of supplements tested were contaminated with serotonin, A neurotransmitter.

Melatonin supplements have also been shown to make restless leg syndrome symptoms worse, but the study was done on only a very small number of people, eight to be exact, so it might not be significant.

Georgie: Melatonin does exist in many foods and a quick search. You will find plenty of listicles saying cherries and pistachios and salmon are great foods to help you sleep better. The amounts in food vary widely though. For example, the melatonin content in milk can vary tenfold based on whether the cows were milked in the evening or the morning.

Christina: Wow.

Georgie: Yeah. Pistachios contain high levels of melatonin relative to other foods, approximately 660 nanograms per gram of pistachios. But if you remember that supplements are usually dosed in the range of one to five milligrams and you own a calculator, you'd realize you have to eat about 500 kilograms or 1,102 pounds of pistachios to match a three milligrams supplement tablet.

That's a lot of [00:16:00] nuts. That said, all the foods which are high in melatonin, relatively high are perfectly healthy unprocessed food. It's not gonna hurt you to try and see if eating melatonin containing foods will help you sleep better. I just don't want you to get your hopes up too high. Before we wrap up this episode on melatonin, let's quickly run over some of the over the counter sleep aids out there, because let's be honest, if you've had trouble sleeping, chances are you've reached for something at the drugstore at this point.

Christina: Yep. And while melatonin is one of the more popular ones, there are a few others people turn to some helpful, some not so much for regular use. Melatonin's, great if you're dealing with jet lag, shift work, or have trouble falling asleep at a consistent time. if your sleep issues are more about anxiety, racing thoughts, or waking up in the middle of the night, melatonin may not be the best tool.

Georgie: In those cases, people often try antihistamines like diphenhydramine. That's the sleep ingredient in Benadryl, zyquil or Tylenol PM or doxylamine, which is found in Unisom sleep tabs.

Christina: These can knock you out, sure. But they also come with a downside. You build up tolerance quickly and they often leave you feeling groggy the next morning. Plus, they're not recommended for older adults because they increase the risk of confusion or falls.

Georgie: Yeah, and if you're using those regularly, it's worth asking why you're not sleeping. They're really best for the occasional rough night, not a long-term fix.

Christina: Then there are supplements like Valerian Root or CBD. Valerian is an herb that works for some people, especially if anxiety is keeping them up, but it can be hit or miss and it might take a couple of weeks to notice a difference. CBD also shows promise for sleep and anxiety. But quality and effectiveness vary a lot between products.

Georgie: One gentle and widely tolerated option is magnesium, especially magnesium [00:18:00] glycinate or citrate. Around 200 to 400 milligrams before bed can help calm your nervous system and support deeper sleep, especially if stress or muscle cramps are part of your problem.

Christina: I do this every single night and it helps me a lot,

Georgie: Oh, nice. Did try other stuff before magnesium?

Christina: I've done melatonin and it definitely made me feel groggy the next day. And I did Benadryl again, grogginess, and I don't wanna do that every day. But yeah, magnesium seems to be really effective for me.

One thing we don't recommend is using alcohol as a sleep aid. It might make you feel sleepy at first, but it messes with your REM and deep sleep and can actually lead to more waking up during the night. Not helpful.

Georgie: So to sum it up, if you're looking for sleep support, melatonin is great for resetting your internal clock. Antihistamines can help now and then, but are not ideal long term. Magnesium is a gentle daily option if stress is an issue and herbal stuff like Valerian or CBD might help but results vary.

Christina: And as always, focus on the basics first. Light exposure, meal timing, and stress management. Supplements can support your sleep, but they can't fix what your lifestyle is constantly working against.

Georgie: Well said. Sleep isn't just about knocking yourself out. It's about supporting your body's natural rhythm. Melatonin is just one piece of that puzzle. That wraps up our tips for today on leptin and melatonin, but you won't want to miss our next batch of endocrine explanations and hormonal help. Be sure to subscribe so you get all the info coming in the next episode, including a deep dive on estrogen, testosterone, thyroid, ghrelin, GLP one and more.

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