Glucagon Function: What Is It, How To Stimulate It, Affect On Hunger And Fat Burning

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Glucagon And Insulin Relationship: How Do They Work Together?

On today’s episode of Live Lean TV, I’m discussing the glucagon function, including what is it, how to stimulate it, and it’s affect on hunger and fat burning.

Before we get into it, I want to quickly share that if you want to listen to this blog post, you can listen to it over on our Live Lean TV podcast:

1. Just open up your podcast app
2. Search “Live Lean TV”
3. Subscribe to the podcast
4. Listen while you workout or during your travels

With that said, let’s jump into it.

Table Of Contents: Jump To Links

What Is Insulin?

In a previous post called, Insulin Resistance: What Is It, Causes, How To Fix It, I discussed the positive and negative sides of the insulin hormone.

However, if you missed that post, here’s a quick recap.

Insulin plays a positive role in the body when it is properly regulated.

It removes blood sugar from the bloodstream and delivers glucose and amino acids into the cells.

However, when high glycemic refined carbohydrates are consumed in excess, the body can quickly experience an insulin hormonal imbalance that can release a fat storing enzyme called LPL.

The LPL enzyme literally turns your body into a fat storing machine.

In this post, I want to talk about the antagonist hormone to insulin, called glucagon.

What Is Glucagon?

The glucagon hormone helps prevent low blood sugar levels and helps keep energy levels balanced.

When I say low blood sugar levels, this is typically lifestyle related caused by people who:

• Follow low calorie diets
• Skip meals
• Do excessive cardio

Glucagon, like insulin, is secreted by the pancreas and is also considered one of the hunger hormones along with leptin, ghrelin, and insulin.

Similar to the leptin hormone, glucagon is also considered a hormone that can turn off your hunger.

The secretion of glucagon can reduce the production of the hunger hormone ghrelin, and signal to the body the feeling of being full.

Glucagon And Insulin

Glucagon is also called the insulin antagonist because when glucagon rises, insulin decreases.

They’re essentially the yin and yang of blood sugar management.

When glucagon is released, it produces a fat burning enzyme called HSL.

Differing from the fat storing LPL enzyme, which is released by insulin imbalances, the HSL enzyme can turn your body into a fat burning machine.

In other words, the secretion of the glucagon hormone can initiate fat burning, rather than fat storing.

By keeping both insulin and glucagon in balance, your fat cells will deflate, and your body will maintain its role in burning fat for energy, rather than storing it.

What Stimulates Glucagon Release?

So you may be wondering, how can I benefit from this?

Remember, excessive insulin production, typically from the overconsumption of carbohydrates, especially refined carbohydrates, sets the stage for fat gain.

A balanced production of the glucagon hormone sets the stage for fat loss.

This is just another reason to reduce refined sugary foods and focus more of your carbohydrate intake on lower glycemic complex carbohydrates.

It’s also important to consume more high quality protein sources as glucagon can be stimulated by protein rich meals and snacks.

High quality protein sources include:

• Beef
• Chicken
• Fish
• Eggs
• Protein powder

And let’s not forget about your workouts.

Excessive, multiple hour cardio sessions are out.

Shorter, but intense resistance training and HIIT workouts are in.

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