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Ashwagandha And Weight Loss

When it comes to dietary supplements, there may be none more popular than those made to help people lose weight, which is why the link between ashwagandha and weight loss is under such scrutiny right now. With society seemingly more focused than ever on looking perfect, it only makes sense that people would look for all of the help they can get to try and get in shape. The problem is that supplement manufacturers often take advantage of this, which has led to the market being flooded with products that do not really work.

There are, however, many options that do help people lose weight, and one of the very best is ashwagandha. Unfortunately, many people have already been burned buying ineffective products in the past, so they are reluctant to give anything new a try. That is why we have created the following article explaining just how ashwagandha and weight loss are linked, to hopefully give everyone the knowledge and confidence to try it for themselves.

Table of Contents

What Is Ashwagandha?

Ashwagandha is an adaptogenic extract made from the roots of an Asian evergreen shrub known as the winter cherry, Withania somnifera, and Indian ginseng. Long used in ayurvedic medicine and other forms of traditional medicine in Asia, it is capable of providing an impressive array of health benefits for the human body.

These include combatting anxiety, depression, stress, inflammation, arthritis, diseases, and infections, improving testosterone and energy production and levels, brain and heart health and functions, exercise performance, mood, sleep latency, cycle and quality, and blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels, and helping deal with various other health issues (1).

We recently looked at all of these beneficial effects in two other articles we published, which people who want to learn more can read here and here.

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Ashwagandha And Weight Loss: How Does It Help You Lose Weight?

Reduces Stress and Cortisol Levels

Ashwagandha is well-known for its potent adaptogenic properties, which means it helps the body adapt to stress. Chronic stress can impact weight management in a variety of ways, including taking away your motivation to exercise, but perhaps none are more problematic than the fact that it will cause your body to produce more cortisol.

A steroid hormone known as the “stress hormone”, cortisol, is naturally made by the adrenal glands in the brain of all human beings, and it is produced as a direct response to stress. Having too much of this hormone in your system can lead to a range of issues, such as anxiety, depression, reduced mental functions, and inflammation. However, it is particularly bad at causing weight gain, especially around the belly, as well as things like high blood sugar and a slow metabolism that make weight management even harder.

Ashwagandha supplementation is capable of reducing cortisol production by balancing and regulating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is what controls the body’s stress response, including the production of cortisol. By lowering cortisol levels in this way, ashwagandha can help prevent stress-related weight gain, making losing weight significantly easier (2)(3).

Learn more about Ashwagandha and Cortisol Here

Improves Your Energy Levels

Ashwagandha is believed to improve a person’s overall energy levels by both enhancing the body’s ability to manage stress and boosting their stamina and endurance. Increased mental and physical energy levels will give you both the desire and ability to engage in strenuous physical activity such as a workout more frequently and for longer.

This will not only ensure that you burn more calories, which is extremely important when losing weight, but it will also help you build muscle, which is equally beneficial for enhancing weight loss, and we will now examine why that is in the next point (4).

Increases Muscle Mass & Metabolism

As we mentioned above, ashwagandha supplementation can help improve strength and muscle mass. It does this not only by giving you the energy to complete longer, more challenging workouts regularly, but studies have also shown that it can directly enhance the growth, strength, and recovery of lean muscle mass when combined with a suitable resistance training program.

This is beneficial for weight loss as the more lean muscle mass a person has, the faster their metabolism will be. As having a higher metabolic rate means a person will burn more calories, even during periods of rest, having a decent amount of lean muscle and fast metabolism is very beneficial to a weight loss program, as it ensures you will continue burning calories around the clock, maximizing the amount of weight you can lose (5).

Supports Thyroid Function

Studies have shown that ashwagandha supplementation can help improve thyroid function. It achieves this by stimulating the production of thyroid hormones like thyroxine and triiodothyronine, reducing stress and cortisol, preventing the thyroid gland from being damaged by inflammation or oxidative stress, boosting the endocrine and immune systems, and protecting glands like the adrenal and pituitary glands.

As a healthy thyroid is crucial for regulating a person’s metabolism, energy production, and muscular growth and development, using ashwagandha to promote optimal thyroid function is a great way to support weight management, especially in individuals with hypothyroidism, a condition that causes an underactive thyroid (6).

Balances Blood Sugar Levels

Some research indicates that ashwagandha might help lower blood sugar levels. It achieves this not only by reducing stress, cortisol levels, and inflammation, all of which can lead to high blood sugar, but also by improving insulin sensitivity and the function of the beta cells in the pancreas which produce it, which will help your body utilize the sugar you consume more efficiently.

Not only that, but it also directly enhances the glucose uptake of the muscles and even regulates lipid levels, which directly affect blood sugar levels. Doing all of this will not only help support weight loss by preventing the food you eat from being converted into fat as quickly, but it will also help to reduce cravings, particularly for unhealthy foods, ensuring that you keep your calorie intake down in the first place (7).