Natural Ways to Increase GLP-1 & Lose Weight Without Medication

We are going to talk about natural ways to increase GLP-1 and lose weight without medication. Drugs like Ozempic or Monjaro are all the craze right now, but what if you don’t want to take any drugs, or you’ve tried them but they made you really sick, or you’re not able to take these medications because they’re very expensive

In this guide, we are going to go over a simple framework that you can start today to naturally increase your GLP-1 hormone levels, which is basically what drugs like Ozempic or Semaglutide do, and we will go over the best foods to target to maximize your GLP-1 levels, and we’ll also talk about the best supplements that have the strongest evidence behind them to boost your GLP-1 levels.

If you’re already taking these GLP-1 medications like Semaglutide or Terzapotide, we would still recommend following this framework, because if you naturally enhance your own GLP-1 levels, that’s going to help you supercharge the effects of these drugs.

They’ll help you achieve even better results, and with less side effects, because the way these drugs work is they mimic the action of your naturally occurring GLP-1 hormone in your body, a hormone that is released by the intestine after eating a meal.

So these drugs imitate your body’s natural response to food, which helps you feel full, and it helps you feel less hunger and cravings for comfort foods.

But sometimes these drugs create too strong of an effect, where instead of feeling fuller faster, we feel full all the time, and we run into issues like not actually getting enough macronutrients like protein, or we get dehydrated, or we run into issues like heartburn or nausea, even with the smallest portions.

Some people absolutely do need these medications, and research has shown that people that struggle with obesity tend to have lower levels of GLP-1 hormone compared to people with normal weight, and some people may have resistance to GLP-1, so their body cells just do not respond as effectively to the hormone signals. A lot in people that suffer from diabetes and insulin resistance.

But regardless whether you’re on these drugs or not, it’s always better to maximize your own natural levels of GLP-1 and minimize the amount of drug that you need, as that’s what’s going to help you minimize side effects.

Optimizing Your Fiber Intake

Optimizing your fiber intake is one of the most powerful ways to boost your GLP-1 levels. Fiber is all the craze right now, but there’s many different types of fiber, and there’s only specific types of fiber that have been shown to elevate your natural GLP-1 levels.

To understand why fiber is so important, we need to understand how our body naturally produces GLP-1 to begin with. So as we eat, the food that we ingest activates a cascade of hormones produced by your intestine, and one of them is GLP-1, which among many other things, that hormone tells your body that you’re full, and it starts to suppress hunger signals.

GLP-1 also releases insulin, and it slows down how quickly food moves from your stomach into the intestine, which is something we’ve evolved evolutionary to basically not use up all the fuel that we eat all at once. But the GLP-1 that is released by the intestine works extremely fast, and it’s very easily degraded once it hits the bloodstream.

So if your body doesn’t naturally produce a lot of GLP-1 after a meal, you don’t get the satiety or fullness signal, and you’re hungry again just an hour or two later. So this is where drugs like semaglutide, or another name for that is ozempic or Wigovi, differ from the natural GLP-1 hormone that our body produces.

The synthetic version of GLP-1 that we get from medications, it hangs around in the blood for days, which helps people feel fuller and more satisfied with smaller meals. And the amount of GLP-1 you get with a drug is so much greater that more of it is able to reach our brain circuitry, where it shuts off appetite and cravings directly. And it turns off that food noise, or that constant chatter telling you to eat, or the constant planning of future meals.

Now back to fiber. Since our bodies are not able to initially break down or metabolize fiber, it slows down the absorption and the transit of food in our intestines. And once fiber gets into our colon, it gets broken down into molecules that trigger additional GLP-1 release.

And not just GLP-1, but other hormones that our body uses to signal fullness or satiety. And it’s those signals that eventually lead to weight loss. So fiber gives you that initial release of GLP-1, first as food travels from your stomach to your small intestine, right after you eat.

But then, if you eat a lot of fiber, you’ll get that second burst of GLP-1 about four to eight hours later, as that fiber reaches your colon. And because you get that second boost of GLP-1 and other satiety hormones, like PYY, many hours after you eat, this helps you with cravings between meals. And it helps you eat less at your next meal.

Some scientists call it the second meal effect, where eating a lot of fiber will give you the GLP-1 boost right around the time you eat your next meal. Now once again, not all fiber is created equal. And the specific fiber that you want to increase your GLP-1 levels are your fermentable fibers.

So you want to prioritize fibers like beta-glucans, which are soluble fibers that are found in the cell walls of certain plants and yeasts. And the foods that are rich in beta-glucans are oats and barley and rye. And you can also find it in seaweed and many mushrooms.

Now beta-glucans will probably give you the biggest bang for your buck, but other soluble fibers will also give you that natural GLP-1 release. So you can’t go wrong with foods like apples or pears or any kind of legumes. So it’d be things like peas or lentils or chickpeas.

Monounsaturated Fats

There are certain fats that are absolutely crucial in raising your GLP-1 levels. And that is your monounsaturated fats. Now most fats are very satiating, and that’s why keto diets can be so effective in weight loss for some people, because eating more fat just makes you feel fuller.

But we have to be careful because we want to prioritize monounsaturated fats, because they’re much better at stimulating GLP-1 release than saturated fats like butter. And there’s older studies that show that olive oil induced higher concentration of GLP-1 and GIP than butter. And another good source of healthy fats is avocados.

We have a study from 2019 that showed that eating high-fat meals using whole avocados resulted in a bigger release of GLP-1 and PYY, which is another satiety hormone, compared to the low-fat control group.

There is also research that shows that eggs, and specifically egg whites, can be especially beneficial for GLP-1 secretion. And there was a randomized control trial that showed that when compared to a breakfast with bagels, a breakfast containing three eggs in adult men was associated with a lower postprandial glucose concentration and decreased hunger and reduced energy intake at the next 24 hours.

Incorporate more Fermented Foods into your Regimen

kay, another powerful way to boost your GLP-1 levels is to incorporate more fermented foods into your regimen. So it’d be things like kimchi, or sauerkraut, or yogurt, or miso, or tempeh. And there was a recent review study published last year that noted that fermented foods have an impact on the microbiome-gut-brain axis.

It noted that these fermented foods can influence our enteroendocrine system to release hormones like GLP-1 and PYY and neuropeptide Y. And these hormones, or signals, which is how our gut communicates with our brain. And it tells the brain to shut off hunger and cravings and thoughts about food.

Best Supplements To Boost Your GLP-1 Levels

Berberine

The best supplements that have been shown to boost your GLP-1 levels is berberine. Because there’s studies that show that berberine works along this special pathway called the PLC-2 pathway in the intestinal cells. And what it does is berberine induces the production of short-chain fatty acids, which is what triggers GLP-1 secretion from our cells.

There is another way that berberine can increase your GLP-1 levels. And that is by fixing the intestinal cells that normally produce GLP-1, but cells that are often damaged, especially in people with diabetes or insulin resistance. And we have this animal study that was published in Nature that potentially sheds light on the whole process.

In the study, research showed that berberine improved mitochondrial stress in colon cells in mice, which in turn restored the cell’s ability to produce GLP-1. And that mitochondrial stress is what some scientists believe is what contributes to the disease process and diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Curcumin or Turmeric

Another supplement that’s been shown to help with GLP-1 levels is curcumin or turmeric, which is frequently used to help with diabetes and insulin resistance.

There is a recent meta-analysis that showed that turmeric lowers fasting blood glucose and it lowers your hemoglobin A1c. And we have animal studies like this one that showed that curcumin administration stimulated GLP-1 release and it improved blood glucose control.

Now, there are many other supplements that people speculate can increase your GLP-1 levels with things like ginseng or cinnamon, but it’s based on very limited data, so it’s too soon to tell.

Conclusion

These are simple framework to increase GLP-1 levels naturally, without drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro, Zepbound. We also go over the best foods and supplements to boost GLP-1 levels without medications.