I'm a big Parrillo fan, I like his takes on nutrition and supplementation, not that I use his products exclusively, you can use your supplements of choice, I just like how he uses them and love the end results. Here's a good article on Hormone control!

Trying to lose weight? Following a precontest program for ripped abs and rope-like quads? The challenge of weight loss is impacted by your hormones. If you know how to manipulate them through diet, stripping away body fat gets easier. Let’s talk about how hormonal influence on weight management works.
Hormones are produced in the endocrine system, which consists of several organs in the body, including the pituitary gland, the thyroid gland, the parathyroid glands, the pancreas, the adrenal glands, the testes or ovaries and the kidneys. The endocrine system transmits information in the form of chemical messengers called hormones. (When parts of your body talk to each other using the nervous system, it’s like making a phone call, and when they use the endocrine system, it’s more like sending letters.)
The endocrine system is chiefly responsible for nutrient partitioning into the fat or lean compartments (1,2), and it issues its orders through hormones. Hormones are released from the various endocrine glands and are carried to all the tissues of the body by the bloodstream. The transmissions sent by the hormones are messages like “build muscle protein,” “store fat,” “burn fat,” “store carbohydrates,” “burn carbohydrates,” and so on.
You’re probably asking yourself, “But I thought this was determined by diet and exercise?” Yes, diet and exercise do determine muscle growth and fat loss, but these effects are mediated by hormones. Your diet and exercise habits set up a “hormonal environment” inside your body which determines if nutrients will be stored in the lean compartment or the fat compartment. This is the essence of nutrient partitioning.
Insulin & Glucagon
The key hormones I want to talk about for muscle-building and fat-burning are insulin and glucagon. You can learn how to control both through diet and exercise. Luckily for us, the levels of these hormones are, genetic differences aside, entirely determined by diet, so we can have control over them by carefully regulating what we eat. Insulin and glucagon are both produced by the pancreas, but have exactly opposite effects. Their chief concern is the regulation of blood sugar (glucose) levels. Your brain requires a constant supply of glucose for fuel, so the blood glucose level is tightly regulated to make sure the brain never runs out of gas.
When you eat carbohydrates, they are digested and absorbed by the small intestine and transported directly to the liver via the portal vein. Essentially, all of the carbohydrate you eat is converted to glucose by the liver before being released into the bloodstream. After a meal, your blood glucose level rises as carbohydrates are released. This rise in blood sugar triggers a release of insulin from the pancreas. Insulin is required to help move glucose into cells.
Once inside cells, the glucose is burned for energy or stored as glycogen. Everything is fine so far. The problem arises when carbohydrates are released into the bloodstream too fast. This causes too much insulin to be released. When insulin levels get too high, some of the carbohydrate is converted to fat instead of being stored as glycogen. Also, if insulin levels get too high this actually causes too much sugar to be moved into cells. This results in “hypoglycemia,” which means low blood sugar. If your blood sugar is too low you feel very tired. Simple sugars cause your blood sugar level to spike, then paradoxically to decrease to a lower level than before (because of insulin over-release).
Slow the Rate of Digestion, Stay Lean
This is why the rate of digestion of your meals is important. On the Parrillo diet you stay away from foods containing simple sugars (sweets, fruit, dairy products) and refined carbohydrates (bread and pasta) because these are released into the bloodstream too fast, causing too much insulin to be released. This channels calories to fat stores - the opposite nutrient partitioning we want.
Combining protein and fibrous carbs with your starches, and avoiding simple and refined carbohydrates, slows the release of glucose into the bloodstream resulting in a lower, but longer, insulin release. This gives you a uniform energy level and channels calories toward muscle and away from fat.
Stimulate Fat-Burning
Glucagon is also secreted by the pancreas, but it has the opposite effect of insulin. An increase in blood sugar triggers a release of insulin but inhibits glucagon release. Glucagon is released several hours after a meal when blood sugar levels drop. Glucagon has the effect of reducing glucose for energy and stimulating breakdown of body fat and the use of fat for energy. Glucagon also stimulates the glycogen breakdown. The net result of glucagon is to raise the glucose levels back to normal and to signal the body to begin using fat for energy since it’s running low on carbs. Insulin decreases blood sugar by moving glucose into the cells, stimulating glucose burning for energy and increasing glycogen storage. Glucagon acts to increase blood glucose levels by stimulating glycogen breakdown, stimulating glucose and by shifting the metabolism from carb-burning to fat-burning.
Protein, Carb, and CapTri® as Fat-Burning Agents
The precise levels of protein and carbohydrate to eat in order to optimize these hormones to maximize muscle growth or fat loss are described in detail in the Parrillo Performance Nutrition Manual. First, you want to meet your protein requirement by eating 1.0 to 1.5 grams or more of protein per pound of body weight per day. Next, limit fat calories to 5% of your total daily caloric intake. Last, make up the remainder of your calories with a combination of carbs and CapTri®. For weight loss, you generally want to limit carb:protein ratio to 1.0:1.5 and use more CapTri®. For muscle gain you will want to increase the carb:protein ratio as well as increasing total calories.
Add in Other Supplements
Of course, there is considerable biochemical variation among individuals. Hi-Protein Powder™ and Pro-Carb Powder™ are very useful tools for dialing in your own body’s optimal insulin:glucagon ratio. To gain lean body mass, meet your body’s protein requirement then slowly add in more Pro-Carb™ until you find the optimal caloric level and insulin level for your body to gain lean mass. To lose fat, you want to decrease carbs while increasing protein and CapTri®. Hi-Protein™ and Pro-Carb™ are convenient ways for you to experiment and find how to optimize your body’s hormonal responses.
One last thing about insulin. In addition to it enhancing transport of glucose inside cells, it is also required for transport of certain amino acids into cells. These include the branched chain amino acids, and this is why it is important to take your Muscle-Amino Formula™ with meals and not on an empty stomach. It has been found that neither insulin nor growth hormone alone is sufficient to stimulate growth - you have to have both of them together at the same time.



Stay Strong~~!!!
IPL