Hormonal Imbalance And Weight Gain
Hormones play an integral role in metabolism and your bodys ability to use energy. Hormone conditions, such as Cushing syndrome, can cause you to become overweight or develop obesity.
People with Cushing syndrome have high levels of cortisol in their blood. This leads to an increase in appetite and fat storage.
Hypothyroidism, if the condition is severe, can also lead to weight gain.
Slight hormone imbalances can happen during menopause. During this transition, many people gain weight because their metabolisms slow down. You may find that even though youre eating and exercising like you usually do, you still gain weight.
The only way to treat weight gain from a hormone disorder is to treat the underlying condition.
During a typical pregnancy, your body goes through major hormonal changes. This is different from a hormonal imbalance.
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Hormonal Weight Gain Symptoms
Since hormonal weight gain is linked to many types of imbalances, it can cause different symptoms. The symptoms you have depend on the hormone involved and whether you have too much or too little of it.
In addition to trouble losing weight, common symptoms of hormonal weight gain include:
- A thirst that isn’t satisfied despite drinking water
- “Brain fog,” or an inability to think clearly
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Reduce Exposure To Exogenous Oestrogens
Hormonal imbalances may also be affected by our exposure to exogenous oestrogens. Exogenous oestrogens are an environmental source of oestrogen that mimics the oestrogen within the body and can cause imbalances.
Examples of exogenous oestrogens include:
- Female contraceptive pills
- Hormone replacement therapy
There has also been a rising concern surrounding day to day exposure from sources within food, plastics, and other household products.
To counteract and help balance exposure to exogenous oestrogens, there are some foods that can help balance the bodys oestrogen.
Foods to help balance oestrogen include :
My blog on should women be worried about exogenous oestrogens explains more about where they are found and how to avoid them.
The Role Hormones Play In Body Weight
Your hormones play a key role in metabolism, appetite, and hunger sensations. In fact, nine hormones directly affect your bodys digestive process and they can have a significant impact on your body weight, too.
Insulin is a hormone that influences metabolism, and insulin resistance increases your risk of obesity. Insulin resistance also increases your risk of diabetes, which can also make maintaining a healthy weight more difficult.
Leptin is the hormone that controls your appetite and tells you when youre full, and high leptin levels or leptin resistance can lead to overeating and weight gain. Ghrelin is the opposite of leptin. It tells you that youre hungry, but low ghrelin can make you feel hungrier and cause you to overeat.
Cortisol, the stress hormone, also influences weight. High cortisol affects metabolism and may increase your risk of overeating or make weight loss more difficult.
Finally, women with low estrogen levels during and after menopause may experience increased weight gain, while men with low testosterone levels often lose muscle mass and gain body fat.
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Hormones And Womens Weight
Since hormones regularly fluctuate in women and since those fluctuations can cause a variety of symptoms Davis said that hormones are often implicated when other health problems arise, sometimes without justification.
Some hormone-related disorders can cause weight changes. Hyperthyroidism, for example, occurs when the thyroid gland produces too much of the hormone thyroxine, according to the Mayo Clinic. That can result in weight loss or gain.
But that doesn’t establish hormones as a driving factor for all weight gain.
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Pregnant women also gain weight in part due to the release of hormones that encourage fat deposits, Davis said. But she said pregnancy is not a womans general state, and therefore the rich hormonal milieu of pregnancy cant be implicated in all weight gain, either.
Hormonal Imbalance And Hormone Level Testing
Ideally, youll work with a practitioner who will order a full thyroid panel , along with sex hormones like estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone , and adrenal hormones like cortisol. You find guidance on when to test hormones here.
Based on these results, you can address the cause of the imbalance with additional support like diet, supplements, or lifestyle adjustments, as each situation is unique.
One thing to add we all live in different bodies, so a healthcare professional can also help you decide if the weight you’re carrying is healthy for your body and readjust expectations if needed. Weight is only one marker of health.
@drjolenebrighten Reply to @vibrant_divaau when they dont even test or ask you about symptoms #doctorsoftiktok#pcos#pcosawareness#hypothyroidism#datenight#womeninsports#womenshealth#hormonasfemeninas#hormones#hormonehealth That’s Not My Name The Ting Tings
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Your Low Testosterone Levels Are Slowing Down Your Metabolism
You are confronted with an astounding number of toxins each day, including pesticides, herbicides, genetically modified foods, and about six different synthetic hormones in meat. Toxins are lurking in face creams, prescription drugs, processed foods, your lipstick, the linings of tuna fish cans, the fire-retardant materials in couches, and even the air you breathe. The list goes on.
Many types of these toxins, such as pesticides, plastics, and industrial chemicals, behave like estrogen when absorbed in the body. Experts believe that our increasing exposure to toxins helps explain why so many girls are entering puberty earlier and why many boys exhibit feminine characteristics such as developing breasts. Xeno-estrogens, as these particular toxins are called, have been associated with an elevated risk of estrogen-driven diseases like breast and ovarian cancers and endometriosis.
HOW TO LOSE BELLY FAT
All this fake estrogen overwhelms your bodys testosteronewhich is vital for hormone balanceand contributes to estrogen overload. Testosterone contributes to muscle growth, which in turn supports metabolism. And, as we already know, estrogen overload raises insulin insensitivity. The combination adds pounds to your frame: A study from Sweden published in the journal Chemosphere showed that exposure to a particular type of pesticide called organochloride was linked to a weight gain of 9½ pounds over 50 years.
Why Is Weight Loss Difficult With Pcos
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome is an endocrine-based condition caused by an imbalance in hormones like testosterone, insulin, and progesterone. Testosterone and insulin are often elevated in those with PCOS, making weight loss difficult.
Because of inflammation and insulin resistance, PCOS can make it harder to lose weight and contribute to increased weight gain. Studies have shown that women with PCOS have higher levels of inflammation, possibly due to insulin resistance. Not every woman with PCOS has insulin resistance, but the majority do.
High androgens like testosterone also play a role, as mentioned above. Weight loss with PCOS takes a specialized approach, including diet, exercise, supplements, and more, to address root causes.
But know, weight gain is a symptom of PCOS, not the cause. And you cannot cure PCOS by losing weight, but in many instances, it can help symptoms. Addressing weight issues in people with PCOS is never a calories in/ calories out conversation. It is important to educate on the multiple ways this condition can impact the body and focus on the nutrition, lifestyle, and sometimes medication strategies that can help bring balance.
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Getting To Know Ghrelin
You can think of ghrelin as your hunger hormone. Like leptin, it communicates with the brain in this case, telling your brain to eat. Every time your stomach becomes empty, it naturally releases ghrelin into your bloodstream. Ghrelin levels are lowest just after youve finished a meal. Theyre at their highest when the stomach is empty and youre ready for your next meal. This scenario is normal when a person is healthy and maintaining optimal weight.
An overweight person, on the other hand, will find that like the other hormones weve explored ghrelin levels are typically out of whack. In healthy individuals, ghrelin levels decrease in a way that satiates them and signals their brains to stop eating. But in obese individuals, ghrelin levels dont decrease enough after eating, which fails to send the brain the signal it needs to stop eating and feel satisfied.
Address The Cause Not The Symptoms
When your clients ask you about hormones and weight loss, help them understand the difference between symptoms and causes.
Many hormone imbalances are symptoms of weight gain, which triggers proinflammatory responses that affect the bodys output of insulin, cortisol, thyroid hormones, estrogen, testosterone and many other hormones. To lose weight, your clients dont need to balance their hormones with fancy supplements, detox diets or medication.
They can achieve success by adopting an integrated wellness plan and addressing lifestyle factors such as lack of sleep and chronic stress. At the end of the day, compliance is king. Ultimately, as clients move along in their weight loss journey, finding a fitness strategy they can maintain over the long term is the key.
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Diet Exercise Primary Contributors To Weight
Calling hormones the true culprit behind womens weight gain isnt correct, according to Susan Davis, a professor of Chronic Disease & Aging at Monash University in Australia.
If they were, Davis said, everyone would be fat. Instead, she said diet is the primary culprit.
According to the National Institutes of Health, people gain weight when they take in more calories than they burn, and this imbalance is the greatest contributor to weight gain.
Davis added that diet is a crucial part of weight loss, as exercise alone doesnt always burn calories at the rate some might expect.
Twenty minutes of exercise is a glass of orange juice and three hours of exercise is a Big Mac, Davis said. And most people who eat a Big Mac don’t go out and do three hours of sustained exercise to follow that.
That isnt to say exercise is ineffective.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, physical activity is one of the most important things a person can do to improve their health. Regular physical activity is also associated with reduced weight gain and weight loss especially when combined with reduced calorie intake.”
Davis recommends those who try to lose weight do so slowly. For example, she said someone can think of one thing they eat on most days, and then cut that out of their diet.
What Kind Of Doctors Treat Hormonal Imbalances
Primary healthcare providers can diagnose and help you manage many hormonal imbalances, but you may benefit from seeing an endocrinologist.
An endocrinologist is a healthcare provider who specializes in endocrinology, a field of medicine that studies conditions related to your hormones. They can diagnose endocrine conditions, develop treatment and management plans and prescribe medication.
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A Prescription For Weight Gain
It’s not only medical conditions that can add pounds. Some medications can also cause you to gain weight, or keep you from losing it, says Ken Fujioka, MD, medical director of the Scripps Clinic Nutrition and Metabolism Research Center in San Diego.
“It’s very common for medications to cause weight gain,” says Fujioka, noting that approximately 25% of his patients are on medication or have an illness that is causing them to gain weight.
Among the medications that may cause weight gain in some people are:
- Medications used to treat type 2 diabetes
- Antipsychotic or schizophrenia medications, including chlorpromazine , thioridazine , and olanzapine
Why Are You Gaining Weight Hormones Might Be The Problem
If youre gaining weight, chances are poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle are the reasons. But thats not always the case. A hormonal imbalance also can cause you to pack on the pounds.
Obesity continues to be an issue in the United States, bringing with it an increase in chronic health issues such as coronary heart disease and many forms of cancer.
When hormones are the culprit, losing weight poses additional challenges.
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How To Balance Your Hormones
At Balanced Medical Solutions, our team specializes in getting to the root cause of your condition, and if hormone imbalance is hindering your ability to lose weight, we can help.
Our treatments include bioidentical hormone replacement therapy to level out your estrogen and relieve your menopause symptoms and your weight loss frustration.
We also offer treatments to optimize your pituitary gland, which is responsible for hormone production. In particular, this treatment increases your production of human growth hormone to increase your stamina, boost your metabolism, and sharpen your focus.
If youve hit a wall in your diet and exercise routine, it might just be your hormones. and find out if hormones are keeping you from losing weight.
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Hormones To Keep In Mind For Weight Loss
When it comes to hormones and weight loss, its a bit like the chicken and the egg dilemma. Did hormonal imbalance cause weight gain? Or did diet and lifestyle choices cause weight gain, which triggered the hormonal imbalance? Often, its the latter, says Sarah Rueven, MS, RD. Either way, hormones are a crucial part of the equation when it comes to successful weight loss they play a role in many bodily functions ranging from appetite regulation to fat storage.
By having a better understanding of the various hormones in your body, you can make informed decisions about behaviors and patterns that could be contributing to challenges in your weight-loss journey, notes Dr. Gretchen San Miguel, chief medical officer for Medi-Weightloss.
Luckily, the recommendations for sustainable weight loss and hormonal balance are relatively similar. If you are looking to lose weight, its important to know the same foods that help you maintain a healthy weight also help balance the hormones associated with fat storage, increased appetite and weight gain, says Rueven.
Here are some of the key hormones that play a role in weight regulation and how you can get them to work with you:
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How Does Estrogen Impact Weight Gain
Produced within the ovaries, estrogen is responsible for optimal functioning of all female reproductive organs. Estrogen promotes the storage of fat for healthy reproductive years. When estrogen is balanced, the right amount of fat helps carry out female reproductive functions. However, when theres too little or too much estrogen, weight gain often results.
Overweight women typically have high amounts of estrogen, as do women in the first half of pregnancy. Then theres perimenopause and menopause, which are characterized by a notable decrease in estrogen. Its during this time that some women opt for hormone replacement therapy to replace declining estrogen levels.
What Are Hormones
Hormones serve as chemical messengers moving through the blood to organs and tissues. They are created in the endocrine glands which include the pituitary, thyroid, and adrenal glands, the pancreas, and others. Hormones are also produced in women’s ovaries and men’s testes.
Many of our bodies’ processes including growth and development, sexual function, reproduction, mood, and metabolism all depend on hormones. Even a small change in their levels can have a big impact.
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Where Do I Start
If you think hormones are sabotaging your weight loss, it may be worth getting a blood test , to check key biomarkers such as your thyroid and oestrogen levels.
Knowing whether you have an imbalance in hormones is a great starting point and depending on which hormones may be affected will depend on the best lifestyle changes to make. For example, if your cortisol levels are found high, then your first step may be to look at ways to de-stress.
Ultimately though, improving your diet, increasing your physical activity, and finding ways to manage your stress levels will have a positive impact on your health, body weight, and hormone production.
Obesity Hormones As A Risk Factor For Disease
Obesity is associated with an increased risk of a number of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, stroke and several types of cancer, and with decreased longevity and lower quality of life. For example, the increased production of oestrogens in the fat of older women who are obese is associated with an increase in breast cancer risk, indicating that the source of oestrogen production is important.
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Can You Combine These Supplements
While you will want to speak to your physician about combining these supplements, as a general rule of thumb, you may be able to combine one or more of these supplements into your daily intake. For example, because pregnenolone supports DHEA, you may be able to take both of these supplements at the same time.
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You Might Want To Eat More Often
Know how slowly digested nutrients like protein and fiber keep your belly full between meals? There’s a hormone in your small intestine, called cholecystokinin , that does the same thing. CCK works by reducing the rate at which food empties from your stomach. Unless you start losing weight, that is. Then CCK begins to tank. In one study, the longer volunteers dieted, the more their CCK levels dipped.
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