Progesterone And Insulin Resistance
Both too much and too little progesterone can impair your bodyâs blood sugar regulation.
During a healthy pregnancy, progesterone and other hormone changes decrease the motherâs sensitivity to insulin. This insulin resistance helps elevate blood sugar levels and ensures that your body delivers enough nutrients to the growing fetus.
Without a fetus to feed, high progesterone can also cause hyperinsulinemia, meaning it increases the amount of insulin present in the blood. Too much insulin could cause your body to convert even more blood sugar for storage as fat. This is why you may have more food cravings, feel more hungry, and have a more difficult time losing weight during the luteal phase of your cycle when progesterone is highest.
However, low progesterone can also mess with your insulin response, another reason to work closely with a doctor to confirm any hormonal hunches. Low progesterone is linked to PCOS, which is associated with insulin resistance. Excess estrogen can lead to insulin resistance as well!
PCOS is complex, but it is important to clarify that weight loss wonât cure PCOS and your weight gain didnât cause it. Itâs important to monitor weight to understand the hormonal and metabolic influence, but too often doctors hyperfocus on weight and often shame women about it. PCOS causes weight gain. Addressing the factors of PCOS is what is important.
What Hormones Make You Lose Weight
Once you realize how various bioidentical hormones affect the way your body regulates your weight, you can understand why hormone replacement therapy may help with weight loss. When added to a healthy diet and proper exercise, these hormones can help you take off the weight. Hormones that help with weight loss include:
By replenishing your ideal amounts of these hormones through bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, you can get your hormones back in balance and your weight loss back on track.
Other Quick Myths About Hrt And Weight Gain
Before we move onto a discussion of how HRT can actually help you to manage your weight during menopause?
Lets rule out just a few more myths about HRT and weight gain.
First of all, understand that your body produces more fat cells during menopause not only because its trying to up your estrone levels.
It also retains more fat because its actually trying to work to better protect your bones.
Remember, because your body has stopped producing the hormones that you need to preserve safe levels of overall bone density, it has to find other ways to compensate.
Additionally, be aware that when it comes to HRT and weight gain, that fat that you think you see likely isnt even fat at all.
Instead, its likely water retention. This is due to the dramatic increase in your bodys overall sodium levels. As youve probably guessed, its also a side effect of the crazy fluctuation in hormone levels throughout the body.
The solution for these issues?
First of all, drink as much water as you possibly can. Also, make sure that youre making green tea and foods with a high satiety rating, like oatmeal, a part of your diet.
Now, lets end the myth of HRT and weight gain once and for all by talking about how HRT can actually help you to better manage your weight throughout menopause.
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How Estrogen Replacement Therapy Can Help With Belly Fat During Menopause
Recent studies show that menopausal women on hormone therapy tend to have less body fat, especially visceral belly fat. Because estrogen affects how your body distributes fat, low estrogen levels can contribute to gaining fat in your belly area. However, estrogen replacement therapy can help your body redistribute this fat to different areas on your body, rather than your abdominal area. This is a key benefit of estrogen therapy, as belly fat specifically increases your risk for many negative health consequences.
In addition to fat redistribution, estrogen replacement therapy may help add to a healthy exercise regimen. Researchers have found that menopausal hormone replacement therapy may help the effects of exercise on body fat. Additionally, estrogen replacement therapy can help you feel well enough to exercise regularly. Therefore, if you have symptoms of menopause that interfere with your life and also notice youre gaining more belly fat than you used to, talk to your hormone doctor about your options. In many cases, hormone replacement therapy can help you feel better and improve your overall health.
Does Hrt Cause Weight Gain
While menopause and aging are undoubtedly associated with weight gain, you may wonder if the new numbers on the scale are the result of HRT. This is common many women assume that HRT and weight gain go hand in hand and that a few extra pounds are nearly inevitable while in treatment. If youve experienced menopause so far without weight gain but started to gain weight as soon as you started HRT, you may even be toying with the idea of stopping treatment altogether. But the relationship between HRT and weight gain is far from clear.
Contrary to popular assumptions, most women experience no changes in weight as the result of undergoing HRT. A systematic review of 22 high-quality randomized clinical trials concluded that there was no significant difference in weight between menopausal women who were treated with HRT and those who were not. This suggests that you might gain weight as a result of menopause, but that undergoing HRT will probably not cause additional weight gain.
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Bioidentical Hormones Can Contribute To Weight Loss In Some Cases
Contrary to popular belief, bioidentical hormones are not an instant weight loss solution. These medications were designed to address symptoms related to menopause, andropause, or hormone disorders. Significantly, estrogen, testosterone, and other hormones are powerful chemicals that have far-reaching effects throughout the body. While certain medications may have an impact on your appetite or metabolism, theyre not designed to facilitate quick and easy weight loss.
The reason bioidentical hormones are so commonly equated with weight loss is that hormone imbalances can result in plenty of weight-related problems. Men with low testosterone and women with PCOS, for example, may experience stubborn weight gain that doesnt seem to respond to typical diet and exercise strategies. Hypothyroidism is another common contributing factor to weight gain.
In some cases, supplementing with the hormones your body needs can help your endocrine system function more effectively, improving metabolism and influencing gradual weight loss. But so many other factors influence your bodys natural resting weight. Indeed, diet and exercise are the most important factors for healthy weight loss in the majority of cases. As such, its important that you speak with a qualified medical professional to determine which factors matter most for your bodyand how they can be combined to help you feel your best.
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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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What Is Estrogen Dominance
First of all, lets get this out of the way. Educating yourself about WHAT is going on in your body and WHY will give you the direction you need to keep going.
Estrogen dominance is a term thats become quite popular, but many dont truly understand what it means. Often we think dominance must mean too much, but this is not the case.
Estrogen dominance is simply an imbalance in the ratio of estrogen to progesterone, in favour of estrogen. This could mean that:
You have excessively high levels of estrogen
You have normal estrogen and low progesterone
You have low estrogen and extremely low progesterone
Therefore, it is possible for women of all ages to be estrogen dominant. There are 3 main estrogens, estradiol, estriol and estrone. For the purposes of this article, Im talking about estradiol- the estrogen that is most important throughout our lifespan. On the flip side, estriol is highest in pregnancy, and estrone becomes the dominant estrogen post-menopause.
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Does Progesterone Cause Belly Fat
Although progesterone doesnt cause belly fat, one of the side effects of progesterone can be weight gain. As we age, hormonal disruptions like progesterone levels dropping faster than estrogen levels can impact belly fat too. Visceral fat, body fat found in the abdominal cavity, can be associated with insulin resistance, which can be closely tied to progesterone levels.
As you can see, progesterone plays an important role in many functions in your body. Understanding its role and how it interacts with other hormones can help you understand the role between progesterone and weight fluctuations.
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A Daily Battle With The Bathroom Scale Can Cause Shame Judgment Suffering And Obsession With Weightcontributing Further To Weight Loss Resistance
Even worse, the drill-sergeant approach of restricted eating and harsh exercise can escalate hormonal and emotional problems. A daily battle with the bathroom scale can cause shame, judgment, suffering, and obsession with weightcontributing further to weight loss resistance. When meals are accompanied by guilt, suffering, or anxiety about our food or our bodies a physiologic stress response is activated, triggering a fight-or-flight reaction and raising cortisol.
How do you reset your hormones, or jump-start your metabolism? Can you do it through diet alone?
The best way to get your hormones back on track and reinstate a healthy weight is to correct hormonal misfires with changes to the way you eat, move, think, and supplement. Start with diet: In my experience, 80 percent of weight loss is determined by the hormone/food interaction, so you want to eat in a way that optimizes your hormones. Heres my priority list:
CHANGE THE WAY YOU EAT AND DRINK. Remove processed foods, refined carbohydrates, sugars and sugar substitutes from your diet. Eliminate alcohol for 21 days .
TAKE SUPPLEMENTS TO IMPROVE YOUR HORMONE LEVELS. Here are a few of my favorites:
What causes hormones to go haywire? Is it the natural aging process, stress, having babiesis there a primary culprit?
The main culprits of haywire hormones are:
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Can Hrt Reverse Skin Aging
HRT may help reverse signs of skin aging by regulating hormones responsible for managing inflammation, tissue repair, and cell growth. A decline in estrogen production can cause skin to lose its elasticity and become thinner, which can lead to sagging, fine lines, and wrinkles.
Some menopause symptoms like night sweats, insomnia, and anxiety can lead to loss of sleep and a decrease in the bodys production of melatonin both of which are factors that also contribute to signs of aging. HRT can help women achieve a more youthful appearance by regulating hormones that commonly cause signs of aging.
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Can An Endocrinologist Help With Weight Loss
An endocrinologist can very often help you reverse weight gain that is associated with hormonal imbalances. Potentially useful interventions include lifestyle changes such as exercise, diet modification, or stress management, as well as treatments such as testosterone or thyroid hormone replacement. Medications may be able to help with weight gain-related symptoms such as increased appetite, or to moderate excessive hormone levels.
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Belly Fat Reduction & Estrogen Replacement Therapy
Estrogen replacement therapy can redistribute fat and help you feel well enough to exercise regularly.
Estrogen replacement therapy helps reduce many symptoms of menopause, including hot flashes and vaginal dryness. However, it may offer another benefit. During menopause, you may notice that you seem to accumulate more fat in your abdominal area. Studies show that estrogen replacement therapy may help you avoid this issue. Learn more about how hormone therapy can help you reduce your belly fat during menopause.
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What Causes Hormonal Weight Gain
Chronic Stress
Stress can be either beneficial or detrimental, depending on whether it helps you catch up with deadlines at work or negatively impacts your productivity. However, too much stress, or chronic stress, can only harm your health, particularly your body shape, by the presence of a hormone called cortisol.
Cortisol is a hormone that your body produces when its stressed. Although cortisol is essential as it sends you into fight-or-flight mode, preparing your body to react to a danger or a stressful situation, it can become harmful in excess amounts.
Cortisol boosts your energy levels by stimulating your fat and carbohydrate metabolism. While this process is necessary for stress management, cortisol also stimulates your appetite, leading to persistent cravings for sweet and fatty foods.
In addition, increased cortisol levels due to stress can also drive you to eat more than usual. You might constantly look for snacks throughout the day to temporarily relieve stress. As a result, you might end up noticing an increase in weight around the waist.
Hormonal Imbalances
Extra weight around the arms, thighs, and chest are all symptoms of hormonal weight gain due to estrogen. According to research, the absence of estrogens may be a crucial factor in obesity. On the other hand, estrogen dominance, which occurs when the body has too much estrogen, might also be another culprit of hormone-related weight gain.
Hypothyroidism
PCOS
What Are 2020 Safer Analogs To Hormone Replacement Therapy And Weight Loss
The well-composed plan of HRT helps to prevent osteoporosis, controls body temperature, returns active sexual life, and works as a dietician. Hormone replacement therapy and weight loss reduce a patients food cravings and convert fat into energy. What are 2020 safer alternatives to hormone replacement therapy and weight loss for menopausal women?
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Hormone Replacement Therapy For Men
HRT is also available for men to treat symptoms of andropause the male version of menopause, which marked by a drop in testosterone levels that many men experience as part of the natural aging process.
Benefits of HRT for men include increased energy, weight loss, improved mood and mental focus, decreased blood pressure and cholesterol, and improved muscle strength and sexual function.
Reduce Exposure To Hormone Disruptors
Toxins are one of the most common reasons why hormonal weight gain occurs.
You see, toxins cause inflammation, which basically throws your body into a state of confusion.
The most common source of toxins is the food we eat.
Food toxins that contribute to hormonal weight include:
- Processed and genetically modified fats
- Processed sugar
- Processed meats
So, if you want to lose weight fast and reverse hormone-related weight gain, reduce your consumption of these foods and ingredients.
This single step will make a tremendous difference in your bodys ability to shed excess pounds.
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How To Keep Estrogen At Optimal Levels
To balance estrogen levels naturally and prevent the weight gain that happens with an estrogen imbalance, youll want to do the following:
- Commit to a regular exercise routine. Many studies, including this 2012 one, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, explain how exercise lowers estrogen levels in obese women.
- Eat your fiber. Fibrous foods help decrease elevated estrogen levels.
- Eat veggies in the cruciferous family. These include broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, and bok choy. Anything green and leafy is always a good idea, too!
- Reduce your exposure to endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interfere with our natural hormones. Avoid plastic containers, cans, or water bottles made with BPA. Never microwave plastic.
- Choose organic foods when possible, and choose phthalate-free cosmetics and personal care products.
- Consider bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, which uses plant-based hormones identical to those produced naturally by the human body to keep hormones balanced.
What Is Pellet Therapy
First things first, what is pellet therapy? This treatment is a form of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy that involves an injection of custom-compounded hormones.
Your doctor will determine the specific dose thats ideal for you. During a quick doctors visit, the pellets are injected into your upper buttocks. The system will begin to take effect and youll notice a change in your symptoms within 7 to 10 days.
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