Hormones and Weight Loss

When you start mobilizing the fat in your tissue, there are a lot of other things that are impacted. Particularly important are the hormones that have been absorbed into that fat and are being held there; as the fat begins to disappear, it can release those hormones into circulation. Here’s what happens then:

Estrogen (female hormones) and androgen (male hormones) are released into the blood stream.  When there is a rise in these levels that change can cause certain symptoms such as hair loss or acne (from an increase in male hormone).  This is temporary.  If it’s the female hormones from estrogen it can change menstrual cycles in women or cause spotting in women who have reached menopause.  Because of this change, women taking birth control pills will want to use an additional/alternate form of contraception until you reach your weight loss goal and have had 2 normal cycles in maintenance.