How Hormone Havoc Prevents Weight Loss

Have you ever considered why losing weight and maintaining weight is such a challenge?   Well, it turns out that gaining and losing weight can be due to several things like: Sleep deprivation, nutritional imbalances, genetics, environmental toxins, gut flora imbalances, food addictions, allergies, and inflammation. Let's not forget the impact hormones have on our weight and metabolism. Did you know that hormones determine what your body does with food?  That's why balanced hormones are crucial to controlling weight!

With that in mind, as we age our hormone production changes.  Specifically, hormone production declines with age which can trigger a sluggish metabolism and weight gain. In addition, our body shape can change too with fat appearing around your middle, belly, breast, and arms. These hormones that affect both men and women are cortisol, insulin, thyroid, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. When any of these are imbalanced, unfortunately hormonal disorders ensue causing weight gain and or difficulty losing weight.

Let's take a closer look at these hormones:

Cortisol
Simply put, stress causes cortisol to be released into the bloodstream because your body is essentially thrown into panic mode.  Cortisol increases your blood sugar and breaks down fat for energy, which is useful in a life threatening situation. However, once that stress is over cortisol soars and leaves us open to cravings of fatty, salty, and sugary foods to restore that energy that was used. Finally, cortisol drops to a normal level.  Here's the thing, periods of prolonged stress leads to consistent high levels of cortisol, and that causes an increase in calorie intake.  Coupled with that the fact that these additional calories are not being used right away, these calories are stored as fat in the abdomen. If you are in a constant state of stress your blood sugar will stay elevated and ultimately lead to insulin resistance. 

Insulin
Insulin helps cells receive glucose.  So, when we eat sugar (glucose) insulin carries that glucose into the cells to be used as fuel.  Once the cell receives what it needs any excess will be stored as fat - especially in the belly and buttocks. In a situation where insulin resistance occurs, basically the body produces insulin, but the cells become less sensitive to it.  That results in the pancreas pushing out more insulin, but the insulin is unable to carry the glucose into the cell.  That means excess circulating insulin now creates sugar cravings, increased appetite, and weight gain.

Thyroid
This is a powerful hormone that regulates the metabolism of every cell in the body. But, when your thyroid is not able to make enough thyroid hormone (hypothyroidism) body functions slow.  Symptoms of low thyroid include: fatigue, hair loss, sluggishness, weight gain/difficulty losing weight.  These people can have normal lab tests, which is discomforting because these folks know something is wrong but the cause is not obvious. Thyroid hormone needs to be suspected and tested properly.

Testosterone, Estrogen, and Progesterone
As we age both men and women have a reduction in testosterone, which is seen by both muscle and bone loss, as well as an increase in belly fat, and a slower metabolism. Unfortunately, this effect is more pronounced in men as their testosterone levels are higher to start with.  For women, our ovaries produce less estrogen and progesterone starting as early as age 35.  Sadly, when estrogen is out of whack along with other hormones like progesterone we can gain weight.  If you notice weight gain around your midsection, hips, and thigh, along with water retention and abdominal bloating that is a sign of an estrogen imbalance. Additionally, estrone, the main estrogen in menopause, moves the fat from our hips to our abdomen. On the flip side, progesterone helps the body use and eliminate fat, plus it increases metabolism. But, too much progesterone production relative to estrogen leads to an increased appetite and fat storage. 

To prevent weight gain from hormonal imbalance:
1. Limit carbohydrate intake - follow a healthy eating plan with plenty of produce, lean proteins, and healthy fats
2. Reduce stress - this is a big one!  Truly, you may need to reevaluate your needs, and if need be make some changes to ease your stress levels.
3. Have hormone levels checked and balanced
4. Take a probiotic
5. Exercise 45 min., 5 days/week

All of these tips are essential to maintaining your health!  Consider them your foundation.

Reference: http://www.robard.com/blog/post/2017/07/26/how-hormone-havoc-prevents-weight-loss.aspx,26, July 2017, How Hormone Havoc Prevents Weight Loss.