Hormonal imbalance and weight gain
December 10. 2021
So you’ve changed nothing in your everyday habits, diet, lifestyle, but the numbers on the scale are just going up? Or you’ve listened to every piece of advice and read everything about healthy ways of losing weight, but you see no results? Maybe there is a bungle you didn’t even think about…
The human body is complex, and it is very important to know your body and know how it works. Many of its functions depend on each other, which may not seem that way.
That means you should sit down and think about the past few days, weeks, months. If you can tick two of the following facts, we may need to talk about your hormones.
- increase in your appetite
- chronicle headache
- acne
- mood swings
- lower libido
- fatigue
- trouble sleeping
- bloating
- hair loss
- increased sweating
Make sure you consult a professional if you notice some of these symptoms. Still, keep in mind that having some of the symptoms doesn’t necessarily mean that you have a hormonal imbalance (or that your weight gain is a consequence of such a health condition).
Hormones
Chemical messengers secreted into the bloodstream, by whom they are delivered to the organs and tissues of the body that give them assignments, are known as hormones. Hormones can act on different aspects of body functions, such as:
- Growth
- Metabolism
- Cognitive function
- Mood
- Maintenance of body temperature
- Development
- Sexual function
- Reproductive growth and health
Hormonal imbalance can cause various types of chaos in your body, but acne and weight gain are usually the most visible signs.
Most common hormones that can impact weight fluctuation
Insulin
This hormone is produced by the pancreas, and it is the most responsible hormone for weight loss and weight gain. Depending on your body’s needs at the moment, it stores or utilizes sugar in your blood. Simply put, it must keep blood sugar levels stable.
Besides stabilizing sugar levels, insulin decides on fat storage – how much fat to store and how much of it to convert to energy.
Consuming a large amount of sugar, junk food, and carbohydrates causes insulin production to inflame, leading to insulin resistance. You can avoid it by mindful eating, detoxing your body, and consuming omega-3’s.
Leptin
Leptin can be described as the appetite suppressant hormone. It is made inside the fat cells, and it makes sure your brain knows whether you are hungry or full.
Leptin levels are balanced when you don’t feel empty after eating your meal and don’t need more food shortly after finishing a meal. When you think about it, you don’t feel fully satisfied after eating refined sugar and processed food. That’s why leptin isn’t “friendly” with the food you had and is out of balance.
To keep it balanced and to avoid or reverse leptin resistance, you’ll want to eat less sugar, stick to an anti-inflammatory diet and supplement your body with anti-inflammatory vitamins.
Cortisol
I think we all know it as a stress hormone. Even though it is essential for your life, the lifestyle today, in the modern era, puts our bodies under stress far too many times per day. That causes a significant amount of cortisol to be produced. That is linked to overeating which can cause obesity.
Find something that relieves your stress for your overall health and cortisol levels. It can be anything – exercise, reading, meditation, walk, music, dancing, creative projects, literally anything. What’s important is its impact on your mind – relaxing it.
Estrogen
Female reproductive organs rely on estrogen production. Extremity in both ways, too much or too little of it, often results in weight gain.
To keep balanced estrogen levels, consider eating fiber and vegetables, especially the green ones, engaging in an exercise in your daily routine, or using hormone pellets. The connection between hormone pellets and weight loss can be spotted if you suffer from hormone deficiency; adding the hormone into your puts them in balance
Ghrelin
Better known as the hunger hormone, it is similar to leptin, except it tells your brain when to eat. Ghrelin levels are the lowest immediately after a meal and get higher as your stomach empties. In other words, its levels should decrease while eating. On the other hand, ghrelin levels of an overweight person don’t decrease enough while eating, which leads to delay signals to stop eating. Ways of keeping it balanced consider eating adequate amounts of protein and staying away from sugar as much as possible.
These are just the most common ones. There are so many other hormones in the body that can cause weight gain when out of balance. Those hormones can be Neuropeptide Y, Peptide YY, Cholecystokinin, etc.
Hormone levels can be checked in the laboratory by testing body fluids – blood, urine, or saliva. After identifying those that impact your weight, you can get to the heart of the matter and start the proper treatment with the help of a professional.
Final thoughts
Hormonal imbalance and weight gain can be initial factors that contribute to obesity, which leads to many physical health and mental health issues. Hormone disorder itself can cause many other health problems, such as hypo/hyperthyroidism, diabetes, hypogonadism, and more.
Anyone can experience hormonal imbalance that most of the time leads to weight gain and other health concerns. Still, women are more likely to struggle with it due to their body changes, such as menstrual cycle, pregnancy, menopause.
Once you fully understand the link between hormonal imbalance and weight gain, you can properly approach your weight loss journey.
That journey can take up much time, so don’t get blinded by things you read online. There is an epidemic of fad diets that help you lose weight quickly. There are numerous dangers of fad diets, so it is always better to talk to your doctor. If you need help finding the perfect program for losing weight the healthy way, you can always find it at our weight loss clinic.
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