How your Hormones Affects Weight Loss and Fat Storage

Taking control of our weight can be a deeply frustrating struggle. Especially when the common advice of Eat Less and Move More doesn’t always account for many of the underlying reasons our weight sticks with us.

One of the most vital areas of this struggle is hormonal clog or imbalance, which results in your weight set point being elevated beyond your desired level. If you’ve ever looked at your waist line and said to yourself: “Why can’t I get this down just a little bit more?” this is likely due to this very issue.

For many people, as they age, hormones begin to play a large role in weight loss, and how our fat is stored around the body. We decided to sit down and take a look into many of the key hormone groups, how they affect this struggle, and what you can do to shed off that little bit of extra weight.

 

Thyroid Hormones

The Thyroid gland is located in the front of your neck, and is responsible for releasing hormones that have wide ranging effects. This includes stimulating fetal growth, regulating your heart rate, body temperature, and most importantly, dictating metabolic rate.

It’s this final point that links directly to weight loss and fat storage, as when the Thyroid gland is in a status of hyperthyroidism, you experience:

·         The slowing of most bodily functions linked to Thyroid hormones, leading to weight gain, hair loss, fatigue, sluggishness, and difficulty losing weight.

·         An incredible stress placed on the body, causing a wide range of negative effects that cause a ripple effect to occur. This creates a barrier between you and your weight loss efforts. This can include the over-storage of fat, the reluctance to shed weight, and an increase appetite. Just to name a few.

It’s important to note that hyperthyroidism is estimated to effect 1.2% of all adults in the modern world, and is the result of an over stimulation of the Thyroid gland.

 

Insulin

Insulin is created in the pancreas in response to blood sugar levels, usually occurring after eating. This hormone helps to break down the glucose to both your muscles and fat cells. In muscles, this glucose is burnt in response to high stress activities. In fat cells, this glucose is first in line to be burnt for general energy, or is stored long term in fat around the body.

Insulin resistance is often the cause of the body ingesting more carbohydrates than is necessary, causing visceral fat to release inflammatory compounds that make the body more resilient to insulin, and thus store more fat as a result.

This situation is one of the most common hormonal issues that link directly to weight loss efforts. If your body grows too resistant to your insulin, it will stop using the carbohydrates and calories that you ingest to produce healthy energy levels. Causing an over stimulated appetite, and not effectively using the energy of the meals you are ingesting.

To tackle this problem, it’s best to lower the carbohydrates in your diet. This will force the body to lower the insulin levels in the body, and lower your insulin resistance. This can also cause the release of ketones as well, which help to use up stored fat around the body.

 

Cortisol

Cortisol is often referred to as the “Stress Hormone” as it is the natural way for the body to physically cope with heightened stress levels. This provides support for your immune system, as well as a range of other benefits around the body to help you better cope.

The research behind Cortisol and heightened levels of visceral fat in the body is still murky. As it is just as easy to assume that people under stress simply eat more. However there is a strong correlation between stressed individuals and an increased waist line size.

By activity lowering your stress levels, the body will also respond by lowering the amount of Cortisol released into your system. This could lead to the body being freer to shed unwanted visceral fat that has built up, but also directly affect your eating habits.

If you’ve experienced a feeling of never being full enough, or an appetite that keeps pushing you to carbohydrate rich foods, then this could be a result of heightened Cortisol levels.

 

Estrogen, Progesterone, and Testosterone

These three hormones are often referred to as the “sex hormones” as they directly relate to our sexual drive as an adult. Testosterone levels in men, as they age past 35, will begin to drastically drop. Similarly in women, Estrogen and Progesterone levels will drop as they get past 40, or move into a state of imbalance.

Both of these imbalances cause similar responses in the bodies of both men and women. Causing the body to hold more water, push more fat around the abdomen, hips, and thighs. The body will also become more prone to bloating.

For women specifically, an imbalance between Progesterone and Estrogen causes an increase appetite and fat storage.

 

Tackling Hormonal Imbalance – Where to Start

There are a few things anybody can do to begin dealing with hormonal imbalance across the board. It is often difficult, and not realistic, to point to one single hormone and say that is the problem, as an imbalance in one often causes a ripple effect that causes imbalances in all of them.

To tackle weight gain from a hormonal imbalance, you should:

·         Make an effort to exercise for at least 30-45 minutes 5 days a week. This can be weight lifting, or cardio. The important thing is to place stress on the body, at whatever level you are comfortable with.

·         Visit your Doctor and ask for a hormone test, where they can provide you with medication or methods for fixing large imbalances.

·         Make an effort to gradually reduce your stress levels, as stress alone can cause hormonal imbalances and also effect eating habits.

·         Focus on limiting your carbohydrate intake.

·         Pick up a probiotic from your local grocery store, as probiotics are a great way to help your digestive system.

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