Weight gain doesn’t always come with an obvious culprit. Weight gain can sometimes happen suddenly and unexpectedly, making it hard to figure out what in our routine might be causing it.
There are other times in our lives when the weight gain we are experiencing has nothing to do with our lifestyle. Many of us attribute our bad moods to other things, when in reality our hormones are usually the root of the problem. There are several hormones that can contribute to weight gain, including insulin, ghrelin, and cortisol. When these hormones are out of balance, it can lead to increased hunger and cravings, as well as weight gain.
What Role Do Hormones Play?
Hormones play an important role in our body, carrying messages to different areas in order to help it respond to different circumstances or conditions, as explained by Anna Bohnengel, MS, RD, a nutritionist who specializes in fertility care. An example of this would be if you found yourself in a stressful situation, such as realizing you missed the deadline for an important work assignment.
Your body releases stress hormone cortisol in response to perceived danger, causing your heart and muscles to pump more blood. According to Bohnegel, blood glucose levels also tend to increase in these instances.
Other hormones in your body impact your hunger. If you haven’t eaten in a while, you might notice that your stomach makes a rumbling noise. This usually happens when the production of the hormone ghrelin occurs, according to Bohnengel.
“Your brain detects the ghrelin and tells you it’s time to eat, and, when you fill your stomach, the stretching of the stomach muscles stimulates the production of leptin (the satiety hormone), which sends the message to your brain that you’re fed,” she says. You can drink a lot of water to make your stomach muscles feel full, which will in turn produce leptin and tell your brain that you are full.
How Hormones Influence Body Weight
The thyroid hormone can really influence our body weight when it comes to hormones. This hormone regulates our metabolic rate, or how quickly our bodies use energy. If too much of the hormone thyroxine circulates in our body, we may experience hyperthyroidism, with symptoms that can include anxiety, nervousness, diarrhea, and fatigue. The opposite occurs with hypothyroidism.
If you have too little thyroid activity, you may experience symptoms such as fatigue, hair loss, weight gain, and dry skin, according to Karin Ashley, RN, Integrative Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner. When the metabolism slows down, the body stores unused energy as fat, which can lead to weight gain. This can be caused by low thyroid function or by fluid build-up from slower kidney function.
Ashley states that there is a hormone known as leptin which is secreted by fat cells. This hormone provides the brain with data regarding the amount of energy that is stored and how much more is required. Leptin is a hormone that signals to the brain that the body has enough energy. When levels of leptin are high, it tells the brain to reduce energy consumption and increase energy expenditure.
What Causes Hormone Levels to Change
There are 50 different hormones circulating through the human body, and they all fluctuate for various reasons during a person’s life. There are several reasons that a person’s hormone levels might change. Some common reasons for these changes include puberty, pregnancy, menopause, and changes in medications.
Medical Conditions
Conditions that affect hormone production can also influence weight. For example, hypothyroidism can slow metabolism and cause weight gain, while hyperthyroidism can lead to weight loss.
medical conditions affecting the gastrointestinal tract, such as inflammatory bowel disease, can also cause hormone levels to change. Anxiety and depression can affect hormone levels, specifically estrogen.
Age
Our hormones change as we get older, including how much of them we produce, how well our cells respond to them, and how fast our bodies break them down, says Bohnengel.
As people age, their metabolic rate slows because the thyroid gland, located in the neck, can become more lumpy or nodular and produce less thyroid hormone. If you experience increased fat storage, it may be because your cells are becoming less sensitive to insulin. This causes the pancreas to produce too much insulin, which leads to too much fat storage.
Both men’s and women’s sex hormones levels decrease as they age. The levels of testosterone in men’s blood decrease after they turn 40, and the levels of estrogen in women’s blood decrease sharply after they turn 60.
Body Fat Levels
According to Bohnengel, fat cells are not only regulated by hormones, but they also produce hormones themselves. Fat cells can produce hormones like leptin, which signals when you’re full.
Leptin resistance, where people are less sensitive to the impact of leptin, is more common in people with more fat, says Bohnengel. These people also benefit less from the appetite suppressing effects of leptin.
Since estrogen is stored in fat tissue, women who have more estrogen circulating through their body tend to have a higher proportion of body fat. One possible reason that obesity is a risk factor for breast cancer is that obesity typically leads to an increase in estrogen.
Bohnengel links excess body fat to insulin-resistance. An increase in sugar causes cells to store more fat.
This decrease in SHBG due to excess insulin means that there is less estrogen being bound, and therefore more free, or active, estrogen in the body. A self-perpetuating cycle of hormone imbalance and excess body fat is created when more body fat leads to more insulin resistance, less SHBG, and more estrogen.
How Diet and Exercise Can Impact Hormones
You can control your hormone levels more by regulating your lifestyle, including diet and exercise. The way you sleep can also affect your hormone levels.
If you do not get enough sleep, your body will go into a state of stress, which causes an increase in the levels of the hormone cortisol, according to Bohnengel. This “wired” feeling is a result of being overtired. The author is explaining that the cortisol is what makes us feel wide awake and buzzing when we should be sleeping.
Our diet, too, can impact our hormones. Dietary intake of refined carbohydrates is linked with higher circulating levels of insulin, which can contribute to insulin resistance and increased fat storage. The Mediterranean diet is not the only one that can help reduce insulin resistance.
Being active through exercise helps improve the body’s sensitivity to insulin, which can help improve overall body composition. If you work out too much, it can put unnecessary stress on your body which can lead to higher levels of cortisol.
If you don’t eat enough when you’re working out, your body might go into “starvation mode.” This means that it will stop producing thyroid hormone and sex hormone. The bones can become week and break easily. there can be an interruption in the normal menstrual cycle, All of this happens because there is low levels of estrogen and low metabolism due to decreased thyroid hormone.
Hormone Balance for Weight Loss: Fact or Fiction
You can find a lot of “hormone-balancing” diets, supplements, and medications if you search for weight loss strategies online. The products are designed to help people who believe that their hormones are out of balance, causing weight gain or making it difficult to lose weight.
The claim that seems reasonable could be true or false. This article will provide information on the relationships between body weight and five hormone imbalances that are often discussed: those involving insulin, cortisol, the thyroid hormones, testosterone, and estrogen.
1. INSULIN
The most common cause of insulin dysfunction is weight gain, although not all people with type 2 diabetes are overweight. Essentially, when people who are looking to get fit ask about lowering their insulin to lose weight, it’s best to explain that the main issue is their excess body fat. This means that you need to change your lifestyle and consume fewer calories and/or get up and move more often. If you have diabetes, you will need to see a doctor and a nutrition expert for guidance.
In other words, if you eat more calories than your body can burn, you’re likely to become insulin resistant. Losing weight has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity, regardless of the diet that is followed. In order to improve insulin sensitivity, your clients need to follow a diet that will help them lose weight and that they can stick to in the long run.
2. CORTISOL
Does too much stress lead to weight gain? If you are stuck on a desert island, your body will begin to break down stored fats and carbs for energy, causing you to lose weight.
However, the rules change when calorie-dense processed foods are easily accessible. While people generally eat less when they are under acute stress, chronic low-grade stress seems to make people crave more high calorie foods. This is where the stress-obesity connection comes from. If you eat too much and have high insulin levels coupled with chronic stress, you’re likely to gain weight and become obese.
Although some people may swear by supplements, a detox diet, or medication to help them deal with stress, there is no scientific evidence that these methods are effective. Not likely. The key to increasing the ability to deal with stress cannot be found in a pill or supplement bottle. Help your clients establish better habits in regards to sleep, nutrition, and exercise routine in order to improve their overall wellness.
3. THYROID
Studies have found that medication can help people with hypothyroidism lose weight. The benefits of the study were seen in people with thyroid stimulating hormone levels above 5.0, which is well outside the normal range of 4.0. This text is saying that people with a “sluggish thyroid” are more likely to have a TSH reading over 5.0, but many people with suboptimal thyroid output may not fall into this category. Therefore, the benefits of medication may not be experienced by this latter group.
If your thyroid markers are mildly out of balance, it means that you are either under a lot of stress or you’re not recovering properly, so you’re pushing yourself too close to your limits. The good news is that these clients probably do not have a broken thyroid gland. If people want to be healthier, they should focus on getting enough sleep, eating nutritious food, and reducing stress.
Exercise should be your top priority when it comes to training. Make sure your program uses the right amount of overload and includes periods of adjustment for training.
4. TESTOSTERONE
According to research, working out can lead to short-term increases in testosterone, growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1. The more intense the workout, the greater the hormone output. Seems like hormones trigger hypertrophy, right? Not quite.
Expert Eric Helms points out that professional bodybuilders who are in peak condition for competition have very low testosterone levels. Helms claims that not consuming many calories is the primary factor leading to low free testosterone levels. This means that it takes a professional bodybuilder 2-3 months for their testosterone levels to return to normal after going through a prolonged and sustained period of calorie deficit.
What this means for people who want to burn fat and build muscle through recreational activities is that they should focus on doing activities that they enjoy, rather than activities that they think will help them meet their fitness goals. This means that they should focus on enjoying themselves, rather than on working hard to reach their goals. Artificially boosting testosterone is not the answer. Instead, look at root causes of low testosterone.
5. ESTROGEN
In other words, weight gain is the result of an accumulation of fat cells that cause inflammation. This can disturb blood sugar and insulin levels, which can cause a downward spiral of poor regulation of insulin and cortisol. High estrogen levels can make this worse. This hormonal disruption is caused by weight gain—not vice versa. The “estrogen causes weight gain” claim is most often targeted to women, so let’s look at exercise solutions with women in mind.
Typically, people with hourglass or pear-shaped body types find success when using heavier weights for training purposes. For example, powerlifting or strongman-type workouts are typically effective. The biggest challenge may be convincing the client that training is necessary. Many women still fear heavy weights. There is still a widespread belief that the best way to lose weight is to lift light weights and do a lot of cardio, even though there has been a lot of progress in the fitness community in the last decade, with the growth of CrossFit and the resurgence of powerlifting.
The goal is to have your clients lift heavier weights at lower repetitions, always using good form. This will help you gain lean muscle, increase your metabolism, and support long-term weight loss. “Strong is the new skinny” accurately describes this situation.
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