Are Your Hormones Blocking Your Weight Loss?

I would say one of the biggest issues that concern women at menopause are weight gain and an inflated belly.

So that is the problem, and in order help it you need to tackle the hormone imbalance that is usually behind it. For most women that normally means reducing oestrogen and substituting progesterone as that is the hormone that helps with weight loss.

The other key factor is your diet and I know that many women follow a low-fat diet they believe is the best for them. It may help them lose some weight, but is not the healthiest way to do that.

It is based in part on the old myth that ‘Fat makes you Fat’. This idea was sparked in large part due to an outdated calorie model which stated that we needed to burn more calories than we consumed in order to effectively lose weight.

That is true, but because fat contains 9 calories per gram compared to 4 calories in carbohydrate/protein, fat was thought to be the best thing to remove from the diet.

This false, yet widespread belief created a “Fat Phobia,” where recommended diets looked to avoid fat at all costs. Where fat was chosen, it was often the cheap, inferior vegetable oils rather than the rich, nutritious animal and plant fats.

Why low fat isn’t the best diet for weight loss

The result of this was that the low fat diet craze focused on a heavily carbohydrate based diet which all break down into sugar. That triggers certain hormonal reactions in our body that turned us into sugar burning, fat storing machines.

In addition, this reduction in healthy fat consumption created severe fatty acid deficiencies, and massive hormonal, cognitive, and mood altering problems (since the brain and hormones are primarily made up of fat).

In response, the pharmaceutical demand for synthetic hormones, hormone replacements, anti-depressants, and anti-anxiety medications went through the roof. In addition, people did not effectively lose weight, in fact, they often got even heavier.

Key reasons you need fat in your diet

Hormones control weight gain/loss and the body’s ability to burn fat

If you want to be at a healthy weight, then you need to check your diet. Blocking or severely reducing fat means you are not giving yourself the best basis for dealing with menopausal symptoms.

For example, the pro-inflammatory, fat storage hormones – Insulin and Cortisol – trigger either sugar burning/fat storage or fat burning/sugar storage pathways.

The important anti-inflammatory, fat burning hormones are Leptin, Testosterone and Growth Hormone.

With elevated sugar comes the release of insulin to lower the blood sugar and fill up the liver, muscle, and fat cells.

High glycemic index (lots of glucose immediately) and load (lots of glucose released over a period of time) foods naturally stimulate the need for lots of insulin.

This puts a lot of pressure on the pancreas to make enough insulin. Additionally, because insulin can trigger inflammation, cytokines connect with the leptin receptors in the hypothalamus. This connection reduces the body’s response to leptin, which helps control feelings of fullness and fat burning.

This series of reactions swings our body into sugar burning mode. Once insulin is finished lowering blood sugar, cortisol is released from the adrenal cortex to elevate blood sugar again (by metabolising stores sugars in the muscles/liver and breaking down key proteins).

This then releases more insulin causing blood sugar to dip and the pattern continues.

Is there a better diet?

This insulin/cortisol tag-team continues to dominate our body until either a healthy fat/moderate protein meal is eaten, stress is removed and balanced blood sugar are achieved.

Nutritionist Patrick Holford has a number of healthy suggestions on how to do this by having a low GL (Glycemic Load) diet. This is based on avoiding carbohydrates and eating lots of protein and fat. His website has a number of very helpful books on the subject.

Weight gain at menopause is often linked to oestrogen dominance and that ‘muffin top’ is often the first sign of this.

It is actually a natural response of your body to produce oestrogen from the fat cells there because the ovaries are no longer providing any. What, that means is you need to balance that oestrogen with bioidentical progesterone as that is the hormone that can help lose some pounds.

Fatigue is the other thing I often hear mentioned as being a real problem at Menopause, and so some more information on a diet that can help with weight loss and that maybe just what you need from the article below.

Lose Weight & Gain Energy on the G.I. Diet