The Hormone Connection to Weight Gain
Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 5:32PM Hormones and Weight Gain
Most every woman I know is concerned about loosing weight or at least maintaining her waistline. Some women have faced weight issues since childhood while others find themselves struggling with weight as they move into the their late 30’s and 40’s.
What do hormones have to do with metabolism? What do hormones have to do with fat storage and weight gain?
Everything! We all know that exercise and what we eat affects our weight and the rate at which we burn calories. But what is the problem when you are eating right and exercising but not getting the results you deserve? If this is you, then it's time to consider that the hinderance could be due to a problem at a deeper level within your biochemistry: your hormones. Having worked in medical practices specializing in bioidentical hormones for the past decade, I have sat across the desk and heard countless heart wrenching stories of women’s frustrations with their metabolism. Many have fought using diet and exercise with out significant success for so long that they have just given up. Too many women struggle needlessly because they just do not know that certain hormone imbalances are working against their efforts. The good news is that the underlying hormone imbalances that trigger weight gain can be corrected.
Which hormone imbalances cause weight gain?
The answer to that is easy; any hormone that is out-of-balance can cause us to gain weight. Since it is obviously more complicated than that, I want to break it down by each hormone. As I proceed, it is important to remember that insulin is considered the fat storage hormone. Insulin is produced by the pancreas in response to a rise in blood glucose (also called blood sugar). Its function is to take nutrients from the blood stream and store them in body cells. Problems arise if we consume too much sugar or starches. If so, we must make more insulin to drive the glucose into the tissue. Also, our cells can become resistant to insulin therefore excess insulin may be circulating and guess what? We readily store fat.
How can we manage insulin?
The solutions to excess insulin and/or insulin resistance are; 1) eat low glycemic foods which means no sugar or starches, 2) try supplements that support insulin utilization (under the care of your physician) such as: chromium, cinnamon, coffee berry, acetyl-carnitine, alpha lipoic acid, fish oil, etc., and 3) balance other hormones that are associated with insulin resistance.
What other hormones cause weight gain?
Imbalances in any of the hormones including estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, cortisol, and thyroid can lead to weight gain. Imbalances in these hormones can also trigger insulin resistance, which in turn, sets us up for fat storage. We must balance the other hormones to combat the insulin fat storing effect.
How does progesterone affect metabolism?
Progesterone is the first of the reproductive hormones that starts to change, typically declining to low levels by the mid-thirties. It plays a role in metabolism in several ways.
- Progesterone, at normal levels, helps us burn calories instead of storing them as fat due to its thermogenic properties.
- Progesterone helps facilitate thyroid hormone utilization – that simply means progesterone helps carry your thyroid hormone into its receptors where it carries out its actions. Thyroid hormones affect the rate at which we burn calories.
- Progesterone balanced properly with estrogen also helps our thyroid function by helping convert thyroid hormone T4 into its more usable form, T3. A lack of adequate progesterone to balance your estrogen, called Estrogen Dominance, blocks the actions of thyroid hormones at the cellular level causing symptoms of low thyroid including weight gain.
- Proper levels of progesterone regulate insulin, if we are Estrogen Dominant, we tend to have more frequent and a more rapid release of insulin putting us in fat storage mode.
- Water weight gain prior menstrual cycles can be due to low progesterone since it is a natural diuretic.
The solution –make sure you have a normal level of progesterone through saliva hormone testing and taking progesterone if indicated.
How Does Estrogen Affect Weight?
Estrogen also affects our metabolism. Some women think that estrogen causes weight gain and that just is not the case. However, I can see why women may get that confused. One of the side effects of HRT is weight gain. Actually an estrogen deficiency leads to weight gain. You see, estrogen increases the sensitivity of muscle and fat to insulin thereby helping lower insulin and reduce the fat storing affect of insulin. There is something estrogen does too; it helps stimulate lipoprotein lipase, which is an enzyme that breaks down fat. By the way, estrogen deficiency also triggers carbohydrate cravings. On the other hand, excess estrogen is associated with insulin problems.
The solutions – make sure your estrogen level is normal but also remember that estrogen fluctuates during the menstrual cycle. Some times you have to just modulate estrogen levels and not necessarily increase estrogen. You will need to take this up with your BHRT physician.
There is one more thing I need to say about low estrogen and weight gain. Research has now shown that women with low estrogen have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which leads us to a very important part of this discussion.
What is the cortisol connection to weight gain?
Yes, cortisol can be elevated from low estrogen, but that certainly isn’t the only cause and you don’t have to have low estrogen to have high cortisol. Stress causes elevated cortisol which leads to weight gain, in particular abdominal weight gain.
In fact, deep abdominal fat contains up to 4 times the number of cortisol receptors than other areas of the body. That means the abdomen is more likely to respond to elevated cortisol. Unfortunately, the abdominal tissue responds by storing fat. What makes this even worse is that women with excess abdominal weight secrete more cortisol when stressed. Elevated cortisol also triggers food cravings. You have probably noticed that when you are stressed you want something munch on.
Chronically high cortisol is caused by stress. We know of course that stress is related to psychological and circumstantial situations, but other stressors affect our cortisol too including: blood sugar fluctuations, nutritional deficiencies, chronic bacteria or virus, chronic pain, chronic lack of sleep, food sensitivities, etc. You get it, any thing that stresses your body can lead to high cortisol.
What are the effects of cortisol on other hormones and weight gain?
Aside from directly triggering abdominal weight gain, chronically elevated cortisol causes some real problems that in turn indirectly affect our weight. High cortisol blocks every other hormone from getting into their receptors and carrying out their function.
High cortisol:
- blocks thyroid hormone from getting into its receptors,
- blocks estrogen from its receptors,
- depletes our progesterone,
- causes insulin resistance which leads to fat storage,
- causes food cravings.
What is the solution to high cortisol?
First of all, you should have your cortisol tested through saliva testing to make sure that it actually is elevated. Your BHRT physician can help you with this. If indicated there are supplements that help lower cortisol such as: Phosphorylated Serine, theanine, rhodiola, etc. Stress reduction lifestyle changes may help as well.
What about the androgens: DHEA and testosterone?
The androgens: Testosterone and DHEA also affect our weight too. Both of them help our body utilize insulin properly so we don’t store fat. Therefore, deficiencies can cause weight gain and make it hard for you to loose. On the other hand, testosterone and DHEA can become elevated due to insulin resistance. Once again, hormone testing and balancing can address these imbalances.
What about low thyroid and weight gain?
Even a slight suboptimal thyroid deficiency can affect your metabolism since thyroid function affects the rate at which we burn calories. Doctors have different opinions about thyroid testing. If you have any of the common symptoms low thyroid function such as weight gain, low body temperature, fatigue, hair loss, low mood, dry skin, etc., you can learn more about low thyroid and thyroid testing by listening to the, “Hormone Makeover Chat,” podcast from August 23,, 2011. It is free to listen to on my website www.donnawhitehormonemakeover.com (click on the “Resources” tab, then “Chat” from the drop down menu) or you can down load it free from itunes.
Do not let your hormones hold you back!
If you have been struggling with maintaining your weight, or if you are struggling to shed a few or a lot of pounds please consider that hormone imbalance may be holding you back, especially if you are doing everything else right. If this is your struggle, get yourself a hormone makeover. You deserve the rewards of balanced hormones.
More resources for you.
I invite you to visit my website to review the symptoms of each different hormone imbalance. Click on the Symptoms tab. You can review past podcasts and down load the first two chapters of my book, “The Hormone Makeover – 7 Steps to Transform Your Life with Bioidentical Hormones”, for free. While you are there, if have not signed up for my newsletter please do so to keep up with all events and articles.
Reader Comments (2)
Well written and informative article Donna, concerning hormone function. Thanks for helping us women.
Wow! it sounds cool and informative. Being familiar and aware with these health issues are very important for me. Thanks for sharing these ideas.