How to Balance Hormones to Lose Weight (7 Weight Loss Tips)
How to Balance Hormones to Lose Weight (Weight Loss Tips)
Hormone imbalances are a common hidden cause of weight loss resistance. Learn how to balance hormones to lose weight with the guide of best 7 easy fat loss tips to achieve a healthy weight! (Free download below)
Weight gain can have many causes, but hormone imbalance is particularly troublesome and may eventually lead to chronic disease or human obesity. Hormones are chemical messengers within the body and are part of a delicate system. Hormones and weight go hand-in-hand for weight gain, weight loss, and weight management.
If you have difficulty losing weight, especially belly fat, hormone balance is key to long-term real health and sustainable healthy weight loss. Hormones affect so many things in the body, so focusing on resolving hormonal imbalance is foundational to a successful weight loss journey.
Insulin resistance, excess stress hormone, high estrogen levels, and other hormone imbalances are common to weight gain or the inability to lose weight.
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Will balancing hormones help with weight loss?
Hormones are the gatekeepers of weight gain and weight loss. You can eat a healthy diet, get enough sleep, and exercise regularly, but you may not reap the rewards of your efforts if you have hormonal imbalances.
Sex hormones (estrogen, testosterone, & progesterone), hunger hormone (insulin, ghrelin, & leptin), thyroid hormones, stress hormone cortisol, growth hormone, gut hormone, and other hormones are all very influential to fat cells. Hormonal balance will be much more effective than any high intensity exercise or other weight loss strategies.
This article can help you to learn a few supplements that can help balance hormones: The 11 Best Supplements to Balance Hormones Naturally.
Can insulin resistance cause weight gain?
Insulin resistance occurs when insulin in the body no longer is able to properly function. When you are insulin resistant (metabolic syndrome), your body is more likely to store the food you eat as fat and to experience sugar cravings leading to weight gain.
Insulin sensitivity is critical to prevent fat storage as insulin helps cells to effectively use blood glucose (blood sugar). High blood sugar levels can lead to weight gain, because insulin is a hormone that signals growth in the body.
Elevated insulin levels can lead to chronic inflammation, excess body fat, and the inability to burn fat. To reduce insulin resistance, you can try intermittent fasting, which is when you stop eating for a longer stretch of time. Many people do 16:8 or 18:6 as an introduction to intermittent fasting to lose weight, prevent insulin resistance, and balance blood sugar.
When you do eat, avoid processed foods (wrong foods), reducing simple carbohydrates, and enjoy replacing carbs with healthy fats. Healthy fats will raise leptin levels, which acts as an appetite suppressant hormone to tame the hunger hormone.
Will estrogen dominance cause weight gain?
Yes. It is actually pretty common. Due to many estrogen-mimicking hormone disruptors we are constantly exposed to in things like soaps, perfumes, gasoline, plants, etc., an estimated 80% of the population is have high estrogen levels.
That’s right. 8 out of 10 people, including both men and women, have too much estrogen and are estrogen dominant. Excess estrogen can negatively impact natural estrogen metabolism (ability of the body to get rid of sex hormones), female reproductive functions, and weight loss.
I was one of them. Fixing my estrogen dominance was the turning point in my health journey. It is something I thank God frequently for leading to and guiding me through. It made that much of a difference in my life and now I write to help others.
Will cortisol imbalance make you gain weight?
Yes. Another very common cause of why fat tissue accumulates. Your body is always trying to protect your survival. If you have chronic stress, your body is preparing for famine and storing energy in fat cells just in case.
The brain and nervous system and adrenal glands all play an important role in cortisol levels. Stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, are critical for survival in a fight-or-flight life-or-death situation. However, nowadays people are stressed for all types of reasons.
Cortisol will compete with the same transporter as sex hormones, which is why excess cortisol can cause hormonal imbalances.
If you possibly struggle with excess cortisol, avoid things like coffee before breakfast and choose aerobic exercise over high intensity interval training. You want your nervous system to be calm, balanced, and regulated to encourage weight loss and lower cortisol levels.
Be sure to be eating enough to meet energy expenditure needs. Dieting efforts may backfire horribly if you are excessively not eating enough as that leads to lower leptin levels and stress hormone cortisol, which will promote weight gain and prevent weight loss.
Why thyroid hormone helps you lose weight?
Thyroid stimulating hormone is important because the thyroid is a master gland in the endocrine system, which means that it affects other hormones in the body. Low thyroid function results in a slow metabolism.
You may consider consulting a trained licensed physician to get prescribed bioidentical hormones. If you choose to go that route, be sure to do a lot of research in choosing a reputable doctor who is very knowledgeable about bioidentical hormones.
By this point of the article, you can understand how intricate a relationships hormones and weight have together.
Key Takeaways for Weight Loss
- Hormone imbalances can lead to weight gain and prevent weight loss
- Insulin resistance, elevated estrogen levels, elevated cortisol levels, and improper thyroid hormones may cause weight loss resistance, leading to weight gain and fat storage
- Eat a healthy diet with intermittent fasting (where you stop eating for longer periods of time) to support weight loss and to promote insulin sensitivity
- Avoid the wrong foods such as processed foods and empty simple carbohydrates for better insulin sensitivity
- Manage your stress and cortisol levels, focusing on nervous system regulation
- Get your hormones tested and properly evaluated with a trained physician (personally, I recommend holistic practitioners who specialize in hormone imbalance)
- Body weight does not always tell the full picture, you may experience weight gain if you incorporate resistance training to build muscle mass
Conclusion
You are more than your body weight. Wherever you are in your journey, just know that it truly gets better once you start resolving foundational things such as hormones. Losing weight is just a challenge you are currently growing through.
On the bright side, you can look at it this way: weight loss was clue to learn about the importance of hormonal balance for real health. You can use the effect of weight gain to now focus on improving your health and weight loss will happen as a natural result alongside better health.
If you have struggled with weight loss for a long time and have tried many strategies with no success, really consider investing in yourself to work with a holistic practitioner who can help guide you to heal from hormonal imbalances.
Because hormones are so tiny yet so influential as chemical messengers within the body, hormones and weight are inseparable in effect. You NEED to balance hormones for healthy weight loss.
Related Article: The 11 Best Supplements to Balance Hormones Naturally
Download Now My Guide: Best 7 Easy Fat Loss Tips!
